Final Fantasy Census!!! Final RESULTS!!!

[Wolf Kanno]

Cause I'm curious. So after an amusing thread about a funny survey done about FF titles and genders, I decided to hold my own to figure out what FF's people like and what qualities they are attracted to so I amd give the good people of EoFF a pseudo-scientific explanation with some flimsy and poorly managed data to back it up. :D

Here's how this is going to work.

Send me a MM detailing your top three favorite FFs. Then with each title you must rank from your favorite part to your least (just use numbers) of which aspects of the game you like the most (1) to least (4). The four aspects to rank are as follows:

Story/Characters
Combat system
Exploration/Sidequests
Music/Graphics


After that state your gender and age range (13 and under, 14-18, 19-21, 21-25, 25+) I don't need specific details about age so please use the range.

Here is an example of what I am looking for and expecting:


:choc: Example :choc:

Favorite FF #1- FFI
Story/Characters - 4
Combat system - 2
Exploration/Side-quests - 1
Music/Graphics -3

Favorite FF #2 -FFII
Story/Characters - 1
Combat system - 4
Exploration/Side-quests - 3
Music/Graphics - 2

Favorite FF #3 - FFIII
Story/Characters - 2
Combat system - 1
Exploration/Side-quests - 3
Music/Graphics - 4

Gender: M

Age Range: 13 and Under

:choc:End Example:choc:Use this format, feel free to copy and paste and just delete the example answer. I'll accept Mognet Messages until I either get too many to sort through or until two weeks time from today unless I decide to extend it on a whim.

The rest of this thread can discuss speculation on what the results will be. Remember this will be about gender and age as well as what aspects draw people in the most. If you have any questions, feel free to bring them up in this thread. ;)

EDITGA: Title the Mognet Message as Census. Thank You!

[Slothy]

Well that was a little tougher than I expected. My 2nd and 3rd choices could easily switch places sometimes, and some of the categories for each were close enough to be really tough calls on which I preferred.

As for my predictions; I'm hoping FFVI gets the love it deserves and I have the feeling FFVIII will be rated too highly by both sexes.

And for a more specific prediction, I don't think FFIX will be in Kyros picks if he responds. :D

[VeloZer0]

FFT, yes/no?

[Wolf Kanno]

Yes I will allow spin-offs and sequels for the series, I originally didn't intend to but after thinking about it for awhile, I figured it was perfectly fine to choose them as well. :D

[Vermachtnis]

It was kind of hard picking my third game. Characters and music are my favorite parts of the game. So it was really hard picking which one I liked more, especially in my first two choices.

And I messed up my first message. Sorry.

[Depression Moon]

This is a hard one for me. There's really no FF besides IX that I feel like i have to play once every year or two years. None of the others come close to giving me the same enjoyment as IX did.

[Wolf Kanno]

I said three entries cause I know most would have a hard time choosing a favorite and I wanted to give a bit of leeway so we could have multiple choices, I also figured that I might be able to see a correlation by the top choices to really grasp what people find appealing about the series. :cool:

[VeloZer0]

Now that I actually have my response in I'm going to pick apart your survey with all the things I would have wanted it to be :D

You have Story/Characters grouped into one category, I think they should be two for sure. Take FFV for example. I though the characters were extremely 'bleh' and uninspired. I, however, just loved the story. In FFIX I didn't like any of the characters in the game, but I once again though the story was very interesting and I enjoy playing the game for that reason alone.

...


eh, I had more, but as I typed they seemed half baked and stuff that matters to me probably more than anyone else. First one still stands. :)

[Wolf Kanno]

I originally intended to separate them but decided that story and characters are really not so far from each other, its still the "writing" aspect of the game so separating them seemed a bit silly to me since in most cases, people feel both are interchangeable at times for making the other good.

Its the same reason why I lumped other aspects together cause technically from a generalized view they are hardly far from each other. Audio and visuals for instance are sense experience aspects of the game so I felt it was better to group them together, it will also keep graphics from always being the least liked for 99% of the entries.

The only thing I actually separated was gameplay cause technically I feel that Exploration, side-quests, mini-games, combat, and customization is all part of gameplay but I felt the thing needed a bit more options otherwise I could expect everyone to rank Story 1, Gameplay 2, Graphics 3 for all entries. I felt side-quests and exploration were related and significantly different from combat/customization to warrant it a separate entry.

