Link:site with gaming statistics

[Derron]

While I know what quartiles are (yet I tried to forget them once I finshed exams about it when at university - now coming back as I need to do AI/machine learning work for my day job), Adam is right when it comes to the legality question of data collections.

Ask before collecting data. Not Opt-Out but Opt-In!


Regarding Quartiles - maybe percentiles would suit here better, the quartiles lead ot the assumption of 25% playing longer than 12 Minutes - while it is the "29+" column which raises the bar for the q3.
also "29+" might mean anything .. maybe the bar is
29=0
30=0
31=0
...
250=40 (some people who left the game running while going out - or not knowing how to properly close the game and just "alt tabbing")


Also your stats show something:
- most people are not interested in playing your games "that long"
- if you somehow convince them to play your game (so get used to your art, to your odd controls, to your story, your gameplay depth ...), they play it for "very long" time

Now think about this:
- are the games you measured meant to be played that long (or short) ? Some games are designed for toilet breaks (so <5 minutes play time)
- why are people going away?
- do you measure from "game application start" to "game application end" or just "ingame" (which would lack who does quit because they do not know where to click/hit or they find the color choice ugly or cannot speak your language...) ?
- how does game play time evolve for "returners" - do they come for "more" or for the same amount of playtime?
- how many returners do you have
- what other of your games do users try out - do they look for more?
- do you count unique users or simply "users per app"?


Statistics can help a lot - but they have to be acquired legally - and you must be prepared to fall into a biased-assumption trap.


bye
Ron

[Matty]

Re legality : when a website such as Syntax bomb reports on the front page the number of 'Guests' online - do you tjink they've opted in? 

[iWasAdam]

you would need to clarify that with Qube.

'He does... so I can" is no defence. And that is NOT statistical data. You have (repeatedly) said you are monitoring ip addresses - length of playtime, what people are doing - you are directly monitoring and capturing and storing data.

Again you are attempting to justify your actions... and seeking attention...

[Matty]

Derron "- most people are not interested in playing your games "that long"" this is normal.  Reread the report linked on page 1  60% of users uninstall mobile games on day 1 after 4 minutes gameplay.

I understand what both of you are saying. I'm merely providing you with insights into game play usage with both the reports on the udonis site and comparing to my own for your reference.

[MikeHart]

Re legality : when a website such as Syntax bomb reports on the front page the number of 'Guests' online - do you tjink they've opted in? 

Lol Matty you fool. Btw. GDPR is a field i work in at my dayjob.


 For counting visitors you don't store their IP anyway, so there is no need to opt in. GDPR is all about which information you store, for what purpose you can use it and the rights of the individual which owns the information. The ISP will store the IP, but that is usually handled via a service contract between the ISP and the websites owner, plus as a visitor you agree to certain things when you accept the cookies.


Matty, if you don't got an agreement from your users about storing their IP, then you can await fines, even from a country like germany. Because it is not up to were YOU live but WHERE your product is served.


So if you already went against the DSGVO which i assume you do, it would be better you will report yourself to our athorities. The fine might be cheaper. Depending on the damage they might let it go by. But if you don't report yourself in, the fines can easily 5 or 6 digit numbers no matter how small your business is.

[MikeHart]

Re EU.  I know, Google has had me have this in place for years:https://mattiesgames.com/privacypolicy.html

Ouch, the Policy lacks in so many ways and even gives false informations. For an examples, you say only YOU store info. WRONG, your ISP is storing it too. AT LEAST the IP. And that my friend is a personal information of a user. And that YOU also store an IP, you have mentioned yourself before.

[Matty]

All IP address information now removed - and no longer collected.

Statistical information still collected however, no IP address information collected any further by me.

[Derron]

Before you now become afraid ... if you live in Australia ... it will be hard for Germany (public authorities) to persecute you.

As with all legal actions: it requires at least a lawyer in _your_ country who can then try to pursue you. So if someone pirates your game and sells it in their country (so you have postal address etc), you need a lawyer in this country, not just in yours.

So "dsvgo" can ... you can ignore it if you not intend to visit Germany (if ... I say "if" - Type 3 conditional - they even think about doing something against your little website).

Regarding personal data:
Every data you somehow "process" (storing, adding, transforming, ...) and which is "personal" (allows identifying the indivdual user) requires approval of the user. At least in countries like Germany. Other countries might not require it - and as long as you do not "sell" to these countries, it must not bother you.

I think the issue here is: those who accept processing their private data, are different "type" of users than who decline any usage. So every metric you gain is already biased.


Websites and game dev (and here: metrics) became a huge mine field the last decade.


bye
Ron

[Matty]

In any case - regarding graphs....here's one that might be a little easier for people to read.

[Steve Elliott]

Just make good games that *everybody* wants to play, and leave the Statistician's to say if it's a success or not.