Original Species Survey
| Fan Survey | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Original Species/Adoptable Survey |
| Surveyor: | Genuflect |
| Date(s): | Nov 24, 2019 - Dec 3, 2019 |
| Medium: | Google Forms |
| Fandom(s): | Original Species, Adoptables |
| External Links: | The Survey Results |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The Original Species/Adoptable Survey is a survey conducted between November 24 and December 3 of 2019. Its audience was centered at Toyhouse and DeviantART users only, and it procured exactly 62 participants, including the surveyor herself. The goal of the survey was to gather information on the habits and opinions regarding original species and adoptables.
Promotion
Out of the 62 participating users, 45 were from Toyhouse and 22 from DeviantART. This is despite promotion on DeviantART being double that of the promotion on Toyhouse. A single forum thread in the "Species Discussion" section automatically began drawing responses within a few hours, and thus did not require any further promotion. The first promotional post for participants on DeviantART was one day later. Comments asking for participants were placed into the comment section of several adoptable groups, as well as a handful of journal entries submitted to said groups. After that, two separate forum posts were made, both in the "General" section. Comments, journal submissions, and the two forum posts were sent in waves on different days, compared to the one forum post on Toyhouse.
One might conclude that despite DeviantART having an extremely large user base, these users are less likely to respond to their communities. And Toyhouse, though it is in early access as of 2019 and only has roughly between 500-700 users online at a single time, has a more active community. Or at the very least, DeviantART users are less likely to either read comments, read journal entries, look at their group feeds, view the DA forums, or simply avoid clicking links, as evident by their sheer lack of participation.
Toyhouse Promo
Multiple DeviantART Promos
Results
The survey was conducted using Google Forms. It contained both multiple choice questions as well as questions that required written answers, for a total of 30 questions. The raw data can be found in the public Google Document here.
Out of the 62 participants the majority were adults, with roughly 70% being 18 or older, 59% between the range of 18-15 and 11% being 25 or older. No participants were 13 or under. 33% of the 62 participants claim to have 100 or more characters, and 12% have between 50 and 100. 32% of these specific participants do not identify as a "character hoarder," though 17% do. 93% like adoptables, while only 82% like original species.
Out of 62 participants the majority (61%) have spent real currency on adoptables. An equal amount have spent DA points on adoptables. 42% have spent real currency specifically on original species, with the lowest average spent being $51 and the highest average being $163. Of the 62 participants, the single most highest price spent on one original species adoptable was $2,100 USD. Only roughly 21% have spent DA points specifically on original species adoptables, while 37% have spent DA points on adoptables but not original species. The average highest spent on original species is 1021 points, which equates roughly to $12 USD, with 80 points equaling $1 USD. The lowest average spent is 724, or roughly $9 USD. The single most highest price spent on one original species adoptable was 4000 points, or $50 USD.
Whether or not an adoptable or original species adoptable has been bought with real currency, points, or was obtained for free does not seem to be a factor in the continued usage and enjoyment of a character. "Use" in this case refers to art creation, art commissions, roleplay, or world building. Participants were asked to list their number of characters then estimate the percentage of those characters that are used. Results were mixed, varying from 2000 characters with 80% usage down to 200 with 15% usage. When asked what users do with "unused" characters responses were just as mixed. Some users intended to return to unused characters, some just liked to look at these characters but not use them, and some simply stored the characters. The majority of participants claim to use free characters just as often as characters bought with currency. Free adoptables that go unused are most often re-gifted. For original species adopts with an ARPG, the majority of original species adopt owners (30%) do not use the ARPG, with the rest either not having an ARPG, not using the ARPG, or not owning an original species adopt at all.
Over half (64%) of the 62 participants have created an original species, with 37% creating more than one. Despite this the overwhelming majority have created neither a DA group (75%) nor a Toyhouse world (77%) for their species.
Perhaps the most interesting questions of the survey are on complaints about original species and participants' favorite original species. A list of pre-made complaints were presented, as well as a box for participants to put their own. Participants could select as many or as few complaints as desired. The biggest three complaints were "I cannot tell some original species apart (58%)," "original species often cost too much money (54%)," and "some original species do not allow you to trade, gift, or re-sell them (43%)." Only three participants had no complaints at all. Those that also included their own response had various opinions. A few (summarized) notable responses were: too many people hoard original species adopts, a dislike of how rarity systems are not consistent among species, "popular species are only popular because they're popular," species are money grabs, a dislike of having an original character "tethered" to a species rule set, species communities can be toxic, and many many more.
Despite only three participants having no complaints, over half still had one or more original species they considered to be their favorite. One can conclude that, even though there appeared to be many similar complaints among the 62 participants, original species and their communities seem to still be rather well loved. In most of these praises, participants stuck to between one to three favorite species and would note the enjoyment of community or the species design. Whether or not the species was free or sold for currency did not matter, though one specific response noted they only liked species that "had no commercial aspects."