I also wanted to keep this somewhat simple cause I was unsure of how much participation I was going to expect and felt I didn't need to complicate crap too much cause I'm terrible at organization. :p

In the future, I if I get bored enough to do this again, I will make sure to first create a survey to find out what people want to be on the future Census survey. ;)

[VeloZer0]

and felt I didn't need to complicate crap too much cause I'm terrible at organization.
Drop me a line if you need help collating any of the results. This is the kind of thing I find really interesting.


... I will make sure to first create a survey to find out what people want to be on the future Census survey.
It never ends :)


Its the same reason why I lumped other aspects together cause technically from a generalized view they are hardly far from each other. Audio and visuals for instance are sense experience aspects of the game so I felt it was better to group them together, it will also keep graphics from always being the least liked for 99% of the entries.
Thinking about it, it might be more true to what you want labeled "Presentation (Graphics/Music)" I know it isn't what you intended, but when I see the word 'graphics' I immediately think in terms of level of technical advancement. Whereas you are (presumable) more interested in things like art style.


I felt side-quests and exploration were related and significantly different from combat/customization to warrant it a separate entry.
Absolutely. I even felt side-quests and exploration didn't really go together in my head. But when thinking about it further as I was typing up the last post the definition of 'side quest' has changed markedly as the series has progressed. In the early games side-quest meant finding some hidden dungeon, whereas in the newer titles it means mini-game.

EDIT: Do you want other people to throw the census in their sigs to get the attention of those who only seem to hang out at the 'upper forums'?

[Wolf Kanno]

That would be nice to have a little more advertising. I may make an announcement as well. I've been getting decent results and I wasn't really sure how much I was initially going to expect.

As I said earlier, I may draw it out a little while longer than two weeks, I may give it a month and part of me was also thinking about prolonging it enough to make the data available during the Ciddies. Its been a real interesting social experiment to say the least and if I run into problems I'll be sure to ask for your help. :)

[RedPouch]

I'd like to fill this out, but I need some time to think about it. I'll send you a message once I do.

[Wolf Kanno]

Take your time. Its not a race and I figure some people will have to think about this one. I'm debating about putting my own data in as well but may forgo it.

[Fynn]

I submitted one as well! :) I found it really tricky to choose the things I liked the least about the games, because I pretty much loved everything about them.

[Loony BoB]

21-25, 25+
Do you mean 21-25 and 26+?

[Psychotic]

I predict that the older the member, the older their favourite FF is.

[Loony BoB]

Sounds like a reasonable prediction.

Done, for what it's worth!

[Wolf Kanno]

:sweatdrop: didn't catch that, basically think of 25+ as 26 and older.

The numbers would surprise you a bit concerning age though. Most of the participants have been in the same age range and the choice in series usually stay within a certain time period with one exception. ;)

It would be nice for the girls to actually vote though :colbert:

[Del Murder]

It was easy for me to pick my top 3, harder to determine how to rank each of the categories.

...Aw crap I forgot about FFXI. It's so different from all the rest that I forget it is included in the series. Oh well I'll just call that my #4.

[Vermachtnis]

:sweatdrop: didn't catch that, basically think of 25+ as 26 and older.


I thought you did that on purpose for people who have a birthday soon that would switch them out of an age group.

[Crowseye]

Definitely would love to see a thorough breakdown by age group as well as gender if there are enough submissions to support it.

Other interesting data would have been things like:

-first system you played games on (NES, SNES, PS1, DS, etc.)
-first FF game you played
-what age you were when you first played a FF game

I say this because people even in the same age groups can have vastly different gaming experiences that will color their opinion of various games and game features outside of their age alone. Myself, I was playing video games before there was such thing as an SNES, but there are certainly people my age who were never into games until somebody got them hooked on, say, FFVII.

[charliepanayi]

Yeah, I seem to be one of the few people (from what I've seen on forums anyway) who didn't start playing FF games until my late teens.

[Rantz]

I did too. My first FF was IX, which I played when I was... 16 or 17, I think.

[VeloZer0]

Definitely would love to see a thorough breakdown by age group as well as gender if there are enough submissions to support it.

