Hey folks!

I’m Ben, the User Experience Lead at Epic Games. My team helps to research the experience y’all are having when playing all of our games and we have been working with devs on Fortnite Save the World since it was early in development. The research takes many forms, but there are two methods I would like to talk about today specifically:

Surveys

We regularly send out surveys and we know that folks here are getting them because we see the posts here saying that they are fake and ways for people to steal your data! It is great that you are being cautious, keep that up. But, also keep an eye out for official communications from Epic, that is us and we want to hear from you. In fact, if you are an alpha player you have probably seen many of our surveys over the years! The feedback we have collected over that time been really valuable and we always want more.

Now, we know that our surveys are sometimes very long. That is because we really want to know what you think and we ...

RangerCarbide

I’d love to see a survey and do one. Why not just post a link to an online one on reddit so anyone that wants can contribute their feedback? I feel like you guys are missing out on a lot of valuable feedback by sending them out randomly.

Good question. The goal of the survey research is to get a representative sample of our player base for whatever question we are asking. So we don't just send it randomly. Unfortunately, if we just put a link online then that could skew the responses to one group or we may end up with people replying who are trolling and don't play the game.

As mentioned, the survey research and user experience testing are just two of our research methods. We and the community team are also paying attention to posts on social for feedback.

Mark_VDB

Will you also be taking note of feedback given in this thread?

Yes. The surveys are in addition to the feedback the community team gathers from Reddit and other social channels.

MaruWapper

For the next survey, tie it together with the Epic Games account, this way you have player metrics data along with your survey data.

Our surveys are tied to Epic Games accounts :)

cantreadmyjudas

Hey there! Not sure if you still use Reddit but I used to regularly get surveys and even participated in a couple remote call testing sessions but haven’t had any survey opportunities in a while now. Is there a limit I didn’t know about or do I need to sign up again?

Hey. There isn't a limit, however we do select people for surveys randomly to make sure we get a representative sample and you may just be getting unlucky. Also make sure to check we aren't going to your spam folder.

If you want to check that you are still signed up for email surveys you can go login to your account at www.epicgames.com and check that a) your email is correct and that b) under "email preferences" that you are opted into "Survey Emails" (the checkbox needs to be ticked).

TomorrowOk40

I was doing an official survey and after 20 minutes of relevant questions it started to look suspicious and asked me questions about my employment status and residential status

Those are standard lifestyle questions we ask in most surveys. If you are not comfortable answering them please feel free to leave them blank.

Hey folks!

I’m Ben, the User Experience Lead at Epic Games. My team helps to research the experience y’all are having when playing our games. The research takes many forms, but there are two methods I would like to talk about today specifically:

Surveys

We regularly send out surveys and we know that folks here are getting them because we see the posts here saying that they are fake and ways for people to steal your data! It is great that you are being cautious, keep that up. But, also keep an eye out for official communications from Epic, that is us and we want to hear from you.

We are also aware that our surveys are sometimes very long. That is because we really want to know what you think and we want honest answers. To be clear, we want the brutal truth. We also ask about a wide range of topics (often across multiple different surveys), some of which may be weird or not seem relevant, but in all cases your feedback is incredibly valuable to us.

To talk about our process a bit...

ryanhill90

First of all love epic and fortnite forget all the critics moaning about bugs, glitches, something not working etc. It's by far the best game of our my generation (27 I am). So much fun is had each and every day by millions of people.

I only have 1 question... where is my survey? 😀

In a shocking coincidence we are sending a survey today. Perhaps today is your day!

Mr_Odwin

Apart from verification emails I don't seem to get any emails from Epic. (I didn't get a season summary.)

I must have turned these off at some point when I was signing up, but now I'd be interested in completing surveys, and getting season summaries. Is there any way to turn email communication back on?

I couldn't see anything in my account settings.

Good question. At the moment the best way to opt-in to getting emails from us is to:

1. Go to www.fortnite.com
2. Login with your Epic Account (top right of the screen)
3. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and click on the yellow "SIGN UP FOR FORTNITE NEWS" button near the bottom left of the screen (https://imgur.com/a/KrPAhOi)

SummerFloyd

Are they randomly chosen? And will players from both modes receive this survey?

The sample is designed so that it is representative of our players. So not fully random. In terms of today's survey is is a Fortnite Battle Royale focused survey. However, we do have a Save the World survey in the design stages at the moment, which will hopefully be going out soon.

[deleted]

You don't need to survey the population in order for it to be "proper". As long as the sample size is large enough, random, and from the same population, the statistic should be an accurate representation.

