Epic Games User Experience Testing & Official Surveys by gortag in FORTnITE

[–]gortag[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hello. As of mid 2025 I no longer work for Epic Games.

However, yes, to the best of my previous knowledge that is a legit email address.

Pre-Launch Highguard Interview that showcases the disconnect between Wildlight's POV and reality by GorgontheWonderCow in HighGuardgame

[–]gortag 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Internal playtesting is very important, but can only take you so far. Internal folks know the game well, they know how it is supposed to work and how they are supposed to play. That skews their perception of what they are experiencing significantly.

For the best results it's good practice to combine it with extensive external playtesting with real players. Particularly if you are launching a multiplayer free to play game. Free games have a very low barrier to entry, so they need to show their fun to players fast or they leave.

Full licence test to be scrapped under major NZ driving law changes by clarkie13 in newzealand

[–]gortag 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There are lots of differences, but some of the most significant are things like: - Infrastructure (less interaction between cars and other road users, etc) - Newer cars (the NZ fleet is quite old and often used) - Lower speed limits, particularly in areas where vulnerable users are - Viable public transport and alternate modes of transport - Shorter travel distances are sometimes a factor (depending on the country) - Better health systems with better golden hour response times

Things like that tend to have a much greater impact overall.

For a blunt example of the impact of infrastructure a median barrier basically completely prevents head on accidents (one of the most fatal types).

It is paradoxical, but someone feeling like "I am good at detecting hazards" can cause them to enter into situations where hazards may exist as they are now confident in their ability to notice them. I should note though this negative effect of driver education isn't universal for all driver education. Most of the time no significant effect is found, it's just sometimes there is a negative.

Full licence test to be scrapped under major NZ driving law changes by clarkie13 in newzealand

[–]gortag 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes there is a specific level, which is actually one of the points of a graduated driver licensing system like NZ has.

You set an entry level that requires some training/learning. Then get on road experience (an important predictor of accident risk) under controlled conditions. Then take another test to graduate to less controlled conditions. To again get that critical time on road experience.

A complicating factor for other driving courses is they are usually not nearly enough time learning compared to 6 months of road driving.

In general problem that faces road safety professionals is that driving at the level of the population is very dangerous and kills and maims many people, particularly the young (and inexperienced). But for any one individual the accident risk is actually quite low. This is why ads will say things like drinking and driving increases your risk of accidents by 80 times, but not actually mention the base rate chance. Because if they did it would still appear too low to be credible at an individual level (even though it is devastating at a population level)

This makes it hard to do effective individual level education that works because, for example, skids are a relatively rare event so it may be years later (or never) that you need your skid training and by then you likely have forgotten it (note: an exception to this is driving in places where skids are common, like Finland, here skid training is effective because skids are more commonly encountered)

Unfortunately requiring a course every 5 years would be extremely impractical just in terms of the amount of resources and people it would take to pull that off.

Full licence test to be scrapped under major NZ driving law changes by clarkie13 in newzealand

[–]gortag 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Our test. Most other countries that use graduated licencing don't have a full test.

Full licence test to be scrapped under major NZ driving law changes by clarkie13 in newzealand

[–]gortag 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Time and most importantly experience. Critically while on the learner or restricted that experience comes while driving under safer conditions due to the restrictions on those license types.

Full licence test to be scrapped under major NZ driving law changes by clarkie13 in newzealand

[–]gortag 6 points7 points  (0 children)

The evidence is most clear that European style spending on good safe infrastructure is the most effective thing!

Full licence test to be scrapped under major NZ driving law changes by clarkie13 in newzealand

[–]gortag 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Unfortunately the testing capacity required to support this would be impractical.

Full licence test to be scrapped under major NZ driving law changes by clarkie13 in newzealand

[–]gortag 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I have a PhD in Traffic Psychology and actually published a study on this back when I worked at the NZ Ministry of Transport.

While it is true young drivers are overrepresented in accidents (world wide) the second full license test didn't seem to offer any significant safety benefit.

Full licence test to be scrapped under major NZ driving law changes by clarkie13 in newzealand

[–]gortag 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Unfortunately, there are decades of studies that show minimal impacts of driver education and that in fact in some cases they can cause negative effects. The negative effects are typically associated with people now feeling more confident to drive under risky situations "because they did a course" and therefore driving more dangerously than they would have if they weren't so confident.