Other interesting data would have been things like:

-first system you played games on (NES, SNES, PS1, DS, etc.)
-first FF game you played
-what age you were when you first played a FF game

I say this because people even in the same age groups can have vastly different gaming experiences that will color their opinion of various games and game features outside of their age alone. Myself, I was playing video games before there was such thing as an SNES, but there are certainly people my age who were never into games until somebody got them hooked on, say, FFVII.
By the time we get enough data and analysis to satisfy every member someone is going to be able to submit it as their masters thesis. :lol:

[Wolf Kanno]

Definitely would love to see a thorough breakdown by age group as well as gender if there are enough submissions to support it.

Other interesting data would have been things like:

-first system you played games on (NES, SNES, PS1, DS, etc.)
-first FF game you played
-what age you were when you first played a FF game

I say this because people even in the same age groups can have vastly different gaming experiences that will color their opinion of various games and game features outside of their age alone. Myself, I was playing video games before there was such thing as an SNES, but there are certainly people my age who were never into games until somebody got them hooked on, say, FFVII.

If this goes well (and it is starting to do a bit better than I had anticipated but would still love more entries) then I can easily foresee a future version that will have a better breakdown cause I'll probably call on people to help me organize it next time.

This was sort of a whim so I didn't want to complicate for my own sake :sweatdrop

EDITGA: Del, if you want to resubmit and switch XI in there feel free to do so. I'm allowing all FF titles to be present to get a broader grasp of the series as well.

[Raistlin]

I meant to do this a while ago but completely forgot about it. Sent mine in now! There's a fairly big drop from my favorite FF to my second favorite.

[Wolf Kanno]

I need some serious advertising for the female members of EoFF to step up and represent. I know you are out there! :shifty:

[Loony BoB]

C'mon girls, you know you want to.

EDIT: *shamelessly plugs in General Chat*

[Jiro]

My scores are basically the same because that's what I like most in games anyway xD

[Wolf Kanno]

I might extend this for one more week so I can get a few stragglers in here. I still need to PM a few people and "coerce" them into doing the census. :shifty:

[Slothy]

I might extend this for one more week so I can get a few stragglers in here. I still need to PM a few people and "coerce" them into doing the census. :shifty:

If you need any knees capped, keep in mind that I have no conscience. ;)

[Wolf Kanno]

Then get the pigs ready Vivi22, I need to dispose of some "baggage" I accidentally acquired. :shifty:

[Jiro]

I would just like to publically show my distaste at being in the second youngest age group. Next time I'm going to lie and be in the 20 - 25 bracket (regardless of when the next census is - I'll be the most wrinkly and arthritis ridden 20 year old ever!)

[Xaven]

I'll never be in a cool age group! /whine Though, if I was 19-21, I'm pretty sure I'd be crying and wanting to be 14-18 again. :p

[~*~Celes~*~]

I'll never be in a cool age group! /whine Though, if I was 19-21, I'm pretty sure I'd be crying and wanting to be 14-18 again. :p

You've got that right. :colbert:

[Wolf Kanno]

UPDATE:

Combination of FFXIII, school, work, and personal drama irl is keeping me from finally tallying all the votes. I will do it, just not right now but hopefully before my semester ends. This Update is basically to say that I will stop accepting entries after this month. So if you've been dilly dallying, take advantage of my lazine...I mean me being busy and send in your entries before then. I will not accept any entries starting April 1st. :p

Tallying by FF entries will not be difficult as much as the individual scores for the entries. So give me some time and I'll post the results for this odd experiment.

[No.78]

Well, surely if you list your 3 fave FF's you will give high scores for most sections?

Sent, anyways.

[Wolf Kanno]

I am now, no longer accepting entries for the Census. So please stop sending them.

Just want to say thank you to everyone who participated and hopefully I'll have all the data organized sooner rather than later. :cool:

[hhr1dluv]

Even though this was done ages ago and you're no longer accepting entries, I'm going to answer anyway. And I'm writing it here because I don't care if people see my answers. :)
They will infuriate you. Also, WOW, real life has kept me away from this website for ages.

Favorite FF #1- FFX
Story/Characters - 1
Combat system - 3
Exploration/Side-quests - 4
Music/Graphics -2

Favorite FF #2 -FFVII
Story/Characters - 1
Combat system - 4
Exploration/Side-quests - 2
Music/Graphics - 3

Favorite FF #3 - FFX-2
Story/Characters - 2
Combat system - 3
Exploration/Side-quests - 1
Music/Graphics - 4

Gender: F

Age Range: 21-25

How do I stop overtype mode in this message? It is bothering the bejeezus out of me.

