Revamping a Reporting System to quantify impact

A lot of my job consists of making reports. These reports are usually based on gathering player feedback regarding changes to the game and are written in a way that can be used for future use. To make these reports more practical and less about putting generic information on a page, I helped to revamp how this information is gathered and displayed.

While the older reports were helpful to an extent, we wanted them to be as valuable as possible and make them less cluttered and repetitive. To do this, I needed to change the layout of the reports. By changing them, I could convey the feedback gathered from players in more detail, allowing others to find the specific information they wanted rather than going through the entire report.

By liaising with the client, I got more information on precisely what the report was used for and what kind of information they wanted to gain from it. By working with them, I gained access to Player XP, a system that gathers sentiment from across different social media platforms and turns them into helpful information. This meant that I could include this information in the report, which showed a base level of sentiment.

Using Player XP, I could convey in the report how players were reacting across social media and let the client know if the changes made to the game were being received in a positive or negative light. It also picked up on the most frequent words, giving insight into what of these changes players were most focused on and how they felt about it.

As well as using Player XP, I worked to change how the information was displayed in the report. Using Confluence for the report document, on top of using tables to gather feedback specific to either certain platforms or the feedback topic, I created sections, such as the “Content Overview”, that summarise the whole reason for the report. Another area, “Key Takeaways”, - is why specific topics gained more attention than others and what we could learn from them.

This would work in conjunction with other sections that summarise what’s written in greater detail further down in the report, meaning those who don’t have enough time to go over the entire piece and want information on a tiny detail can find it much easier.

These changes have been a massive help to our information-gathering and overall reporting abilities, giving much more detail than we had been able to provide before. It has saved the client and us a lot of time in the long run. Because of this, we can assist with more in-depth information gathering and provide a range of levels regarding our reports, from game update feedback to gleaning what players anticipate or would like in future.