This is a history of one forum, although a very good forum, and shouldn't be read as a statistical generalisation of all fans or even all Baldur's Gate fans.
Posts Over Time
This chart is probably the most important one - the number of posts made every day, from 11 December 1999 up until 31st October 2012. (Many 1999 posts were probably lost by forum changes).
The high point definitely came in 2002, with that enormous spike. Down at the bottom in 2010, we can see the period with zero posts where the Attic went offline for a couple of months.
Topics Per Year
Consider this a simplified version of the above - the number of topics started in each year. 2002 was the high point again, though 2003 nearly matched it. 2012 is, of course, not yet over.
Topic Replies Per Year
This is the average amount of replies a topic received in each year. Like the number of new topics per year, it's decreased from the Attic's heyday after the release of BG2 and ToB. Feedback was, apparently, at its highest in 2001!
Topic Wordcount Per Year
Here's a graph with a pattern of increase on it - the average wordcount per topic. This was calculated using the first post only. We have become more verbose over time!
Year's Hottest Topics
Each year, some topics trend in numbers of posts - in some cases this isn't very exciting since several threads got accidentally kluged into one or since it's all about real-world politics, but I thought it might be interesting to see which topics trended which year.
1999:
- What To Do In Dead Nations - 6 posts
- Hammer - 6 posts
- Stone Face In Catacombs, Bug In Curst Prison, Pillar of Skulls - 3 posts
2000:
- A Quiet Morning - 33 posts (story by Weyoun)
- Twilight Part 2: To Protect And To Serve - 30 posts (story by Weyoun)
- Programming Suggestions - 23 posts
- Distractions and Reminders - 126 posts (story by Alan)
- A Cappella Part 3: Desecration - 122 posts (story by Silrana)
- Lament of the Unforgiven - 108 posts (story by Dave Gaider!)
- I need innnnformation (not a story) - 794 posts (threads kluged)
- The Knight Rogue Chapter 4 - 169 posts (threads kluged)
- A small proposal - 160 posts (discussion about writing)
- The Calm Before An Apocalypse - 214 posts (Melissan redemption story by Fantysm)
- Why? - 157 posts (character discussion about Aerie)
- Depressing News For Liberals - 154 posts (politics)
- Baldur's Gate Casting Company - 305 posts (actors to play the characters)
- Mistery Science Theatre FR Style - 259 posts (Philip Athans' books get some of what they deserve!)
- Bhaalspawn Go The Sims - 224 posts (roleplaying)
- Castaways of Fate - 525 posts (roleplaying)
- RP OOC Thread - 515 posts (roleplaying)
- Castaways of Fate: The First Night - 366 posts (roleplaying)
- Planar Escapade - 678 posts (roleplaying)
- Planar Escapades: The Plane of Water - 515 posts (roleplaying)
- Planar Escapade OOC - 393 posts (roleplaying)
- Planar Escapades: Elibra's Tower - 84 posts (roleplaying)
- Oh They Can't Be Serious, NWN Spoilers - 64 posts (Neverwinter Nights)
- Dear Westboro Baptist Church, Kansas - 54 posts (politics)
- This Place Is Dead - 94 posts
- Unsung Heroes - 83 posts (types of Charnames)
- 4th Ed - 53 posts
- Dragon Age Origins - 149 posts
- 100 Movies You Must See Before You Die - 63 posts
- Quiz Ideas Needed - 56 posts
- Baldur's Gate in 3D - 39 posts
- Mod Writing Rant - 35 posts
- Nabokov's Lolita: Revolting - 34 posts
- My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic Second Season - 88 posts
- Women of Baldur's Gate - 59 posts (fanart by Coutelier)
- School of Baldur's Gate - 50 posts (fanart by Coutelier)
- Baldur's Gate Summer - 77 posts (fanart by Coutelier)
- 51st Century Illustrations - 59 posts (fanart by Coutelier)
- What's This Now? - 51 posts (Baldur's Gate Extended Edition)
I judged it fairest to split this into three categories: BG1-only NPCs, BG2-only NPCs, and NPCs who have major roles in both games. Popularity was judged by taking a truncated part of each topic, and giving a NPC one point for each topic they appeared in, no matter how many or how few times their name was mentioned. (In other words, "'Haer, Haer, Haer, Haer, Haer! What have you done now!' Jaheira cried." would give Haer no extra advantage.)
Without further ado, the Baldur's Gate I winner is Khalid, Jaheira's spouse! He is followed by Xzar and Montaron, that inseparable duo, then Kivan the Silent and, surprisingly, Kagain the mercenary.
Sadly, the least appreciated character of the lot appears to be Alora. This is not a happy day!
Shadows of Amn/Throne of Bhaal had one very clear winner - Anomen, demonstrating the limited options for female Charname romances . Followed by Aerie, Nalia, that slippery Yoshimo, and Irenicus the villain.
Please note exactly which two come in last place. *g*
As for NPCs in both games, Imoen the little sister comes out on top by far - followed by Jaheira, then Edwin, Viconia, Sarevok in fifth place, and Minsc trailing the pack.
The overall top ten are here:
Imoen again comes out on top with Jaheira following; Anomen putting in a good showing for third place despite being BG2-only; Edwin next; and in fifth place Viconia. Minsc remains slightly ahead of his witch Aerie. Yoshimo is marginally beaten by the privileged noble, Nalia. Failing to make the cut by a nose was Yoshimo's master Irenicus.
And for bonus points, our most to least appreciated villains of the piece: few surprises here, with Sarevok ahead, followed by Irenicus, Bodhi, and Amelyssan in last place.
(P.S. If you have any suggestions to me for other fun things I could do with the data, such as finding keywords associated on this site with particular NPCs, let me know!)
Users Joining
The figure of the total users who have joined and the total users who are not spambots are far apart; there are around seven hundred real users, which you'll see if you browse the member lists for yourself. Here's a chart of the users joined per year. 2012 would involve some spambots, unfortunately.
2010 was the year when the Attic forum was offline for some time.
User Posts
This graph shows the percentage of posts made by the percentage of users. Toward the left, there's a figure that 2% of users have made 50% of posts; on the very right, there's a figure that 40% of users have made no posts at all. (These sorts of numbers aren't uncommon in medium to small forums as far as I know.)
Interesting takehome points are that:
- 0.6% of users have made 25% of the posts, or around 4 people (bravo & keep it up!)
- 2% of users have made 50% of the posts, or around 16 people
- 6% of users have made 75% of the posts, or around 42 people
- 11% of users have made 90% of the posts, or around 79 people
- 40% of users have made 0% of the posts, or around 300 people and/or spambots
Hope this is of interest to some here.
Edited by Blue-Inked_Frost, 07 November 2012 - 08:09 PM.