[VeloZer0]

So....

[Wolf Kanno]

Give me some slack, I've been trapped in final project hell for the last month and a half and just finished my finals for the semester a few days ago... I'm still trying to get over all the emotions man... :p

I'll get started this week, I promise, I even told BoB I would start working on this when I got back from my absence from the forum...












Well, it looks like I may actually get my initial wish of making the announcement by the time of the Ciddies... :shifty:

[Jiro]

Go go Kanno! You can do it, slay that project! Then come back and announce~

[Wolf Kanno]

Fun little tidbits from the tally

32 total submissions

Largest age group: 21-25 that participated

Smallest Age bracket that participated was 18 - 14

Only 4 girls made submissions as opposed to 28 guys

FFI, FFII, FFIII, and FFXI had no submissions

The most popular FF had 18 votes

The second most popular FF is a tie

The smallest amount of votes for a title is 1 and only two FFs got it.

NES Era had 0 votes
SNES Era had 34 total
PS1 Era had 45 votes
PS2 Era had 19 votes
PS3 Era had 1 vote

Only two spin-off series got votes

So yes, I am working on it right now but its going to take a while to get down the specifics. Hope these little facts start you speculating. I'd love to see a prediction thread of some kind. ;)

[Laddy]

Favorite FF #1- FFVII
Story/Characters - 1
Combat system - 4
Exploration/Side-quests - 2
Music/Graphics -3

Favorite FF #2 -FFVI
Story/Characters - 1
Combat system - 4
Exploration/Side-quests - 3
Music/Graphics - 2

Favorite FF #3 - FFIX
Story/Characters - 2
Combat system - 3
Exploration/Side-quests - 4
Music/Graphics - 1

Gender: M, barely

Age Range: 14-18

[Shiny]

I have four favorite FF's, but that's okay I'll just leave out FF IX even though that's the first one I played it would've been hard for me to rate it 1-4.

[Forsaken Lover]

FFIX is obviously gonna be Number 1 or 2.
I hope so anyway.

[Del Murder]

My prediction is FFVII number 1, FFVI number 2. :) Maybe FFIX or FFX number 3.

FFVII will probably be in the bottom 3 as well. Most people have a strong reaction either way on that one.

[Levian]

I'll guess same games as Del Murder (FFIX in first, not FFX) except in reverse order. :D

[Loony BoB]

I'll say FFX will be higher than #3, just to be different. Not sure which will come first, but if I had to guess, I'd say VII, X, then either VI or IX... I'll say VI, I suppose.

[Wolf Kanno]

MAJOR UPDATE

Alright, outside of doing one more recount for overall totals for the titles, I have everything finally counted out. Though there was some issues trying to find the averages in the individual categories cause a few people are split on some of the titles elements. It doesn't help that people can't follow instructions :colbert:

Also, just to warn everyone, there was a few changes cause I ended up accepting a few late entries and I blackmailed some of the fine women of EoFF (threaten them with the Raistlin bikini pics :shifty: ) to get a little more estrogen into the voting so some of the stats listed above no longer apply and the top fave FF is no longer a tie. :D

With that said, expect the results to be posted soon!

[Wolf Kanno]

So its time for the final results of the first unofficial EoFF Census!!!!


*sound of crickets chirping...*

Okay so I took my sweet time doing all this but that's what happens when you do stuff on a whim without any real planning. :colbert:

Anyway...

First the results of the sexes and what FFs appeal to them!

Favorite FFs for Men:
In third place is Final Fantasy VI with a total of 17 votes from the guys, I guess all that SabinXCyan Bromanace. Course I feel its all about some Yeti on Moogle action... :shifty:

The second favorite FF for Men is surprisingly Final Fantasy VIIwith 18 votes. I blame it on all the phallic symbolism and sexual innuendo's like Cloud and Sephiroth's big swords and tense sexual frustrations

The top favorite Final Fantasy for guys is Final Fantasy IX. SD graphics be damned, the guys gave this game a whopping 20 votes and none of the girls even voted for it. I blame it on our fascination with monkeys and Orko from He-Man. :D

Favorite FFs for Women:

The women of EoFF tended to be a bit more balanced than the guys so their results are much more interesting imho.

