Dawn Comes
It took longer than I wanted, but I went through the results of the survey. There's a TL;DR of points I found interesting at the bottom, don't worry.
We had 46 total responses. The survey assessed number of active characters and character categories per writer, meaning it's not a character census. These aren't reflective of the number of characters for each category. Instead they show the statistics for what our writers categorically prefer to write and how many characters they like to write.
With that said, let's go through the data:
Out of the 46 respondents:
We have a lead for Dark Side Force Users, but not by much. Overall, Force Users are by far the most popular category. Those who fall outside the trifecta of Light Side, Dark Side, or Scum & Villainy have the second largest category, including Neutral FUs & NFUs as well as Mandos, corpo types, etc.
Interestingly, if you count all NFUs you get a little less than a third as many NFUs as FUs. Meaning we have a little more than 3 FUs for every NFU writer!
What this means is, essentially, the higher the number the bigger the writer overlap is. The Light Side Force User and Scum and Villainy pairing (LS FU - S&V) for instance shows the highest index, meaning that roughly 2 in 5 Light Side FU writers also write a criminal or bounty hunter character. Further, there are no writers who have both a Light Side Non-Force User and a Dark Side Non-Force User they actively write. Same for Light Side Non-Force Users and Others.
For the rest, we get roughly similar numbers. Most lie somewhere within the 1 in 8 to 1 in 5 ranges. Highlighting our two favourite categories of Light Side Force Users and Dark Side Forcce Users, we get about 1 in 7 writers who have both a Light Side Force User and a Dark Side Force User. I would have personally though that number to be higher!
I've also created a table that counts the number of writers who write characters from two categories. It's a simple table that counts the overlap between the category in the column and the row. If we investigate the LS FU row and look up the DS FU column, we can see that 7 writers of our 46 responders write both a Dark Sider and a Light Sider.
I'm including the raw data below if someone else would like to double check or have a crack at the statistics.
We had 46 total responses. The survey assessed number of active characters and character categories per writer, meaning it's not a character census. These aren't reflective of the number of characters for each category. Instead they show the statistics for what our writers categorically prefer to write and how many characters they like to write.
With that said, let's go through the data:
Q1: How many characters did you actively write within the last month? (Posted with more than once or twice)
- 10 write 1 character
- 16 write 2 characters
- 7 write 3 characters
- 4 write 4 characters
- 5 write 5 characters
- 6 write 6 or more characters
Q2: Which of the following categories do the characters you write actively fall into?
- Light Side Force Users (Jedi, good hero-type FUs, Light Side force orders, etc.)
- Dark Side Force User (Sith, Dark Jedi, Dathomiri, villain-type FUs, etc.)
- Light Side Non-Force Users (good guy soldier-types, smugglers with a heart of gold, caring senators etc.)
- Dark Side Non-Force Users (stormtrooper-types, Grievous-types, imperials, corrupt officials, etc.)
- Scoundrels & Bounty Hunters (smugglers, criminals, pirates, hunters etc.)
- Other (hardline capitalists, mando crusaders, those unaligned with Light or Dark, etc.)
Interestingly, if you count all NFUs you get a little less than a third as many NFUs as FUs. Meaning we have a little more than 3 FUs for every NFU writer!
Some Analysis
The following chart shows the Jaccard Index for each pairing of categories. For each pairing, I looked into how similar the answers were and calculated a number for that similarity going from 0 (completely different) to 1 (exactly the same).What this means is, essentially, the higher the number the bigger the writer overlap is. The Light Side Force User and Scum and Villainy pairing (LS FU - S&V) for instance shows the highest index, meaning that roughly 2 in 5 Light Side FU writers also write a criminal or bounty hunter character. Further, there are no writers who have both a Light Side Non-Force User and a Dark Side Non-Force User they actively write. Same for Light Side Non-Force Users and Others.
