Story and pacing
A hidden story secret was found, but did the whole group get to see it?
In a team, one curious player may find the secret and the rest never learn about it. Counting how often a secret is found hides that. This entry shows three different rates for the same secret and what each one tells you about whether it is hidden too well.
One player clicks through shared dialogue before their teammates could read it
When one player's click moves the whole group to the next line, fast clickers take the story away from slower readers. This entry shows how to measure which lines were gone too soon for a normal reader, without counting short lines unfairly, and who tends to cause it.
Lore pages in co-op: is a page found by one friend collected for everyone?
When teammates pick up the same story pages again and again, either the game wastes their effort or the collection counts differ from player to player. This entry shows how to measure both the team's collection and each person's, and how many pickups were repeats.
Which player holds up a shared quest, and for how long?
In a quest where the team can only go on when everyone has done their part, the group moves at the speed of its slowest member. This entry shows how to read progress snapshots to find who was the one holding things up and how much time that cost, including when two share the blame.
Which story moment makes people leave the session, beyond normal leaving?
People leave online sessions all the time, so a count of leavers after a scene proves nothing. A scene is only a problem if more leave after it than would have left anyway. This entry shows a fair baseline and a way to avoid blaming scenes with too little data.
Which story branches does almost no group ever reach?
A branch can look unpopular only because few groups got to the place where it starts. This entry shows how to judge each branch against the groups that could actually have taken it, so you find the ones nobody chooses, and not just the ones that sit deep in the story.
A big group picked one ending: does that make it the popular ending?
Counting every player makes big teams count more than pairs and solo players, and one lively party can swing the whole picture. This entry shows how to count the same choices once per player and once per group, and why you want both side by side before deciding which story path is popular.
How long do players go in my story without anything happening?
Pacing is not only about the average: one long stretch with no reward, surprise or scene can lose players who were fine before. This entry measures the longest empty stretch for each player and shows how many hit a painful one.
After how many team wipes do groups give up on a story fight?
Some groups win a story fight on the first go, some need many tries, some leave. Counting only the winners hides the breaking point. This entry shows how to find the failed attempt after which most groups stop, and how to treat groups that are still trying.
Who keeps the group waiting at a story door, and how much waiting does it cost?
Some story doors only open when everyone has arrived. An average wait time hides who was late and whether the delay was a person or the game itself. This entry shows how to split a wait into its parts and add up the lost time per cause.
Story lines spoken during a fight: does anyone actually hear them?
Characters talk while the team is busy fighting, and the writer assumes the players listen. This entry shows how to find out for each spoken line how many players were free to hear it, including the trap of overlapping fight periods that make the numbers add up wrong.
A player reconnects and sees the same story scenes again: how often does it happen?
After a dropped connection the game may play scenes again that the player already saw. A normal replay on another evening looks the same in the log, so a plain count of repeats is wrong. This entry shows how to tell the two apart and how big the problem is.