First up is a three way tie for third place in the form of Final Fantasy V, Final Fantasy VII, and Final Fantasy VIII with a three way tie of 2 votes. The ladies like their leading men with their complex issues of identity, opening up emotionally, and dealing with... heights?

In second place for the second favorite among our pure maidens of EoFF is a tie between cult classics Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy VI with a two way tie of 3 votes. I'm guessing it has to do with all the badass stuff the girls do in this game. From Rydia's saving the parties ass from Golbez in the Dwarf kingdom to Celes single handling recollecting the Kefka's Doomsday crew. :cool:

The number one favorite for the ladies? Why not surprising its Final Fantasy X with its sweeping story of romance, fantasy, blitzball and wanting to tell Wakka to STFU. This one won with a whopping 4 votes from the ladies.


Overall favorites of the forum and their voting numbers:
First Place: Final Fantasy VII with 21 votes
Second Place: (Tie) Final Fantasy VI and Final Fantasy IX with 20 Votes
Third Place: (Tie) Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy X with 11 votes
Fourth Place: Final Fantasy XII with 10 votes
Fifth Place: Final Fantasy VIII with 9 votes
Sixth Place: Final Fantasy IV with 8 votes
Seventh Place: Final Fantasy Tactics with 3 votes
Eighth Place: (Tie) Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy X-2

Now for the individual scoring of elements for the games. To understand how I did this one, I added up the numbers and give you the final total. Remember that they were rated 1=Most Favorite and 4=Least Favorite. So for that reason the lower the number, the higher people rated it.

Title: Final Fantasy IV
Story/Characters: 11
Combat: 29
Exploration/Sidequests: 19
Music/Graphics: 21
Comments: Everyone's favorite element for FFIV was its story and characters which recieved a near unanimous 1 rating from all but one person. Everyone's least favorite element was the combat system which is a bit dry compared to the rest of the series.

Title: Final Fantasy V
Story/Characters: 26
Combat: 21
Exploration/Sidequests: 32
Music/Graphics: 31
Comments: Some surprises and some not so surprising revelations. Often toted as the Best Game in the series, its not surprising that FFV's top element is its combat system which utilized a revamped Job Class system and introduced the idea of sub-classes. In last place surprisingly is FFV's exploration. With three worlds to traverse as well as underwater locales, I guess people got bored exploring and were more interested in some hot Gilgamesh action.

Title: Final Fantasy VI
Story/Characters: 31
Combat: 53
Exploration/Sidequests: 48
Music/Graphics: 48
Comments: Debatably the best Final Fantasy in the series by some fanbases, its not surprising that Story and characters is the top fave elements with a cast of 16 characters all unique from each other and a tale that spans a global conflict and the aftermath of its terrible destruction, fans love the story and cast. In last place though is the combat system. Combining the strict class roles of IV and adding a relic/esper system that gives a very abusive version of V's job class system, VI definetly suffered from some interesting balance issues, especially when Auto-crossbow will be the only thing you'll see for 30 hours until you trade it up for Ultima.

Title: Final Fantasy VII
Story/Characters: 42
Combat: 56
Exploration/Sidequests: 52
Music/Graphics: 50
Comments: As the game that put FF on the map also debatably the best FF by just about everyone, its not surprising that VII's top vote went to story and characters with its distinct cast of characters and tales of environmental catastrophe first from corporations and later from Aliens. Like VI, VII's lowest rank goes to combat which utilized an even more broken down version of FFV's job class system than VI. Course for all its customization options, it never changed the fact the easiest way to beat the game was just to cast the unnecessarily long Knights of the Round to kill the final boss in a single round...

Title: Final Fantasy VIII
Story/Characters: 18
Combat: 19
Exploration/Sidequests: 26
Music/Graphics: 27
Comments: One of the black sheep of the series its a surprise to see the two most criticized elements (Story/character and combat) are ranked significantly high for this game. The story of loner Squall falling in love while saving the world from Time Traveling witches is pretty difficult to forget, whether you liked it or not. Its music and graphics were ranked the lowest despite both being cutting edge at the time and holding up considerably well by today's standards. Course its hard to remember the whole soundtrack when you can't stop humming Laguna's Battle theme. ;)

Title: Final Fantasy IX
Story/Characters: 39
Combat: 52
Exploration/Sidequests: 50
Music/Graphics: 39
Comments: A forum favorite and considered by many to be the most underrated of the Sony era FFs. IX is well loved not only for its tale of kidnapped princess, alien plots, and more moogles and chocobos than you can shake a stick at, but also the music that help immerse the player in the story and characters which is considered by some to be Nobuo Uematsu's last great soundtrack. Of course IX's theme was "going back to the roots" in terms of design and for some, that leaves a sour note. The games slow ATB gauge and incredibly long battle intros do much to aggravate players who are in a hurry to see the next story segment.