For the rest, we get roughly similar numbers. Most lie somewhere within the 1 in 8 to 1 in 5 ranges. Highlighting our two favourite categories of Light Side Force Users and Dark Side Forcce Users, we get about 1 in 7 writers who have both a Light Side Force User and a Dark Side Force User. I would have personally though that number to be higher!
| Pairing | Jaccard Index |
| DS FU - DS NFU | 0.1481 |
| DS FU - LS NFU | 0.12 |
| DS FU - Other | 0.1875 |
| DS FU - S&V | 0.1667 |
| DS NFU - OTHER | 0.2105 |
| DS NFU - S&V | 0.15 |
| LS FU - DS FU | 0.1842 |
| LS FU - DS NFU | 0.1538 |
| LS FU - LS NFU | 0.125 |
| LS FU - Other | 0.1212 |
| LS FU - S&V | 0.4167 |
| LS NFU - DS NFU | 0 |
| LS NFU - Other | 0 |
| LS NFU - S&V | 0.2143 |
| S&V - Other | 0.125 |
I've also created a table that counts the number of writers who write characters from two categories. It's a simple table that counts the overlap between the category in the column and the row. If we investigate the LS FU row and look up the DS FU column, we can see that 7 writers of our 46 responders write both a Dark Sider and a Light Sider.
| Pairings | LS FU | DS FU | LS NFU | DS NFU | S&V | Other |
| LS FU | 22 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 10 | 4 |
| DS FU | 7 | 23 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| LS NFU | 3 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| DS NFU | 4 | 4 | 0 | 8 | 3 | 4 |
| S&V | 10 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 12 | 3 |
| Other | 4 | 6 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 15 |
TL;DR
- We have more Dark Side FUs than Light Side FUs (by 1), and more Dark Side NFUs than Light Side NFUs (by 3). Overall, the Dark Side reigns supreme with 31 writers while the Light Side sits at 27. Criminals, Bounty Hunters, and Neutrals also have 27 writers, interestingly.
- Dark Side Force Users are the most popular category, with Light Side FUs close behind.
- Light Side NFUs are the least popular category to write.
- The ratio of Force User to Non-Force User writers seems to be roughly 3:1 (not accounting for criminals and others), though this doesn't represent the folks who write only FUs or only NFUs.
- Most folks on Chaos write 2 characters. 1 character is the second most common, and after that it's 4 for some reason. The people who are in the 4+ category need help.
- People who write Light Side Force Users are disproportionaltey as likely to also write a criminal or bounty hunter. Every 2 in 5 Light Side FU writers also write a criminal or bounty hunter. Guess being a goodie-two-shoes gets boring!
- There are no writers who actively write both Light Side NFUs and Dark Side NFUs. Same goes for Light Side NFUs and Others (Neutral).
I'm including the raw data below if someone else would like to double check or have a crack at the statistics.
"Timestamp","How many characters did you actively write within the last month? (Posted with more than once or twice)","Which of the following categories do the characters you write actively fall into?"
"2024/06/25 4:47:14 pm EEST","2","Light Side Force Users (Jedi, good hero-type FUs, Light Side force orders, etc.);Scoundrels & Bounty Hunters (smugglers, criminals, pirates, hunters etc.)"
"2024/06/25 5:01:27 pm EEST","4","Other (hardline capitalists, mando crusaders, those unaligned with Light or Dark, etc.)"
"2024/06/25 5:01:27 pm EEST","1","Light Side Force Users (Jedi, good hero-type FUs, Light Side force orders, etc.)"
"2024/06/25 5:01:46 pm EEST","2","Dark Side Force User (Sith, Dark Jedi, Dathomiri, villain-type FUs, etc.);Other (hardline capitalists, mando crusaders, those unaligned with Light or Dark, etc.)"
"2024/06/25 5:02:42 pm EEST","4","Light Side Force Users (Jedi, good hero-type FUs, Light Side force orders, etc.);Dark Side Non-Force Users (stormtrooper-types, Grievous-types, imperials, corrupt officials, etc.);Other (hardline capitalists, mando crusaders, those unaligned with Light or Dark, etc.)"
"2024/06/25 5:03:23 pm EEST","1","Dark Side Force User (Sith, Dark Jedi, Dathomiri, villain-type FUs, etc.)"
"2024/06/25 5:03:35 pm EEST","4","Light Side Force Users (Jedi, good hero-type FUs, Light Side force orders, etc.);Dark Side Force User (Sith, Dark Jedi, Dathomiri, villain-type FUs, etc.)"
"2024/06/25 5:08:35 pm EEST","2","Light Side Force Users (Jedi, good hero-type FUs, Light Side force orders, etc.);Scoundrels & Bounty Hunters (smugglers, criminals, pirates, hunters etc.)"
