This year

During 2016, we had...

• 2 packs disband.
• 25 litters born into 'Souls with a total of 53 surviving puppies.
• 22 in-character deaths.

Other interesting stats and metrics...

• 2,099,655 total pageviews
• 88.2% returning visitors
• 19:06 average visit

• Age: 18-24 (68.23%), 25-34 (29.34%), 35+ (2.25%)
• Gender: Female (64.4%), Male (35.6%)
• Top Countries: USA (73.59%), UK (12.67%), Canada (6.28%), Russia (1.31%), Brazil (1.28%)
• Top Browsers: Chrome (61.27%), Safari (22.49%), Firefox (13.01%), Internet Explorer (1.36%)
• Most-visited Pages/Forums: Who's Online (still creepers!), PM Inbox, Casa di Cavalieri, Thread-Requests, Talents, Salsola

Note: Stats taken on 31st December 2016; Google Analytics does not have a category for ages 13-18 or nonbinary genders, and we have no idea how age/gender data is determined.

As part of our birthday celebration, we ran a survey about the longevity of our players! The results are as follows:

When did you FIRST join 'Souls?

2010 seemed to be the most popular year for joining newbies, as 24.2% of players joined then! We also had 12.1% of our players join us this year, welcome welcome! <3 One player has the title of "Most Crusty" as they joined in 2001/02! ;D

How many times have you left and rejoined since then?

36.4% of players can brag that they've never left 'Souls, while most (39.4%) left and rejoined 1-2 times. 15.2% of players left and rejoined 3-4 times, while 9.1% boomeranged 5 or more times -- see, it's not too uncommon! We're always happy when a member finds their way back to us. <333

What's the longest amount of time you were/have been continuously active?

30.5% of players have been consecutively active for 1-2 years, and 27.3% for 3-5 -- while a dedicated 21.2% have played at 'Souls for 6 or more consecutive years!

How many characters have you played in total?

Over a third of our players (39.4%) have played 5-10 characters, while 30.3% have played fewer than 5. Meanwhile, there's one player who said they've played more than 31 characters at 'Souls! :O

Do you see yourself at 'Souls in the next year? In five years? Ten years?

Most (93.9%) of players say for sure they'll be back next year. In five years, it's 69.7% (with 27.3% as "maybe"). In ten years, seems like we've got 48.5% of players confident they'll still be around -- we certainly hope we last another ten years! ;) We should do this survey again in 2026!

We also took a "character census" where players filled out a survey for each of their characters!

What is your character's Species?

Approximately one quarter (25.4%) of 'Souls characters are wolfdogs -- more than there are purebred wolves (22.8%). 17.5% of characters are hybrids, and 15.8% are coywolves. Jackal and jackal hybrids are the least represented species at 'Souls -- with only four characters at 'Souls total.

What is your character's gender?

We have more boys than girls, with 53.4% of characters males and 44.9% females. Two characters (1.7%) identified as nonbinary.

Is your character Luperci?

'Souls characters are overwhelmingly Luperci: 95.8%, with only 5.1% of those being Luperci Verto. We still have four non-Luperci (and one creature) running around, though!

What is your character's sexuality?

Most of our characters (56.8%) are heterosexual, with 24.6% bisexual and 9.3% homosexual. Another 9.3% identified as asexual or other.

Where was your character born?

Over a third (35.6%) of 'Souls characters were born right here in a pack, but 46.6% originated from elsewhere in North America -- which makes sense! There are significant European influences in 'Souls too, though -- 11.9% of characters are from there.

How old is your character?

Our data might be skewed because the answers were a bit tricky -- our bad! -- but we found a surprising percentage of characters (23.9%) are between 5 and 7, which is older than we thought! 24.8% are 3-5 years, and 21.4% are between 2 and 3 years old. We only had three puppies (< 7 months), but we had eight oldies (7+ years).

What form does your character prefer?

A majority of characters (64.4%) prefer their Optime forms, reflecting a chance in culture from when 'Souls first began.

Is your character biased against a species?

Only 22% of characters will judge others based on their species -- we guess the others are open-minded!

Does your character have companion animals?

Most characters (69.2%) have a companion animal of some sort -- whether that's a pet cat, horse, bird, or other!

What is your character's religion?

A majority of characters were not religious at all -- 44.4% were atheist or agnostic. Of the defined religions practiced, those based on Abrahamic monotheism (Catholicism, Islam, etc.) were most common at 13.8% of characters. 29.6% of characters practiced some sort of polytheism, whether vaguely defined or specific, such as Norse paganism (5.5%). 9.2% of characters were simply "spiritual" or believed in animism.

What is your character's strongest skill in?

'Souls characters certainly have a variety of skills! The most common skill we saw was combat; 23.7% of characters were adept at some form of fighting. 18.6% of characters had social skills (e.g., diplomacy, deception, charisma) down pat, and 15.3% had good scouting abilities (e.g., patrolling, navigation, spying).

Other skills included animal-related skills (9.3%), hunting (8.5%), medicine (7.6%), scholarly skills (6.8%), craftsmanship (5.9%), and spiritual skills (4.2%).