Title: Final Fantasy X
Story/Characters: 16
Combat: 22
Exploration/Sidequests: 32
Music/Graphics: 20
Comments: Hailed as having one of the most immersive stories part in thanks to being the first FF to use full voice acting in its cutscenes. The cast was brought to life by the addition of voices behind those pretty faces, it also doesn't help your trying to save the world from a giant whale that happens to be the main characters father with a party composed of a jock, a summoner, a goth black mage, a talking blue cat, jailbait, a badass, and Bender. Course all this gripping story took a toll of the games world design, while Spiura is definetly pretty, the fact is, the game is just one very looooooonnnng road, and with blitzball as your only means of diversion until the end of the game...

Title: Final Fantasy XII
Story/Characters: 33
Combat: 26
Exploration/Sidequests: 22
Music/Graphics: 29
Comments: Despite all the hate in the FF community, this relatively new entry in the series did pretty well in this census to my own surprise. As the "anti-FFX" as its sometimes know as, its not surprising that the games scores are the complete opposite of FFX. Exploration and sidequest? Hell yes cause Ivalice is a smurfing world and if you want to see it all, you need to get out there and do some stuff not just wait around for an old man to fill you in. So many side-quests and such a massive world design, its not surprising that it can take hours between each story segment... which is why most people never got into the game, with a cast that many consider "cold and aloof" from the player and a textbook political story, the most common question asked by people playing XII is "What's going on, and why should I care?".

Title: Final Fantasy XIII
Story/Characters: N/A
Combat: N/A
Exploration/Sidequests: N/A
Music/Graphics: N/A
Comments: See kids, this is what happens when you don't follow instructions and then decide to disappear from the Web.

Title: Final Fantasy Tactics
Story/Characters: 3
Combat: 3
Exploration/Sidequests: 7
Music/Graphics: 7
Comments: The scores are a bit low on account that there were only three people voting for them and only two of them know how to read instructions properly. :mad: FFT is well known by the small circle of geeks and nerd who actually bothered to play it for its incredibly mature story telling and cast as well as its revamped and deep combat system. Its no wonder its a tie. On account its an SRPG it has really know exploration and little in terms of side-quests. Its music while very good is also not as noticable when you are playing through the dramatic duel between Ramza and Weigraf with your Dragoon Monk with Move +3 and Blade Grasp counter move. :cool:

Title: Final Fantasy X-2
Story/Characters: 2
Combat: 3
Exploration/Sidequests: 1
Music/Graphics: 4
Comments: With its new mission based set up as well as the addition of a "jumping ability" X-2 allowed you to return to Spira and actually explore the place instead of rushing you to the final climatic battle between good and evil. The design of the game allows the player to choose their own pace and the variety of missions and mini-games makes each step towards the games conclusion that much more rich and enjoyable. The music is not as memorable, with Yuna suddenly becoming all J-Pop idol and belting out love ballads to bring peace to the world, you would almost think this was Macross but the quality shows its actually Macross 2.


**************************************************

So there you have it, the unofficial EoFF census. So... while we are discussing the results, I would also love to hear some feedback on what worked and what didn't for this test run. With the exception of the long delay in getting the results cause that will be rectified in the future. If people feel this was at least a nice diversion, I'll be happy to do it all again except this time I'll build a team of volunteers to help me this time so it will be much easier to organize and not have to deal with my erratic whims. So feel free to add any feedback on what you would like to see for the next Census questions and I'll be happy to get PMs from anyone willing to volunteer to be a part of the EoFF Census Bureau. :cool:

[Shin Gouken]

I'm pleased with the results for the most part. FFV and FFXII are no longer unapreciated :spin: VI, VII, and IX would undoubtedly take the top three spots but V and XII closely following behind has restored my faith in the fans a little