"2024/06/25 5:09:47 pm EEST","6 or more","Light Side Force Users (Jedi, good hero-type FUs, Light Side force orders, etc.);Dark Side Force User (Sith, Dark Jedi, Dathomiri, villain-type FUs, etc.);Dark Side Non-Force Users (stormtrooper-types, Grievous-types, imperials, corrupt officials, etc.);Scoundrels & Bounty Hunters (smugglers, criminals, pirates, hunters etc.);Other (hardline capitalists, mando crusaders, those unaligned with Light or Dark, etc.)"
"2024/06/25 5:09:47 pm EEST","2","Dark Side Force User (Sith, Dark Jedi, Dathomiri, villain-type FUs, etc.)"
"2024/06/25 5:10:03 pm EEST","4","Light Side Force Users (Jedi, good hero-type FUs, Light Side force orders, etc.);Dark Side Force User (Sith, Dark Jedi, Dathomiri, villain-type FUs, etc.);Dark Side Non-Force Users (stormtrooper-types, Grievous-types, imperials, corrupt officials, etc.)"
"2024/06/25 5:12:38 pm EEST","2","Dark Side Force User (Sith, Dark Jedi, Dathomiri, villain-type FUs, etc.)"
"2024/06/25 5:15:05 pm EEST","5","Light Side Force Users (Jedi, good hero-type FUs, Light Side force orders, etc.);Dark Side Force User (Sith, Dark Jedi, Dathomiri, villain-type FUs, etc.);Scoundrels & Bounty Hunters (smugglers, criminals, pirates, hunters etc.)"
"2024/06/25 5:19:57 pm EEST","3","Dark Side Force User (Sith, Dark Jedi, Dathomiri, villain-type FUs, etc.);Other (hardline capitalists, mando crusaders, those unaligned with Light or Dark, etc.)"
"2024/06/25 5:23:35 pm EEST","2","Dark Side Force User (Sith, Dark Jedi, Dathomiri, villain-type FUs, etc.)"
"2024/06/25 5:27:55 pm EEST","5","Light Side Force Users (Jedi, good hero-type FUs, Light Side force orders, etc.);Light Side Non-Force Users (good guy soldier-types, smugglers with a heart of gold, caring senators etc.);Dark Side Force User (Sith, Dark Jedi, Dathomiri, villain-type FUs, etc.);Scoundrels & Bounty Hunters (smugglers, criminals, pirates, hunters etc.)"
"2024/06/25 5:45:46 pm EEST","1","Other (hardline capitalists, mando crusaders, those unaligned with Light or Dark, etc.)"
"2024/06/25 5:58:28 pm EEST","3","Light Side Force Users (Jedi, good hero-type FUs, Light Side force orders, etc.);Light Side Non-Force Users (good guy soldier-types, smugglers with a heart of gold, caring senators etc.);Scoundrels & Bounty Hunters (smugglers, criminals, pirates, hunters etc.)"
"2024/06/25 6:08:43 pm EEST","1","Light Side Force Users (Jedi, good hero-type FUs, Light Side force orders, etc.)"
"2024/06/25 6:09:39 pm EEST","1","Dark Side Force User (Sith, Dark Jedi, Dathomiri, villain-type FUs, etc.)"
"2024/06/25 6:11:38 pm EEST","4","Light Side Force Users (Jedi, good hero-type FUs, Light Side force orders, etc.);Scoundrels & Bounty Hunters (smugglers, criminals, pirates, hunters etc.)"
"2024/06/25 6:11:48 pm EEST","2","Light Side Non-Force Users (good guy soldier-types, smugglers with a heart of gold, caring senators etc.);Dark Side Force User (Sith, Dark Jedi, Dathomiri, villain-type FUs, etc.)"
"2024/06/25 6:25:23 pm EEST","2","Light Side Force Users (Jedi, good hero-type FUs, Light Side force orders, etc.)"
"2024/06/25 6:35:00 pm EEST","2","Light Side Force Users (Jedi, good hero-type FUs, Light Side force orders, etc.)"
"2024/06/25 7:12:28 pm EEST","3","Light Side Non-Force Users (good guy soldier-types, smugglers with a heart of gold, caring senators etc.)"
"2024/06/25 7:22:28 pm EEST","4","Dark Side Non-Force Users (stormtrooper-types, Grievous-types, imperials, corrupt officials, etc.);Other (hardline capitalists, mando crusaders, those unaligned with Light or Dark, etc.)"
"2024/06/25 7:25:38 pm EEST","4","Light Side Force Users (Jedi, good hero-type FUs, Light Side force orders, etc.);Other (hardline capitalists, mando crusaders, those unaligned with Light or Dark, etc.)"
