Man, it feels pretty good to do a poll analysis again! No really, that's not entirely fake enthusiasm. See, when I first started as a writer at N-Philes a little over a year ago, this was the first new feature I proposed, and it was pretty much my bread and butter for quite awhile. Since taking on director/editor responsibilities around E3 2005, I haven't written more than maybe two and a half pieces, instead playing a more behind-the-scenes role by editing and polishing up other staffers' work (it isn't fun). So anyway, that's me: happy to be writing this thing you are reading.
After a long hiatus – around six months when the Super Smash Bros. Tournaments themselves went on hiatus – we finally have a poll that means something again. This time around, we're using it to find out how you think we should run this crazy idea we have about raffling off DS games to readers. Whether to go for newer games, reader picks, or non-DS games, it was all up to you, the voters. Here's what you said, going from least popular to most popular options.
Something other than DS games - 8%
Not everyone has a DS. We understand that. So even though it'd be a major pain to offer GameCube games on the ROFL Raffle, we gave you guys the option anyway. There was a bit of a risk, of course, that it'd be the most popular selection and we'd have to manually tamper with the poll results, but luckily that didn't happen as far as you know.
On the contrary, it seems that most people would like to see us continue raffling off DS games exclusively. Either that, or they don't care as much about seeing GameCube or Game Boy Advance games in the raffle as they do about other options. This is cool because DS games are the easiest for us to do at the moment; aside from simply being cheaper than GameCube games, they're also:
- Region free
- Freshly hip and trendy
- Cheaper than GameCube games
Being region-free means that whether you live in Australia or Istanbul (not Constantinople) the game we send you will work on your DS. Meaning we only have to run one raffle, and then only buy and mail out one game. Works for me. Luckily, seems to work for you guys too.
New releases only - 17%
See, when we started this wacky little endeavor, conventional wisdom was that it would be a great opportunity to guarantee getting a copy of a hot new game. Hot new games are sometimes hard to come by (think Atlus releases) but also they are hot and new which is more exciting than stale and old. The exception of course is that some people like to pick up slightly older games they might have missed out on due to cost, a cost which still hasn't seen a significant drop since release day. The ROFL Raffle used as a means to guarantee a copy of a new game or to snag a cheap copy of an older gem both make equal sense to me. Seems to make pretty equal sense to you guys, too; the votes for this option weren't really very decisive one way or the other. Enough people want new releases only to not completely ignore the option, but not enough to make it a top priority.
I don't care about the raffle - 26%
You snotty little bastards. Fine. Fine then. So a quarter of you don't care. That still means that a whopping three quarters of respondents would like to participate in the raffle, assuming they actually want the game we're raffling at the moment. Which segues right into the most popular option, the one that'll likely make this experiment work out. Or at least take up more time and effort on my part. That's always good, too!
Let us pick the games - 49%
Okay, clear choice. Just about every other person polled wanted to be able to choose the games themselves. And who wouldn't? So far we've raffled off Mr. Driller and Zoo Keeper, for crap's sake. And while I could just put a bunch of Ping Pals and The Urbz on the poll, I'm willing to not be a dick. But you have to promise that when I put Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow or Mario Kart DS up for raffle, you actually participate in said raffle. Give and take, boys, give and take.
The Rundown
Okay let's get a game plan here.
Viva Democracy! Let us pick the games for raffle: 49% - Okay.
Only the newest and most released releases: 17% – You care, but you don't really care. So although you're going to be deciding the games, we might use new release dates as the basis of when we run raffles.
I don't have a DS, please raffle something else: 8% – This is hard for me to say, but really not because I only want to raffle DS games anyway: no.
Actually we might raffle non-DS items when some big releases come around (that's right, ponder and salivate) but for now it's DS only.
Dude nobody cares about this raffle thing: 26% – Some people do! Good to know how much possible participation we're looking at for this, which is actually a lot.
I miss Kenny Lee's stylish pie charts, but I don't know how to make them
The results this time send a pretty clear mandate: leave it up to you schlubs to decide what games we buy. Now, I'm not stupid. I know this is probably going to mean a slight shift in my trend thus far of buying the cheapest possible game on account of my lack of monies. And I love my monies, I really do. But I'll go ahead and buy whatever option you guys choose because the only way to sell readers on the ROFL Raffle is to pander to the will of the people. Specifically, the greedy people who have a penchant for mild gambling.
So here's how we're running this thing: a poll will go up listing five DS games. That list will be a mixed bag of older and newer games, big titles and smaller ones. We'll have a slight preference for the newer, bigger games, and at least one option will be a brand new release. We won't run the raffles back-to-back, though, to maintain an edge in the supply/demand psychology, and likely they'll be running alongside new game releases. Maybe bonus raffles for holidays, or if I find a hundred dollar bill on the sidewalk and can't think of a better use for it. Who knows. But anyway, let's start the insanity.