[Slothy]

Its music and graphics were ranked the lowest despite both being cutting edge at the time and holding up considerably well by today's standards. Course its hard to remember the whole soundtrack when you can't stop humming Laguna's Battle theme. ;)

VIII's graphics have certainly held up well for a PSX game, but I think most people were probably ranking based on the music there. Easily one of the most underwhelming soundtracks in the series, Man with the Machine Gun being one of the few exceptions. :)

As far as what I might change or would like to see, while I like the idea of ranking elements in the games based on what people liked the most to least, I think I'd rather see those elements simply scored (say on a 1-5 scale) and an average of those scores taken. There were times where I felt like I was almost flipping a coin to rank them simply because I would weight them almost equal, or at least close enough that making any distinction was fairly arbitrary. It might also be a little more readable. As for other questions to ask (and keeping in mind that more people would be adding this up) maybe we could keep some semblance of a ranking by asking for everyone's top 3 FF's in each category (music, gameplay, story/characters, etc.).

Also, I said it before in another thread but it's worth repeating: mark me down as volunteering to help total all this stuff up in the future. I think it's worth doing again (and perhaps even doing for other series in general gaming).

[VeloZer0]

As far as what I might change or would like to see, while I like the idea of ranking elements in the games based on what people liked the most to least, I think I'd rather see those elements simply scored (say on a 1-5 scale) and an average of those scores taken. There were times where I felt like I was almost flipping a coin to rank them simply because I would weight them almost equal, or at least close enough that making any distinction was fairly arbitrary. It might also be a little more readable. As for other questions to ask (and keeping in mind that more people would be adding this up) maybe we could keep some semblance of a ranking by asking for everyone's top 3 FF's in each category (music, gameplay, story/characters, etc.).
Yeah, me too.



Also, I said it before in another thread but it's worth repeating: mark me down as volunteering to help total all this stuff up in the future. I think it's worth doing again (and perhaps even doing for other series in general gaming).
Ditto.

I was reading the FF10 write up and I couldn't help but thinking 'man, writing all this good stuff about FF10 must be killing WK". Nice to see you brought it in by the end. :D

Any chance we could get some interesting stuff like which do the men/women value higher on average plot/gameplay/exploration/graphics? Or just raw data to mull over.

[qwertysaur]

Thank you for taking the time to do this :choc:

[Hot Shot]

That was pretty cool, but the results were a tad bit confusing. It might have been easier if you put the average scores up instead of total points. But never the less, great job WK! :D

[Wolf Kanno]

I plan on expanding the elements section and breaking it down further since that was one of the biggest gripes when I started trying to do this, though I may still lump combat with the character growth elements seeing as how the battle systems are mostly identical until recent entries.

I also plan on taking Levian's advice and letting people list their top 3 least favorite FF's and have a section for that as well. The next survey will be much longer and hopefully much fuller. So keep giving me feedback to wok with. I'll aslo contact everyone who has been volunteering.

The scoring turned out to be a bigger chore than I first imagined. Averages didn't work out partly cause some had a sheer higher volume of votes going for it and doing averages often lead to scores involving fractions. I was going to use the Mode but that ended up also causing issues with titles like VII, VIII, and XII who nearly had three way ties on their elements, so adding them up worked out the best for me at least.

I'll try to figure out the averages of favorite elements between Males and females but I assure you that story/character is pretty much number 1 across the board except when dealing with titles like FFV and XII where combat is number one. The biggest difference between guys and girls is that what few votes I got from girls shows they are pretty even on the series as a whole except FFX whereas guys definetly like VI, VII, and IX the most as the next ones up have significant number drops. I'll try to figure our averages for them nonetheless, but it would take way too long to write up all the data since I don't have Excel or anything.

One interesting tidbit is that the data for guy stuff would be much different if I actually bothered to put in my own entry (I didn't, cause I felt I should be a bit objective for this) cause it would have resulted in a three way tie for first place and either push FFV into second place or made second place a three way tie as well. :D

[Slothy]

One interesting tidbit is that the data for guy stuff would be much different if I actually bothered to put in my own entry (I didn't, cause I felt I should be a bit objective for this) cause it would have resulted in a three way tie for first place and either push FFV into second place or made second place a three way tie as well. :D

Who says one person can't make a difference?

