Great APBA Fan Survey Results: Who are we?

I’m finally ready to start revealing the data from the Great ABPA Fan Survey!  We had 400 respondents.  I’m quite pleased with the response.

First, a couple things.

Why have multiple choice/yes no questions? Those questions were easily quantifiable and analyzed and easier to graph.  I didn’t want to have too many short answer text questions at first for fear of making the survey too long to fill out.  But Walt Taylor and I talked over email and he (maybe unknowingly) convinced me it would be a good idea.  I’m glad he did.  Sure, the text answers are harder to display in a graph form but they provided an outlet for you to speak out.  They also made the survey more interesting, quite frankly.

Finally, I’m not claiming this survey has any scientific bearing.  I’m no statistician or pollster.  There are inherent flaws in the survey (for example, only those with Internet access could take the survey).  That said, I think this survey does reveal some things about us as an APBA community.

So in the first installment, I’m taking on the General section of the survey.  Who are you?  I wasn’t so much surprised by the general consensus of survey as much as I was by just how much so.  In short, the average APBA fan is over 40 years old and has played since they were young.  They read about APBA in a sports magazine and most likely have tried other tabletop sports games.

Let’s take a look at the first set of questions:

How old are you?

How old were you when you first started playing APBA?

Comments:  taking these first three together, it shows a very loyal if aged, customer base of APBA fans.  I was amazed how many have played APBA for so many years.  In short, many fans have started playing young and kept playing.

Comments: The most cited reason in the “Other” field was a “teacher” or “school”.  Probably should have had that as an option.  Thank goodness for the educational system.  Other ones mentioned were:  military, seen in a game/toy store, and read about it in an article/book.

Comments:  No surprise here considering the target audience.  I was just curious how many tried other games.

Comments:  This question was a suggestion and again, I’m not too surprised by the results.  There are some who find no satisfaction with the video game genre.  At the same time, there are enough similarities that I figured enough people would admit to playing. 

As time allows (the Illowa APBA League has their draft this weekend), I’ll continue to post results of survey.