Warframe Endgame Survey + Results

[[DE]Purzzle]

Hiho everybody!

Last friday, I shared a survey about Warframe endgame.

Today I want to show you the results!

But first up: If you haven't participated in the survey, then why don't you do so now?

More data is more good. I'll start updating things as soon as I get some more responses.

Results

Spoiler

Imgur | Google Sheet

Stuff

Past Surveys | Discord | Twitter | FAQ

Cheers!

[Aldain]

And with that there is now one severely unqualified survey response courtesy of me.

[Anaktoria]

Responded! Many thanks for your ongoing and dedicated contributions.

[Oggyswe]

Good survey but i found the questions about arbitration and steel path metas being abit hard to figure

[PublikDomain]

I'll be very interested to see the responses for the "how many hours until endgame" question. Like, you could easily spend a thousand hours just grinding through all the various items and factions in the game and still not be anywhere close to feeling the need for endgame content... But that's also a lot of time. I was gonna say 500, but dropped it to 200 and that still feels really high when you actually write it out.

[Anaktoria]

3 minutes ago, PublikDomain said:

I'll be very interested to see the responses for the "how many hours until endgame" question. Like, you could easily spend a thousand hours just grinding through all the various items and factions in the game and still not be anywhere close to feeling the need for endgame content... But that's also a lot of time. I was gonna say 500, but dropped it to 200 and that still feels really high when you actually write it out.

I also wrote 200, but I definitely sympathize with your feelings and felt similarly when trying to determine an appropriate number.

[(XBOX)Hyperion Rexx]

I like these surveys.  Are they going to be put to some bigger purpose though, like a dossier to de about what players think, or are they just for curiosities sake?

[(XBOX)Hyperion Rexx]

I like these surveys.  Are they going to be put to some bigger purpose though, like a dossier to de about what players think, or are they just for curiosities sake?

[(XBOX)Hyperion Rexx]

Oh, and q1 

Should endgame content be a thing for new players to aim at?

 

Do you mean something for new players to aspire to, or take part in?  

Absolutely, new players should "aim" or aspire to reach endgame, but absolutely not should new players be taking part in end game.

 

Just not clear to me, but I admit I can be a doofus lol.

[[DE]Purzzle]

vor 4 Minuten schrieb (XBOX)Hyperion Rexx:

Should endgame content be a thing for new players to aim at?

Apire to. Something that is a goal when you start.

[(PSN)Etheral_Synergy]

I am thoroughly interested in the results regarding the perception as MR as endgame. In my opinion its scarcely related it's just how many hours you've spent crying on hydron lol, the only reason it's ever a half decent measure of player experience is because longer time players are more likely to have tried more gear but thats about it.

[BiancaRoughfin]

20 minutes ago, Oggyswe said:

Good survey but i found the questions about arbitration and steel path metas being abit hard to figure

Same for me, i despise meta... 

[(XBOX)Hyperion Rexx]

4 minutes ago, BiancaRoughfin said:

Same for me, i despise meta... 

But surely the hardest content should require the best gear?

[BiancaRoughfin]

7 minutes ago, (XBOX)Hyperion Rexx said:

But surely the hardest content should require the best gear?

Hardest content should require appropriate gear for it not Best nor Mandatory. I have witnessed players being bullied for not using that which people deem "Meta" gear in missions even wile they were the ones topping the kill/damage count and yes, i have had players bully me in missions for the same reasons.

What i hate the most on Meta is that you only see the same frames and weapons being used, people stop trying to explore different combinations because they fear to be looked down on by others.

Last month i did a Sorties mission of which my 3 teammates were Wukongs with either Kuva Bramma or Acceltra and Kuva Nukor.

[(XBOX)Hyperion Rexx]

4 minutes ago, BiancaRoughfin said:

Hardest content should require appropriate gear for it not Best nor Mandatory. I have witnessed players being bullied for not using that which people deem "Meta" gear in missions even wile they were the ones topping the kill/damage count and yes, i have had players bully me in missions for the same reasons.

What i hate the most on Meta is that you only see the same frames and weapons being used, people stop trying to explore different combinations because they fear to be looked down on by others.

Last month i did a Sorties mission of which my 3 teammates were Wukongs with either Kuva Bramma or Acceltra and Kuva Nukor.

I understand what you're saying, but players like those you describe are idiots, every game has them, unfortunately it's inescapable. 

I enjoy lots weapons many would consider pretty trash.  For example, I have a very nice build on my dual heat swords that I'm using to farm tenet weapons.  Hardly meta.

I would always encourage players to experiment and try different stuff, I think that's healthy.  But if we're talking about endgame, ie, the hardest content in the game, it should be expected your choices will be somewhat limited.

[Aldain]

23 minutes ago, (XBOX)Hyperion Rexx said:

But surely the hardest content should require the best gear?

That only works if the gear doesn't dramatically change your playstyle like in MMOs such as FF14, a level 1 Sword or a level 80 one still affords the Paladin equipped with it the same movelist.

Otherwise it literally creates useless variety, why bother releasing any more guns if X gun is the best (other than the reason of blatant power creep).