And I should add a thank you for doing this since I forgot to earlier. I'm sure it was a fair bit of hard work and do appreciate your taking the time to run this.

[Depression Moon]

Cool results. I didn't know many really liked VIII's for it's music that much. Only about three stood out to me. Shame IX wasn't first and what's with you girls why don't y'all like IX?

[Levian]

Sweet stuff there, interesting to read! How many voters were there in total?

[Del Murder]

My prediction is FFVII number 1, FFVI number 2. :) Maybe FFIX or FFX number 3.

FFVII will probably be in the bottom 3 as well. Most people have a strong reaction either way on that one.
I was pretty close! It went VII #1, VI and IX tied for #2, X and V tied for #3.

Who were the least favorites, WK?

[Wolf Kanno]

No one voted for any of NES era FF titles which surprised me a bit but I'm sure if Elpizo and Black Orb had participated they would have gotten some loving. Beyond the 8-bit tiles, I would say there was no love for Crystal Chronicles, Tactics Advance series, or any of the sequels except X-2. Of the titles actually voted on, X-2 and XIII only received one vote a piece.

There were 39 participants for the Census and I would love to say thank you to everyone for spending some time to send me some info. The next time we do this, I'm gunning for at least 50 participants if not 60. :cool:

[Flying Arrow]

V tied with X for third (fourth?) place? Interesting. And it's a shame that the NES games got no love. I really enjoy FFIII, but it unfortunately just doesn't crack my top three.

Great job, Wolf. Pencil me in as another who'd be willing to put some time in for the next project.

[Del Murder]

Oh I just realized least favorite wasn't on the survey. Maybe add that for next time! Great job WK, this was really cool.

[Slothy]

Beyond the 8-bit tiles, I would say there was no love for Crystal Chronicles, Tactics Advance series, or any of the sequels except X-2. Of the titles actually voted on, X-2 and XIII only received one vote a piece.

I think the spin offs not getting much love could come down to some confusion over whether they could be voted for in our choices. I know I didn't realize that they were allowed until you said so sometime later or I might have included Tactics in my entry, but didn't feel strongly enough one way or the other to change my entry after the fact.

Anywho, do you have any idea on when you might like to do another census? I think there are enough people volunteering here that it shouldn't be as large a work load the second time.

[Shiny]

It's not surprising at all that FFVII is that loved.

[Depression Moon]

I want a big Final Fantasy role playing game. Seems like the forum's been a bit more activate since a little before E3.

[Wolf Kanno]

Anywho, do you have any idea on when you might like to do another census? I think there are enough people volunteering here that it shouldn't be as large a work load the second time.


I'm thinking of trying another one before the year is out. Obviously its too soon to start one now but setting up the group and discussing what should go into the next census will take enough time to be ready by the year's end. I also plan on lengthening the time slot to turn in forms and doing a lot more advertisement since I would love to have a higher volume of entries this time around, especially from the ladies.

I'm shooting for September to start the next one and then have the votes tallied around either the next Ciddies or more likely New Years depending on the volume of participation and free time of the committee to count out everything. :mog:

[Forsaken Lover]

and what's with you girls why don't y'all like IX?

Three Words:
Not. Enough. Leather.
Or Belts.
So Five Words.

Slap some leather on Zidane and his sex appeal with the ladies (and FFIX's score) rises several notches.

Seriously though, considering the very limited number of women participating, it's a miracle we got the variety that we did.

Also, I would love if Zidane had some nice tight leather pants on.

But yeah, great job doing all this WK. I can't imagine putting this much effort into...anything.

[Raistlin]

Since I was definitely one of the (actually informed) people who voted FFT, I went back in my PMs and realized I was the one who messed up the voting. :p You could've told me to fix it! I have no idea wtf instructions I was reading the first time, but I sent you a PM with the details, in case you care. I certainly care, because the lack of FFT-love makes me sad. :(

[Jessweeee♪]

Cool results. I didn't know many really liked VIII's for it's music that much. Only about three stood out to me. Shame IX wasn't first and what's with you girls why don't y'all like IX?

It's not bad, but it's nothing special as far as FF goes. It was a nice game and I liked it a lot, but it's not one of my favorites. I didn't vote, though. If I had, there'd be additional FFX and FFXII love. FFXIII too if it were later.