Quick Analysis of Game Consoles Subreddits
Over the break, I have been practicing how to do web-scraping using Python, and also playing Switch. So, I was inspired to do something more productive by combining both of my favorite activities.
Playing games was not exactly forbidden in my family. But I pretty much grew up with no games, until high school when I did not have tuition classes to attend. I got to play some PS2 and GBA games (basically Dynasty Warriors and Pokemon series), and some PC games. Not a huge fan of mobile games, mainly due to the small screen, and I do not actually like touch screen gaming.
Anyway, I just wanted to have an idea of understanding what gaming communities think about games and consoles. I picked Reddit because it’s Reddit. The users would perhaps be more limited to adults, and I understand that not all gamers use Reddit. But I use Reddit, and I think Reddit is fun. Here we are:
This would just be a quick sentimental analysis using Python’s nltk library. What I did:
1. Scrap Nintendo Switch (Switch), PS4, and Xbox One subreddits, and collect the top (most upvoted post in a certain period) 1000 posts on March 15th. The script can be found here: https://github.com/boon38/reddit-scrapping/blob/master/Sentiment%20Analysis%20%26%20Common%20Words
2. Set criteria in determining if a post’s headline is positive, negative, or neutral.
3. Collect the most frequent 20 words that appeared in the headlines.
Results:
Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox One subreddits have mostly neutral (>50%) top posts.
Switch has the least amount of negative posts and the most amount of positive posts. This might say something about the overwhelmingly positive response from the public about Switch now. Also, Switch subreddit has only 1.7M members (since 2016), compared to PS4’s 3M (since 2010) and Xbox One’s 1.8M (since 2013). Overrepresentation of positive and neutral posts can affect the reliability of the percentages.
Switch is the newest console out of the three. Hence it potentially has more room to grow in terms of players and sales. It is also noteworthy that many Switch games are family-friendly, and a significant portion of players might not use Reddit. For example, my 6 years old nephew who owns a Switch and plays only Mario Kart & Smash Bros, does not use Reddit. In comparison, PS4 and Xbox One’s player bases are potentially more mature and more likely to use Reddit. And adults are more likely to complain. The player bases could also be more established since PS4 and Xbox One have been out for 7 years. Switch subreddit is the youngest (console was released in March 2017) but with plenty of potentials to grow in terms of memberships.
The most commonly used words on Switch subreddit are Mario-related.
The most commonly appeared words in top posts’ headlines are about games.
“super”, “mario” and “odyssey” are most likely about Super Mario Odyssey. The next popular game would be Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, with words like “smash”, “bros”, “ultimate”. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (BotW) is also wildly discussed as the words like “zelda”, “wild”, “breath”, and character’s name “link” appear quite often too. The new upcoming game Animal Crossing: New Horizons is highly anticipated, and Redditors seem to like discussing it as well (“animal”). Fanart or craft (related words are “art”, “made”) posts also often received many upvotes. I love this kind of content, some examples of the headline:
* I drew both BotW and LAHD Link together to celebrate this new Zelda game on the Switch!'
* My wonderful mom made this amazing cake for my birthday, and I wanted to share it with everyone here!
* Post Update: I finally finished all 3 watercolor korok paintings from Breath of the Wild for my brother's nursery. Enjoy!The most commonly used word on PS4 subreddit is Dreams.
Dreams, a game creation system is highly discussed on PS4 subreddit. This makes sense since it allows players to develop, collaborate, and share with the community. Marvel’s Spiderman is another popular game that is highly upvoted, as “spider” and “man” appear quite frequently. Another potentially wildly discussed game is Horizon Zero Dawn (“dawn”, “horizon”, “zero”). “2” could belong to Red Dead Redemption 2. “Made” also appears often, indicating the popularity of fan-made content (art).
Posts with “Halo” are the most upvoted posts on Xbox One subreddit.
Halo franchise is probably the flagship game series for Xbox One. Hence, it appears very frequently in the headlines. For some reason, “controller” appears very often too. Perhaps the posts are about selling controller, asking which one to use, or for technical support. Word “free” often appears also, indicating free stuff for Xbox One Redditors?
I have to apologize that I am not very familiar with PS4 and Xbox One consoles and games. I do figure that they have more games than Switch. Hence, the games discussed on subreddits perhaps would have more varieties and be discussed less frequently.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed doing this practice, and I definitely spent way too much time on scraping the data and figuring something useful out of the data. My current WIP is about Switch games. I am still trying to figure out how to find insights from the data collected. Stay tuned!
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