The Results of the 1999 Survey

A Keeper's Training

Yes, Training is a mission. In this mission does the player not only learn how to use shadows, surfaces, bow, sword, ropes, jumping, mantling, and using objects. No, in this mission is also the hidden basketball room, the bedroll with the quotes, and at least 3 funny reachable areas on the roofs.

But indeed, the mission was not designed for fun. So, the obvious rating of the mission as the least preferred mission of the game is not a big surprise. It was in fact more surprising for me to see that some people had given that mission the rating as the best mission of the game - after I had eliminated the obvious silly ratings of one or two people. The person who had given the map the score 1 seemed to be a serious scorer, and so he was left in the data pool.

[Descriptive Data], [Scores], [Comments], [Final Comments]

Descriptive Data about this mission

Well, this mission is indeed not the most preferred one of the game. That is sure. Nevertheless, the scores higher than - let me say - 10 surprised me.

The majority of the subjects gave it the score 13 (compare the Modalvalue).

The distribution of the scores

Score	N	%	Y-axis: "N", X-axis: "Score"
1	1	0.4
2	3	1.3
3	2	0.9
4	3	1.3
5	12	5.3
6	14	6.2
7	15	6.7
8	11	4.9
9	20	8.9
10	15	6.7
11	20	8.9
12	36	16.0
13	73	32.4

So. What have we here? Only about 56 % gave Training a rating between 11-13.

The reasons for that can be various: Sillyness of the subjects; the fact that I explained the fact that Training was indeed a map (the author of the survey influencing the subjects; gosh, it could be a pure Rosenthal-effect! Wow, I always wanted to see one in real life... ;) ), the fact that this mission is indeed more preferred than some other missions; the fact that the other missions are worse than this one.

Training, btw., correlates relatively high with Bafford (.28 **), with Assassins (.14 *), with Undercover (.135 *). It correlates significantly high negative with The Haunted Cathedral (-.22 **), with Lost City (-.22 **), with Return to the Cathedral [RTC] (-.28 **), Escape (-.17 *), Bedfellows (-.23 **), and Maw of Chaos (-.13 *). The correlations are almost all highly significant, because of the very huge number of subjects. Nevertheless, these correlations in a nutshell: Training correlates relatively good with Human levels, and relatively negative with the pure Monster levels.

It correlates not significant in any way with any of the other data. Only with the rating for the least preferred map: -.33 **. Well. This correlation means that people who like Training gave the least preferred map a lower rating (i.e. someone loved Training (score 1), and gave the least preferred mission a worse rating (i.e. a 'D'). This seems to be odd, so: What special do I know about those folks? The rating for the worst map correlates also high with RTC (.29 **). So: The better the score for the worst map, the better the score for RTC. And it correlates very significantly with Age (-.19 **). So: The younger the people, the worser the score for the least preferred map. Oh. And of course with education (-.53 *). The lower the educational degree, the worser the rating for the least preferred map. Time for another 'oh'.

My short and harsh analysis about the group of people who gave Training a high rating: The very young people, and maybe this score was only done because of sillyness. (No offence meant, kiddies. If you know me from the gameforum, you know what a beast I can be sometimes...)

This leads to the highly interesting question, what people belong into the group of fans of Human missions compared to the group of Monster/Undead mission fans. This question will be analysed in the further data analysis.

Comments

Short Summary

The positive quotes about that map are more distinct that I had thought. Not only that the mission was praised for its quality as a training mission and for the easter eggs; it was also praised for the daylight, the cutscene, the atmospheric quality.

The negative points were also highly distinct. Not only the linearity and the boreness; also intelligent questions as: 'Where does the voice come from' and 'Why did it not explain the further movement skills and the further weapons' and 'It did not explain the Keeper background'.

I think I should bow at my intelligent subjects now. :-)

One remark: I have of course not quoted every comment. Comments that were basically similar were not quoted again. Direct quotes are marked in italics.

Positive Comments

Secret Basketball area, quotes, sparring.
It was a well-done, excellent, useful, brilliant training mission.
A well-done into to being a thief.
Daylight and beautiful sky. 'I like the castle look outdoors.'
The quotes of the Keepers added fun. 'Very good. I did not see you approach.'
The roleplay aspect sets you in the character.
'Awsome tutorial! Combined the tutorial with the plot!!!'
'Superb cutscene'
'Short but sweet'
'Better than Maw'
'A good scene setter. This is what got me interested in the game in the first place'

Negative Comments

Linearity.
Blackjack, rope arrow, fire arrow, stuff like mines should have been explained, too.
Too short.
Just a formality mission.
Only for beginners.
No Mystery.
The Sparring Partner should die.
You should be able to inspect the last rooms a bit.
It was just plain boring and too short.
Where is that voice coming from?
Not enough background of the Keepers.
Not enough time to get really practice with the sword.
In one word: It was only a training.

Some personal comments

So, some people considered Training indeed as a mission. And they liked it.

Well, I have to say: I like it, too. It is the perfect place to train the ability of the famous run-'n-jump-'n-mantle that is neccessary if I want to reach the roofs in the later missions. And the absolute hit is that I could fall down from the roof at the second rope so many times without dying. In other missions I would have had to reload permanently whilst training that special movement skill.

And, don't forget also that Training is the only mission where NPC-jumping is really fun: no fear to die, no reloads - and the unreachable areas come within your grasp... ;)