Luciana's Lounge

Hello darlings,

Luciana here, as promised.  I am your beloved mistress of technology, and co-writer of darker stripes of smut.  <3   As Cambion stated, we won't be making a habit of these 'five times a week' posts.  However, this is launch week, we're excited, and you're excited, and we're excited that you're excited, so things are a bit hectic all around. And let's face it:  you're not interested in us, lovelies;  you want more sexy fantasies, and we're in the business of giving you what you want. 

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Cambion has 'voluntold' me to talk a bit about the tech behind the scenes.  So:  let's talk about analytics. 

The concern was raised regarding our use of Google Analytics ('GA') on the game page, which tracks information on our visitors.  Given the ever-present dwindling of our online privacy and the constant news of data tracking, collection, and (of course) hacking:  why do we want this?

Firstly, let's address what GA tracks.  It records what country you're in (and often what city).  I can see that we've had 83 visitors from London, 78 from New York, and 67 from Moscow (and 536 who blocked that information).  The largest slice of our audience comes from the US (43%).  Most use traditional computers (desktops and laptops - 72%), and most of those are Windows machines (70%) using Chrome (72%).

It does not track your IP address.  It does not collect user demographics such as age, gender, or interests; it does not record any data about what other sites you visit (with one exception:  it does record what link you clicked on in order to find the game).  It does not tie any of the aforementioned information together in a personally identifiable way.  I can't tell that you're an Android mobile user from Baltimore who visited at 4:25am.  I just know that we have some Android users, some people from Baltimore, and some people who either stay up very late, or get up very early.  

All well and good.  But why do we want this information, and what do we use it for?  

Succinctly said:  to improve.

For example, the day after launch, I mentioned to a friend that we'd already gotten some good reviews. She said she had checked it out on her smartphone the night before, and I responded with a stunned, "It works on mobile?"  

We never tested it on mobile!  We assumed, given the amount of text and artwork, that people would play Paradise Heights on a computer system.  After reviewing the analytics? Twenty percent (20%) of you visit the game on some sort of handheld. Twenty percent!  So I immediately reviewed the game on mobile and realized it needed some significant TLC. I never would have realized what a large part of our audience I was neglecting, without the analytics.

Analytics lets me see how many people are on what screen resolution. It lets me know whether we're designing for screens that are too large, or too small; it lets me know whether I should be testing more on different browsers (except Internet Explorer - sorry, love, you're on your own). We can see whether there's enough non-English demand that perhaps it would be worth looking at localization and translation. We can see which links might be broken, and we can see whether people might be posting links to the game on websites that we don't know about - and then we can make sure to update things there, as well.

So do we have to have it?  No.  But it helps us identify areas we've missed, areas we can improve, and examine possible trends so we can get ahead of the curve.  If you'd prefer to avoid being part of the data altogether, though, an adblocker such as uBlock Origin or Adblock will make sure you're excluded.

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So that's that.  If you've further questions or curiosity, get in touch.  You can always drop me a comment on a post, or over in the 'Community' tab should you desire my attention.

Love,

Luciana