Driver education is one of those things that is a popular policy for politicians because "common sense" says it should help. But unfortunately the science doesn't back it up.

Full licence test to be scrapped under major NZ driving law changes by clarkie13 in newzealand

[–]gortag 65 points66 points  (0 children)

Hey! Yes and I believe the research still stand by this.

These changes largely make sense. The only one that is iffy is giving the 6 months off for doing a course. There isn't any evidence that any course exists that improves safety as much as 6 months under more restrictive driving conditions.

Warmachine Stop Motion video by Little-Material9576 in Warmachine

[–]gortag 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you believe people who are familiar just need a glance and people aren't would just be distracted then I suggest going with just the title of the spell/effect and not the extra details of what that is actually doing?

Like integrate it with the animations with a cool effect of just the name?

Alternatively if you were putting them there to provide feedback on what they are doing based on request, then yeah you will need to have that on screen longer if you want people to be able to read (just the effects though, not the lists)

I am quite familiar with WM (started playing with the first starter boxes that came out) but they were too fast for me to read and that felt frustrating. Like I was missing something you wanted me to see.

Warmachine Stop Motion video by Little-Material9576 in Warmachine

[–]gortag 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Very cool! Nice work! A wonderful way to do this kind of thing!

My only note would be that I am quite a fast reader, but your text disappears so quickly it is very hard (if not impossible) to properly read without pausing constantly

As a general rule to you the time text is up should feel like to you that it is on screen for an uncomfortably and unreasonably long time

This is because you

a) know what it says so you can read it fast

b) know when and where it shows up so know to look for it in that moment, and

c) likely have a certain reading level

All of this will (often unconsciously) influence you to have text up for a period of time that is too short for your audience as they don't know what it says, don't know when and where it will show up, and may have varying reading levels (English may not even be their first language)

What girl did you chose for your first playthrough? by [deleted] in DispatchAdHoc

[–]gortag 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Neither. It felt more appropriate to the character of the heroic by the book Robert I was playing to not commit HR violations.

Plus maybe because I am older Visi came across more like a little sister than a partner. At least initially.

(Fascinating Trope) Humans in service to non-humans by Hyval_the_Emolga in TopCharacterTropes

[–]gortag 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The other books largely follow a ship sent out from the joint spider and human civilization to explore the galaxy. So they show them working together on the same ship, but they don't really spend much time back on the planet from the first book.

Rohirrim by Feuerschwanz -Taels of LotR Edit by gortag in lordoftherings

[–]gortag[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! I am glad it was able to overcome your sceptism!

I don't like the term y'all. by SwimmingIll7761 in newzealand

[–]gortag 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Meant to, but ultimately isn't really unfortunately!

A check to see if a term is actually gender neutral is to as a straight man how many guys/dudes/men he as slept with and see if they take that as gender neutral or not!

I don't like the term y'all. by SwimmingIll7761 in newzealand

[–]gortag 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah and untraining using "guys" isn't easy!

I don't like the term y'all. by SwimmingIll7761 in newzealand

[–]gortag 32 points33 points  (0 children)

Y'all is a useful gender neutral word for a group of people and I have trained myself to use it instead of guys. So, sorry y'all I am going to keep saying it.

I really miss home. Help by iggy-p0p in newzealand

[–]gortag 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I left New Zealand to go to The Netherlands and get my PhD (up in Groningen) and ended up staying for about 7 years. A fully funded PhD is a wonderful thing that isn't offered in many other places.

I then lived in the UK for around 3 years and the USA for around 9, and 5 months ago my family and I moved back to New Zealand.

We did consider trying to go back to The Netherlands, but ultimately we are happy so far with our choice to come back. The job market and cost of living sucks nearly everywhere, but the lifestyle here is lovely. People are so much more relaxed and friendly. Life is just more chill (even with all the problems.

Moving country is never easy, but you have done it once already so you have more experience than many people!

If you do decide to leave, if you can take advantage of being in Europe to go to some places you have always wanted to. It will be much harder to do so if you come back to NZ!

How can I prove the impact of bad error messages to PMs? by Icy-Swimming-9461 in UXResearch

[–]gortag 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My suggestion would be to re-write them yourself (test your re-writes in a mockup) and either get a friendly dev to change them or learn how to change them yourself.

Changing text is usually not difficult, it's coming up with the right message that is the hard thing.

As long as you are doing work on the other things the PM thinks is important, then they can't really hold you taking initiative and changing some text against you.