"2024/06/25 7:42:04 pm EEST","6 or more","Light Side Force Users (Jedi, good hero-type FUs, Light Side force orders, etc.);Light Side Non-Force Users (good guy soldier-types, smugglers with a heart of gold, caring senators etc.);Dark Side Force User (Sith, Dark Jedi, Dathomiri, villain-type FUs, etc.);Scoundrels & Bounty Hunters (smugglers, criminals, pirates, hunters etc.)"
"2024/06/25 7:42:32 pm EEST","3","Other (hardline capitalists, mando crusaders, those unaligned with Light or Dark, etc.)"
"2024/06/25 7:49:19 pm EEST","2","Other (hardline capitalists, mando crusaders, those unaligned with Light or Dark, etc.)"
"2024/06/25 8:44:01 pm EEST","4","Light Side Force Users (Jedi, good hero-type FUs, Light Side force orders, etc.);Scoundrels & Bounty Hunters (smugglers, criminals, pirates, hunters etc.);Other (hardline capitalists, mando crusaders, those unaligned with Light or Dark, etc.)"
"2024/06/25 9:14:11 pm EEST","1","Dark Side Force User (Sith, Dark Jedi, Dathomiri, villain-type FUs, etc.)"
"2024/06/25 9:31:47 pm EEST","3","Light Side Force Users (Jedi, good hero-type FUs, Light Side force orders, etc.);Scoundrels & Bounty Hunters (smugglers, criminals, pirates, hunters etc.)"
"2024/06/25 9:39:24 pm EEST","2","Dark Side Force User (Sith, Dark Jedi, Dathomiri, villain-type FUs, etc.);Other (hardline capitalists, mando crusaders, those unaligned with Light or Dark, etc.)"
"2024/06/25 10:24:50 pm EEST","3","Light Side Force Users (Jedi, good hero-type FUs, Light Side force orders, etc.);Dark Side Non-Force Users (stormtrooper-types, Grievous-types, imperials, corrupt officials, etc.)"
"2024/06/26 1:01:47 am EEST","5","Dark Side Force User (Sith, Dark Jedi, Dathomiri, villain-type FUs, etc.);Dark Side Non-Force Users (stormtrooper-types, Grievous-types, imperials, corrupt officials, etc.);Scoundrels & Bounty Hunters (smugglers, criminals, pirates, hunters etc.);Other (hardline capitalists, mando crusaders, those unaligned with Light or Dark, etc.)"
"2024/06/26 2:52:26 am EEST","1","Dark Side Force User (Sith, Dark Jedi, Dathomiri, villain-type FUs, etc.)"
"2024/06/26 3:02:03 am EEST","2","Dark Side Force User (Sith, Dark Jedi, Dathomiri, villain-type FUs, etc.);Dark Side Non-Force Users (stormtrooper-types, Grievous-types, imperials, corrupt officials, etc.)"
"2024/06/26 3:31:04 am EEST","1","Light Side Force Users (Jedi, good hero-type FUs, Light Side force orders, etc.);Dark Side Force User (Sith, Dark Jedi, Dathomiri, villain-type FUs, etc.)"
"2024/06/26 8:52:13 am EEST","1","Light Side Force Users (Jedi, good hero-type FUs, Light Side force orders, etc.)"
"2024/06/26 1:26:28 pm EEST","2","Other (hardline capitalists, mando crusaders, those unaligned with Light or Dark, etc.)"
"2024/06/26 1:57:22 pm EEST","2","Dark Side Force User (Sith, Dark Jedi, Dathomiri, villain-type FUs, etc.);Other (hardline capitalists, mando crusaders, those unaligned with Light or Dark, etc.)"
"2024/06/26 9:45:30 pm EEST","2","Light Side Force Users (Jedi, good hero-type FUs, Light Side force orders, etc.)"
"2024/06/27 11:58:55 am EEST","3","Dark Side Force User (Sith, Dark Jedi, Dathomiri, villain-type FUs, etc.)"
"2024/06/28 4:23:44 am EEST","1","Dark Side Force User (Sith, Dark Jedi, Dathomiri, villain-type FUs, etc.)"
"2024/07/02 6:00:00 pm EEST","2","Dark Side Non-Force Users (stormtrooper-types, Grievous-types, imperials, corrupt officials, etc.);Scoundrels & Bounty Hunters (smugglers, criminals, pirates, hunters etc.)"