This is correct.

We send the in-game surveys to a random stratified sample of the population across all platforms. With specific targeting to cover the bottom, middle, and top level of players in terms of skill.

We use a sampling methodology as we have mutliple surveys running at once and don't want to fatigue players. If surveys occur too often and are seen by the same people over and over then the quality of answers to them can drop as people stop spending time to think about them.

Hey! Sorry for the late reply here. The surveys are sent to a representative sample of players across all platforms and levels of experience. This is done to hear from a wide range of voices within the community, including folks like you, while not over sampling and starting to get poor data.

If you want to be able to receive emailed surveys please make sure you have opted into getting emails from us. Older accounts may have not done so in some cases.

At the moment the best way to opt-in to getting emails from us is to:

1. Go to www.fortnite.com
2. Login with your Epic Account (top right of the screen)
3. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and click on the yellow "SIGN UP FOR FORTNITE NEWS" button near the bottom left of the screen (https://imgur.com/a/KrPAhOi)

onecrunchyboi

Bet Epic don’t look at the responses to these surveys

I am the User Experience Lead at Epic Games. My team is responsible for the in-game surveys as well as the email surveys we send!

We 100% do look at and report the data from these surveys. The feedback from them is very valuable to us.

[deleted]

[deleted]

Yes we can stratify the responses in a variety of different ways, one of which is in-game performance.

We target the surveys to get a representative sample of respondents.

_steveTabernacle

Thank you for the response. I am wondering what kind of actionable data you are able to report from these surveys? The questions are always able to be interpreted in multiple ways. How are you able to derive useful information from them? I’ve always assumed you guys intentionally made them vague, but I’ve never been able to understand why, are you able to provide some insight?

There are various ways we can look at and stratify the data from the in-game survey, for example by looking at response by platform and/or by in-game performance.

However, we don't just look at the in-game survey data alone, rather it is part of a broader picture. So while they may seem open to interpretation, when combined with other feedback the survey adds additional data points that we can provide to the team.

10shredder00

If you don't mind my asking, why is the in-game survey so, seemingly bad, no offense. I can play for literal hours never being asked any questions and other times I can play one match and it'll ask me "How do you feel about the Shield Potion?"

Wouldn't it be better to send out an email asking for your opinions on the balance of every single (or nearly every single) item in the game? Or at least the new additions?

Or perhaps there's more consistency like if you play for 3 hours you're guaranteed to receive a question? I don't know in my experience the in-game survey has probably appeared to me maybe three times and each time asked me a rather ridiculous question like the Tac Shotgun, Shields or the Medkit.

No offense, I am always happy to talk research methods and statistical sampling techniques.

There are several rules built into the in-game survey tool to make sure that we receive accurate data from a representative sample of the population.

What that means is we have to make sure a representative number of people are seeing the full range of questions. Also, we don't want people seeing surveys too often, as then the quality of responses tends to reduce as people stop thinking about their answers or begin to just dismiss the questions without answering.

We do also send out email surveys, which are also targeted in order to not over sample and to get a representative number of responses.

If you want to make sure your account is able to be sent email surveys please go to fortnite.com, login in with your Epic Account, and make sure you are signed up for Fortnite News at the bottom of the screen.

WolfXemo

Not too sure to be honest. That would be a question for u/gortag.

Hello! The surveys are indeed specifically targeted. There are a range of attributes we look at depending on questions in the survey e.g. if we are sending a survey aimed at collecting the views of Battle Pass owners, then people have to own a Battle Pass. to get the survey. In another survey maybe we send it to only people who don't own a Battle Pass, etc.

Also we stratify the sample to make sure we are getting a representative number of responses from players across platforms and experience with the game.

u/Doge-Subject-4 thanks for pointing out the error in this particular survey. The person on my team that put the survey together says sorry for the mistake and we will account for it when looking at the data. Thank you!

Suck_My_Turnip

Isn’t the question so vague that it’s useless? Are we meant to be saying we’re unsatisfied with the lag, game mode, that we died fast, that we don’t like the meta, or whatever else?

Good question. This particular question is a purposely broad heartbeat question to try to gauge high level satisfaction. We can also use the tool to ask more specific questions.

The answers to all of the questions can be paired to other data to add more context.

[deleted]

[deleted]

We certainly don't want it to be annoying! Our current design is based on sampling and includes a cool down period between when a player can receive another survey to avoid this.

That is our new in game survey tool that was added in 8.10!

We are still experimenting with it, but are excited to have this in game. Looking forward to being able to see even more feedback from y'all!