Welcome to the results of the first Superfami.com survey!  There were 89 distinct respondants to the survey and their answers are broken down by percentages below. Highest answers are in bold and my comments are to the right of each section.  At the end I have included some of the more amusing reader comments.

To those of you who complained that I did not include PC games, I have no sympathy.  This is a console site and you should have figured that out by now.

Favorite System
 
 
Age
Unknown
1.4%
 As you can see, the age range of people  
who responded to the survey has a wide  
range.
Under 20
37.76%
21 - 30
19.58%
31 - 40
1.4%
41 - 50
1.4%
Over 50
0.7%
Youngest
12
Oldest
51
Average
21
 
 
Backgrounds
1
0
 The majority of respondants care about the back-  
ground imagery.
2
2.27%
3
11.36%
4 32.95%
5
53.41%
 
Big Heads
1
19.10%
 I would have thought that this one would be a  
little more polarized.  It seems the majority of you  
don't care one way or the other for the SD style of  
character design.  Almost 20% of you expressed  
strong dislike so maybe SD characters is mainly a  
"Japanese thing".
2
16.85%
3 43.82%
4
13.48%
5
6.74%
 
Coherent Storyline
1
2.30%
 Most people want to be able to folow a storyline.  
So many times magazine reviewers or players will  
complain that a RPG was "too linear", but only 2.3%  
of you expressed strong dislike for linear storylines.  
 
2
6.90%
3
25.29%
4
25.29%
5
40.23%
 
Duration of gameplay
Uner 25 hrs.
4.49%
 Good Lord! Don't you people ever go  
outside?  Most people want an RPG to  
last up to 100 hours and most of you  
want to play it again for a different ending?
26 - 50 hrs.
26.97%
51 - 75 hrs.
31.46%
76 - 100 hrs.
37.08%
 
 
Guidebook
Yes
28.41%
 Are you sure you were being honest on this one?  
 
No
71.59%
 
Imports
Yes
76.4%
 No big surprise here.  If you are visiting a site that  
sells Japanese games, most likely you buy imports.
No
23.6%
 
Japanese
Yes
32.95%
 A Full 1/3 of you can read Japanese well enough  
to play an RPG yet the average age is 21? Alot of  
you must be very lucky to be able to study Japanese  
in school since it takes so long to learn Japanese.
No
67.05%
 
Leveling Up
1
5.62%
 I am surprised.  This is the thing I hate the most about  
playing RPGs.  I feel that leveling up is the biggest  
waste of time, but the majority of you don' seem to care  
one way or another, and alot of you like leveling up.
2
13.48%
3
31.46%
4
31.46%
5
17.98%
 
Linear Storyline
1
5.62%
 Most of you would seem not to have a strong preference  
about this one, but more people like a linear story line  
than people who dislike a linear story.
2
22.47%
3
32.58%
4
25.84%
5
13.48%
 
Long Gameplay
1 NA This one was overwhelming.  You people really want to  
get your money's worth out of a game! 
2 NA
3
5.62%
4
24.72%
5
69.66%
 
Movies
1
1.12%
 Odd answer when you look at the responses for favorite  
system.  If most of you like the SNES/SFC, I guess this  
means that you want movies in RPGs.  This is also a  
conflict with many comments which expressed displeasure  
with the current trend towards 3D polygon based,  
"cinematic" RPGs.
2
3.37%
3
17.98%
4
22.47%
5
55.06%
 
Music
1
1.12%
 No surprise here at all.  Perhaps I should have asked  
how many of you also buy game sound track CDs. For  
those of you who don't know, there has been a sound  
track released for just about every RPG out there and  
sometimes you can also get orchestral and "remix"  
versions as well.
2
2.25%
3
3.37%
4
22.47%
5
70.79%
 
Random Battles
1
5.62%
 Once again, I am surprised.  Most of you don't care  
one way or the other about random battles and not  
many people expressed a strong opinion at either end  
of the range.  Personally I prefer Chrono Trigger style  
where you can pick and choose which minor battles  
you will fight.
2
10.11%
3
47.19%
4
26.97%
5
10.11%
 
