What is Weyrdlets Doing With My Data?
Why We Collect Data
We see players from all kinds of games voicing concern about how their data is used, and rightly so! In Weyrdlets, any info collected is used solely to enhance the game. Your gameplay data helps us identify problems, understand player behavior, and make informed decisions about future content. In this post, we want to be as transparent as possible about this process and let you know exactly what kind of information we use and why.
Finessing Game Content with Popular Item Patterns
Understanding what players enjoy is crucial for creating engaging content. We analyze item purchase data to see which items are the most popular. For instance, certain items like Seagrass, Tub Coral Sponge, and Table Coral are among the most frequently obtained items recently due to our new Fishing & Friends update.
In the accessories category, besides the obvious rise of sea-themed headgear, we’re seeing that the hibiscus is still one of the most popular items around. This information tells us what visual themes and types of items our players prefer, allowing us to design new items and content that we know will be well-received. Based on these stats, you can expect more plant-themed items coming in the future!
Tracking Feature Usage
We also use data to understand how players are interacting with specific game features. For example, we can track how often players use the Pomodoro feature to stay focused. The graph show a clear peak in usage on September 4th, with 48 instances of players starting a Pomodoro session. This tells us that the feature is being used and is a valuable part of the game for some players.
And yes, we can even see how often players perform the less glamorous tasks. For instance, we track how many times players clean their pet's poop! This kind of information helps us understand if a core mechanic is still engaging for players. So, keep cleaning that poop. We're watching! 😉
Active Players Around the World
To make sure we're serving our global community, we analyze playtime by country. This helps us understand where our most active players are located. Note that we only have country information and not your home address so unfortunately your virtual pets won’t be able to send you birthday cards anytime soon.
The pie chart shows a diverse mix of player locations, including Argentina, Indonesia, Costa Rica, and Saudi Arabia, among more than 26 other countries. This data is critical for a few reasons:
Localization: Translating the game is expensive, so we use this information to prioritize which languages to support next. We want to ensure players can enjoy the game in their native language, and this data helps us focus on the most-requested regions.
Marketing and Reach: Knowing where our players are helps us run more effective marketing campaigns. We can tailor our efforts to reach new players in regions where the game is already popular, helping our community grow even more.
Accelerating Bug Fixes with Diagnostics 🐛
Bug reports are essential for keeping the game stable and enjoyable. Our diagnostics system helps us identify and fix crashes and exceptions much faster. The system automatically logs errors and provides us with a detailed stack trace, which is a record of the functions that were called when the error occurred.
For example, a recent NullReferenceException crash was tied to the Fishing.PlaygroundFishManager.SetNearestFishToBaitedState function. This specific data tells us exactly where in the code the problem lies, enabling our team to pinpoint and fix the bug quickly. The diagnostics also show which OS, device types, and game versions are most affected by a particular issue. This helps us prioritize fixes for the most common player setups.
The "Occurrences" chart shows a clear spike in exceptions and crashes which helps our team understand the severity of a bug and whether it's a widespread problem.
Voluntary User Reporting
We also have a user reporting feature that allows you to voluntarily send us information about a problem you encounter. This is completely optional. When you submit a report, you can include screenshots or a description of what happened. This provides valuable context that automated reports can't capture.
The provided image shows three user reports submitted, each with a screenshot and a short description. This kind of direct feedback helps us understand the context of a bug. For example, a user reporting that a "Weyrdlet accessory highlighted" or a "Weyrdlet escaping minigame" helps us reproduce the issue.
These reports only collect relevant technical information that are potentially helpful for our investigations so it will never include any personally identifiable information. They also expire every 3 months so many of these reports are disposed of long after they’re acted upon.
Improving FPS Where it Matters
Performance issues, like a low frame rate (FPS), can ruin the gaming experience. We collect anonymous data on FPS performance to identify areas in the game that are causing slowdowns. For example, the FPS diagnostic graph shows a significant drop in frames per second (from an average of around 60 to 25.533) around the 420-479 frame mark.
The image also shows the minimum FPS drops to as low as 13.268 within that range. This data helps our team optimize specific scenes or actions that are computationally intensive so that we can ensure a smoother experience for all players especially on a variety of hardware configurations.
How to Opt Out
We believe in giving you control over your data. In the game's settings, you can find an option to opt out of all user data collection. Toggling this off will stop all data transmission from your game client to our analytics and diagnostics services. You can still enjoy the full game without any limitations.
We hope this has given you some assurance of what goes on behind the scenes and what it really means when we say analytics. If you have any more questions, let us know in the comments or ping us on Discord!
