Post by tyrion on Sept 18, 2020 8:26:40 GMT
Introduction
‘Which is the best fighting fantasy book?’ is a question many have tried to answer, with numerous lists on the websites, blogs and youtube. This poll aimed to change the idea and instead elicit ideas around putting the books in reverse order, while hopefully engaging members in discussion.
This thread is intended to highlight not only the methodology and results but also some evaluation into the polls themselves if members in future want to carry out similar research.
Method
1. Split the whole series into eight groups of 10 books, numerically.
2. For each group of 10 books, invite members to participate in a poll to vote for their least favourite.
3. Once the poll has expired, the books with the highest vote are eliminated.
4. The remaining books are entered into another poll until the group had been reduced to two books (i.e. the two most favoured in that group by members).
5. Repeat this process for all groups of books.
6. The 16 most favoured books are then entered into a final poll.
7. Each book that is eliminated will then be placed in ranking order.
Results
This only includes the top 16 books.
16 - Sword of the samurai
15 - Island of the undead
14 - Night dragon
13 - Legend of the shadow warriors
12 - Beneath nightmare castle
11 - Night of the necromancer
10 - Vault of the vampire
9 - The seven serpents
8 - Deathtrap dungeon
7 - Creature of havoc
6 - Siege of sardath
5 - Khare cityport of traps
4 - Slaves of the abyss
3 - House of hell
2 – Talisman of death
1 – Howl of the werewolf
Discussion
Howl of the werewolf is again the favourite of many, having come first in a survey for fighting fantazine 5 in 2011.
Siege of sardath and slaves of the abyss did considerably better than in the ff5 survey.
Problems arose during polling. Grouping the books numerically meant that some groups were stronger than others and so could legitimately have more than two favourites, while other groups might only have one favourite (e.g. it could be argued that Moonrunner, which came third in its group, is more highly favoured than Sword of the samurai, which came second in its group). Also, the Sorcery! Epic does not fit numerically into any groups.
Furthermore, initially the polls were open, i.e. members could see the results before the poll had expired, leading to tactical voting. Members may have become disengaged and not have voted in the later rounds due to their favourite book already having been eliminated.
Conclusion
Whilst the results of the survey are interesting and the series of polls have generated some very interesting discussions, further work can still be done. Vagsancho has a thread running in which members state their one favourite book, and wilf has kindly offered to produce a further poll or survey for member’s favourites. It will be interesting to see what results these two methods produce.
‘Which is the best fighting fantasy book?’ is a question many have tried to answer, with numerous lists on the websites, blogs and youtube. This poll aimed to change the idea and instead elicit ideas around putting the books in reverse order, while hopefully engaging members in discussion.
This thread is intended to highlight not only the methodology and results but also some evaluation into the polls themselves if members in future want to carry out similar research.
Method
1. Split the whole series into eight groups of 10 books, numerically.
2. For each group of 10 books, invite members to participate in a poll to vote for their least favourite.
3. Once the poll has expired, the books with the highest vote are eliminated.
4. The remaining books are entered into another poll until the group had been reduced to two books (i.e. the two most favoured in that group by members).
5. Repeat this process for all groups of books.
6. The 16 most favoured books are then entered into a final poll.
7. Each book that is eliminated will then be placed in ranking order.
Results
This only includes the top 16 books.
16 - Sword of the samurai
15 - Island of the undead
14 - Night dragon
13 - Legend of the shadow warriors
12 - Beneath nightmare castle
11 - Night of the necromancer
10 - Vault of the vampire
9 - The seven serpents
8 - Deathtrap dungeon
7 - Creature of havoc
6 - Siege of sardath
5 - Khare cityport of traps
4 - Slaves of the abyss
3 - House of hell
2 – Talisman of death
1 – Howl of the werewolf
Discussion
Howl of the werewolf is again the favourite of many, having come first in a survey for fighting fantazine 5 in 2011.
Siege of sardath and slaves of the abyss did considerably better than in the ff5 survey.
Problems arose during polling. Grouping the books numerically meant that some groups were stronger than others and so could legitimately have more than two favourites, while other groups might only have one favourite (e.g. it could be argued that Moonrunner, which came third in its group, is more highly favoured than Sword of the samurai, which came second in its group). Also, the Sorcery! Epic does not fit numerically into any groups.
Furthermore, initially the polls were open, i.e. members could see the results before the poll had expired, leading to tactical voting. Members may have become disengaged and not have voted in the later rounds due to their favourite book already having been eliminated.
Conclusion
Whilst the results of the survey are interesting and the series of polls have generated some very interesting discussions, further work can still be done. Vagsancho has a thread running in which members state their one favourite book, and wilf has kindly offered to produce a further poll or survey for member’s favourites. It will be interesting to see what results these two methods produce.
