Getting the most from my mailing list

[techbear]

Quite a while ago I started collecting opt-in e-mails from people who wanted to help test my game prototypes. I've got quite a list of e-mails, too.

The two problems are 1) few of these people are actually responsive when I send them things to evaluate, and 2) their responses are curt ("Yep, the game is fun"), non-standard, and unhelpful.

What should I do? Should I describe in greater detail how I want them to contribute? Should I put it on my website, or in the e-mail I send them? Should I offer to pay them something?

How can I maximize the potential of the e-mail pool of testers I've collected?

[svero]

Well you could try provide a form for them to fill in. There are several sites out there where you can setup a survey. Give people a link to the survey and then later you can go to the site and see graphs and summaries of the responses etc..

[MiceHead]

I'll second that. We get lots of useful, brutally honest feedback from one of our uninstall surveys:

1. Reason for uninstall:
Registered the full game.
The demo version did not work.
Game issues. Please tell us more about where you felt the demo fell short:
(___________________)

2. How much of the demo did you play?
First few levels.
Roughly 3-5 levels.
Roughly 6-8 levels.
Played it to the end.

3. What steps could we take to make the game something you'd like to buy? (Optional)

4. Your e-mail address. (Optional - we'll use this ONLY to reply to your feedback!)

You'll get a lot of not-so-useful feedback (e.g., "it sucked."), but many comments will point to a given weak spot you might not have considered. A few will even give good specifics.

[Tom Cain]

I keep a second list. I treat the main list mostly as a compatibility-testing list. But some people are enthusiastic about the product and will send really good feedback. I send a personal email to those people thanking them for going above and beyond, and asking them if they would like to be in a smaller group that tests sooner. If they say yes, which they usually do, I put them on the second list. I'm comfortable sending alpha versions to this second list and get very good feedback from them. It's a good relationship -- they get to participate in making the product better, I get a better product to sell.

[arcadetown]

I've tried all sorts of methods to get feedback and best seems to be a web form asking various points you want feedback on, overall quality score, art score, sound score, comments, etc. With every variation have found can draw more or less responses but quality level remains constant with only about 5% being worthwhile info.

[Polycount Productions]

Quite a while ago I started collecting opt-in e-mails from people who wanted to help test my game prototypes. I've got quite a list of e-mails, too.

The two problems are 1) few of these people are actually responsive when I send them things to evaluate, and 2) their responses are curt ("Yep, the game is fun"), non-standard, and unhelpful.

What should I do? Should I describe in greater detail how I want them to contribute? Should I put it on my website, or in the e-mail I send them? Should I offer to pay them something?

How can I maximize the potential of the e-mail pool of testers I've collected?
Well, some of them simply won't bother to respond. I've noticed the same in the past that there's a small number of people in the list who periodically respond to whatever surveys (even 10-30 questions long) with great detail while others keep silent.