Realtime Battles
1
2.25%
 Most of you don't really care about realtime vs turn  
based battles, but if you add up the high end, there  
is a definite liking for realtime battle systems.  Since  
lots of people listed a Zelda game as their first RPG  
or as their favorite, this makes sense.  Of course if  
you look down at the results for turn based combat  
systems, you see almost the same results.  I wonder...
2
8.99%
3
41.57%
4
24.72%
5
22.47%
 
Replay
1
6.74%
 This trend is easy to figure out.  Long game play,  
high replay value and 100 hours to finish. 
2
5.62%
3
21.35%
4
20.22%
5
46.07%
 
Sanitized Text
1
50.56%
 Respondants obviously feel they don't want to be  
treated as children.  I wonder about those of you  
who replied that you like santized text.  There was  
no age pattern to these responses or any other  
kind of pattern, so I guess some individuals just don't  
want words stronger than "darn" on their TV screens.  
My advice to you is that you should stay away from  
any games translated by Working Designs if you are  
afraid of strong text.
2
24.72%
3
15.73%
4
5.62%
5
3.37%
 
 
Secrets
1
2.27%
 I guess this is the same as the length/replay trend.  
I really get the idea that people feel they are paying  
by the minute to play RPGs!
2
11.36%
3
23.86%
4
26.14%
5
36.36%
 
Text Heavy
1
5.62%
 Most of you don't care, but then again the numbers  
at the high end show a preference for lots of text in  
an RPG.  Very few people expressed a strong dislike  
for text heavy games.  Considering that RPGs are  
about story and only so much can be done with  
character animations, this is no surprise.
2
10.11%
3
44.94%
4
22.47%
5
16.85%
 
Turn Based Battles
1
5.62%
 These numbers are exremely close to the numbers for  
realtime battles.  Realtime came a litle higher at the top  
range, but here again, strong in the middle and top. I  
assume that people don't really prefer one over the  
other.
2
4.49%
3
32.58%
4
30.34%
5
26.97%
 
Voices
1
2.25%
 This is very close to the responses for movies.  Personally  
if movies and voice acting are done as they were in Lunar  
or Lunar Eternal Blue, I'm happy.  If the voices are done  
like they were in Resident Evil, I would prefer not to have  
voices.
2
11.24%
3
21.35%
4
26.97%
5
38.20%
 
 
Reader Comments
These are all real.  I didn't make any of these up.  I'm just not that creative.

"If Squaresoft makes it I will buy it"

No offence, but the marketing types must love you!
"You rule"
Thank you.
"Game companies are focusing on graphics and not storyline and fun"
I couldn't agree more.
"I wish that (RPGs) come back to the 2D sprite times ... I hate too much 3D"
I got alot of comments like this one.
"No/not really"
Would you believe I got more than 20 like that?
"I dream of the day someone releases a sci-fi RPG based on the concept albums from 'Rush'. They all tell a great story and the 3 go together in a huge epic"
Square, Enix, are you listening?
"My 5 year old brother learned how to read from FF7!"
I really do think that was the coolest thing I read that entire week.
"Liking RPGs is annoying because they all demand too much time"
Just wait until you work full time, run a website, and try to make time to spend with your family.  I love RPGs but I have a pile of em half finished cuz I don't ever have time to finish one.
"I like blueberries"
My mother in law tells me that blueberries are good for your eyes.  If you spend lots of time gaming, you should eat lots of blueberries to try to counter the eye-strain caused by the TV.
"More modern themed, horror & Sci-Fi RPGs would be welcome."
Good point.  I like swords and spells as much as the next gamer, but besides Snatcher (which doesn't really qualify as an RPG) I have not had a good sci-fi gaming experience.  Something along the lines of HP Lovecraft would be cool to.  Maybe Sega will do 'House of The Dead RPG' for Dreamcast (^_^)
"Ummm...face."
I still dont know what you meant by that.
Thanks again to all of you who participated!

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