It’s that time again! This year’s census is ready, and we’ve added a new accompanying survey. Enjoy an overview of our fleet and some fun data that will help us know about the writers behind the characters!
In last year’s (2400) Fleet Census we had about 100 active simmers. This year we have grown to 120 active simmers playing 126 different characters! We still have just over half of our main player characters male (53%) with 43% female as well as some nonbinary and genderless characters and characters with additional genders (our Andorians!)
Currently humans make up exactly half our played characters, with Trills the second most represented (currently we have 10 Trills or Trill hybrids). Vulcans and Betazoid (and their hybrids) come in next most frequently (9 of each) followed by Bajorans (7). Next most common is Andorians (5) and El-Aurians (5) followed by Bolians (4) and Klingons (4) [including hybrids]. Speaking of hybrids, a full 17% of our characters are multiple species, repping that IDIC.
We also currently have a couple of players simming Caitians, Cardassians, Centaurans, Romulans, and Risians as well as 15 simmers that play the only representative of their species in our fleet! (Al-Leyan, Antosian, Bardeezan, Barzan, Boslic, Bynar, Deltan, Denobulan, Edo, Ferengi, Galadoran, Haliian, Mizarian, Novan, Orion, Pygorian, Remmilian, Rodulan, Tellarite, T’Kon, and Yelikan!)
Now let’s look at the writers behind our characters! We had close to half of our writers respond (thank you!)
Quite a lot of our writers are relatively new–about half have been simming for less than a year. Another third have been writing with us for 1-3 years and over a fifth of our writers have been doing this for 4 or more years!
Our writers are also often involved with other role playing games. 60% report also playing TTRPGs and almost 40% are involved in MMORPGs. More than 10% are also involved in another PBEM! [Many of our members also report role-playing their normal life duties as a responsible adult with a job! 😀 We see you and salute you!] About 40% report that SB118 is pretty much the only RPG they are involved with.
While we have members all over the world, our community is concentrated in the US and Europe. Several members represent Latin America and Australia!
We have players from a range of ages with about 10% under 25, a third in their late 20’s/early 30’s and about half are midlife (or in denial about being midlife). We also have a couple of wisened heads (over 50).
In perhaps our most controversial question, we asked members what their all-time favorite Star Trek series is. We won’t say there’s no love for Enterprise, The Animated Series, Discovery, Picard, or Prodigy, but these weren’t anyone’s absolute favorite. Instead, DS9 leads the pack of strong representations from all the 90’s shows (TNG and VOY). Strange New Worlds also is “top Trek” for quite a few of us as is Lower Decks. The original still has a special place in some members’ hearts, with 6% picking it as their favorite.
We asked folks about their other (non-Star Trek) fandoms. A lot of us enjoy other sci-fi and fantasy content with almost ¾ enjoying Star Wars and over 60% loving Lord of the Rings. We also have many fans of “Doctor Who” and comic book-inspired media.
We also have other hobbies with 80% of our members enjoying reading and video games (not to stereotype nerds), and over 60% list music as a hobby.. Many of our members also are involved with other writing, digital editing, figurines and models, and cooking. Some of us also like sports (~10% or as many as enjoy fabric arts)!
We also asked those surveyed to share one word that summarized their SB118 experience. There were two entries received more than any other and they make a nice couplet: “Awesome Community!”
That’s a wrap for our 2401 census and survey. Thank you all for making this such an awesome community!