The push for high end content in Warframe only serves to make gear options more and more shallow, that's why it doesn't fit with Warframe.

[Paranoicon]

Done & done. A bit too opinionated on this one.

Admittedly, I might've overshot it a little in regards to the "How long should it take to reach endgame?" question. Mind, I've tried to base myself on other MMOs of similar size to Warframe. So, there.

Even though I think it's highly unlikely anything will come out of these surveys, at least not when it comes to changes in Warframe, they're still a decent gauge to measure how disconnected DE is from their playerbase.

[(XBOX)Hyperion Rexx]

2 minutes ago, Aldain said:

That only works if the gear doesn't dramatically change your playstyle like in MMOs such as FF14, a level 1 Sword or a level 80 one still affords the Paladin equipped with it the same movelist.

Otherwise it literally creates useless variety, why bother releasing any more guns if X gun is the best (other than the reason of blatant power creep).

The push for high end content in Warframe only serves to make gear options more and more shallow, that's why it doesn't fit with Warframe.

 

True.

However, meta is dictated by game design.   You could have vastly different meta loadouts depending on the design of the mode.   That would encourage experimentation which would be great.  Players may then find things that work that can be taken to other parts of the game.

Unfortunately, wf game design is usually just kill a hoarde of enemies as quick as possible, and that i would agree is limiting.

[PublikDomain]

36 minutes ago, (XBOX)Hyperion Rexx said:

But surely the hardest content should require the best gear?

I think the hardest content should require the best skill. In Warframe the gear you choose is largely personal preference. If you like Hydroid, bows, and thrown explosive secondaries, then that's just what you like to play with. Why should you be disadvantaged in endgame content over that, and is an endgame that can only be played effectively with a narrow subset of gear really a good endgame? Though this is more a line of questioning regarding overall game balance.

[(PSN)Mordecai_Vrykul]

1 hour ago, PublikDomain said:

I'll be very interested to see the responses for the "how many hours until endgame" question. Like, you could easily spend a thousand hours just grinding through all the various items and factions in the game and still not be anywhere close to feeling the need for endgame content... But that's also a lot of time. I was gonna say 500, but dropped it to 200 and that still feels really high when you actually write it out.

I put 100, just cause I was trying to be conservative about it. But 200 seems reasonable considering the game. 

[Currilicious]

Going to play devil's advocate here.

There are games with end-games that are not locked behind gear. I played Guildwars 1 for the whole duration before GW2 launched, so I'll use this example. What takes that void in "gear check" is now the bar check. Players are required to be specced in a certain way to play certain roles. Now I'm not saying Warframe will eventually become that. But something has to take over the "gear check" aspect and present some kind of conundrum to the players. Now back go GWs.

As GW1 become GW2, one other aspect that provides a challenge crept in. Coordination. In GW2, all end-game content is being run with voice-chat. Having played quite a bit of that across the core and 2 expansions, I can say playing without voicechat is not really feasible.

What I am saying is, if say gear being a factor is frowned upon, then something has to take its place. It could be your loadout, or player coordination (like the old raids). And another form of elitism will creep in. Like in GWs, if you aren't a certain rank, you will have a hard time joining any parties.

I certainly do not know which is better (or worse if you're a glass half empty kind person) here TBH. But at least with gear, you can farm for. While these "elite" ranks are harder to come by when the entry barrier is stacked against newer players.

[Tesseract7777]

Good survey, although I wonder if the question about SP and Arbitration Meta's might be a little difficult to understand for some, skewing the results. 

[[DE]Purzzle]

Updated with results

[Joezone619]

Looking at the results for "have you unlocked arbitrations" and "have you unlocked steel path", its clear DE should not be aiming to satisfy new players, the 5% of people who said no are your new players. By aiming to satisfy that 5%, you leave the 95% unsatisfied or at the very least, uninterested in the update.

I'm not saying never aim for the new guys, but its clear that 95% of warframe's players, are the ones who've stuck with the game for a long while, the veterans (depending on your definition of a "warframe veteran").

 

Edit:
On a side note, i was surprised to see that 95% of the people have unlocked it, i was expecting closer to 60-70% but 95%? That one hit hard and surprised me.

[vanaukas]

27 minutes ago, Joezone619 said:

Looking at the results for "have you unlocked arbitrations" and "have you unlocked steel path", its clear DE should not be aiming to satisfy new players, the 5% of people who said no are your new players. By aiming to satisfy that 5%, you leave the 95% unsatisfied or at the very least, uninterested in the update.

I'm not saying never aim for the new guys, but its clear that 95% of warframe's players, are the ones who've stuck with the game for a long while, the veterans (depending on your definition of a "warframe veteran").

 

Edit:
On a side note, i was surprised to see that 95% of the people have unlocked it, i was expecting closer to 60-70% but 95%? That one hit hard and surprised me.

This result are completely biased, since most experienced players are the ones who frequently hang out in the forums/reddit and take their time to do this surveys, which is why I've stopped participating, since doesn't reflect that much, considering that usually 500 - 600 users do this and just on steam daily are like 50k - 60k players....  So take this results with a grain of salt

EDIT:

I had to do some research to find this image, some people says it's "non resopnse" bias but works anyways: