Larian Studios, the studio responsible for Divinity: Original Sin and its forthcoming sequel, opened a survey earlier this year to get a read on its audience's taste in RPGs. And as you might expect, the CRPG was the most preferred genre, with Action RPG and strategy games coming in second and third respectively.
It's not the most unexpected result, since Larian's games are excellent CRPGs, but other insights are less obvious. For instance, the 15,000 participants generally preferred isometric and / or top-down RPGs, while preferring third-person and first-person far less so, in that order. This isn't a result you'd expect from a more general audience, but then, Larian have lately specialised in isometric CRPGs.
Meanwhile, among the most prized characteristic in an RPG are being "story rich" and that they have "character progression", while co-operative play and crafting are the least important elements. Oh, and turn-based combat, predictably enough, is far and away the preferred method of biffing compared to real-time and real-time with pause.
There are other interesting stats: Fallout 4 sucks, apparently, while the "ideal length" of an RPG should sit within the 40-60 hour timeframe (with 100+ hours a close second). The full results are over here, and if the results influence Larian's direction at all then... don't expect much to change, to be honest. Not that they need to.
