EPTOrigins: Dream Forge pt. 2 "Early Days
You may see the first part HERE.
Early Days
Ahhhh, the early days. Map making was in a prime position at this point in the game. Although the industry was like the wild west in many regards, community made maps outside of Korea had gained some traction. ESV was running the Korean Weekly, Map of the Month was still going strong, and we were coming off of TLMC--eagerly awaiting a new one. Dream Forge Maps was no different from the other teams at this point. We worked together to make the best maps we could and to improve our product.
We worked hard and diligently at first. We grew our team beyond what might be considered a "nominal" amount of mappers. We had talented members and we pushed the limits of what we considered to be "standard" not only in terms of concept, but also in aesthetic design and computational limits. However, there was a major problem that presented itself all too soon. Late 2012 became the precise timing of major tournament map pool stagnation.
On Map Pool Stagnation
+ Show Spoiler +
At one point I had a 10-14 page paper that I distributed around the map community to read. Unfortunately I have since lost that paper. I do not recall if I deleted it or not. If a mapper happens to still have access to the original long version -- I would greatly appreciate it if you sent it my way. Partly to review it, partly to see if I still agree with any of it. However, I do have the extremely short outline of it. Keep in mind that I had written this during the last 2 months of 2012 and do not know if I still think this or necessarily agree with it. For a reference on what I mean please turn to THIS thread.
Mapping Community Problems and Solutions
Problems
1.Emphasis of affecting change at “Premier” level tournaments instead of smaller tournaments
2.Statistical Measurement
3.Lack of “Competitive Features” in maps currently utilized in professional tournaments and ladder – Sticky Attitudes by players, tournaments, and map makers
4.Slow map pool rotations of both professional tournaments and ladder outside of Korea
5.Inter-community relations
6.Community Backlash
Solutions
1.Work with less major tournaments as primary body to affect map pool change
2.Same as above – yields statistical base of measurement to approach larger tournaments with
a.Potential Problem: 2013 planned reduction of tournaments
3.Broadening of acceptable features in maps for use in tournaments
4.Partnerships between tournament organizations – addresses Point 1.a. and 2.a. as well (kills 3 birds with 1 stone)
5.Increase map community public relations – requires some re-organization of map community
6.Same as above – introduces a more proper communication between major mapping organizations and the community
a.Potential Problem: Competition between the major map organizations.
Mapping Community Problems and Solutions
Problems
1.Emphasis of affecting change at “Premier” level tournaments instead of smaller tournaments
2.Statistical Measurement
3.Lack of “Competitive Features” in maps currently utilized in professional tournaments and ladder – Sticky Attitudes by players, tournaments, and map makers
4.Slow map pool rotations of both professional tournaments and ladder outside of Korea
5.Inter-community relations
6.Community Backlash
Solutions
1.Work with less major tournaments as primary body to affect map pool change
2.Same as above – yields statistical base of measurement to approach larger tournaments with
a.Potential Problem: 2013 planned reduction of tournaments
3.Broadening of acceptable features in maps for use in tournaments
4.Partnerships between tournament organizations – addresses Point 1.a. and 2.a. as well (kills 3 birds with 1 stone)
5.Increase map community public relations – requires some re-organization of map community
6.Same as above – introduces a more proper communication between major mapping organizations and the community
a.Potential Problem: Competition between the major map organizations.
Continuing Onwards with the Early Days
As a result of stagnation many people, including map makers, lost interest in Starcraft 2. Dream Forge hemorrhaged several early members. They moved on with their lives. While we still stay in touch every now and than, they left for greener pastures. Who could blame them? I certainly could not -- I always have and still maintain that I am a terrible map maker. Who was I to correct them? ESV discontinued their Korean Weekly to go after LoL league broadcasting, and reaching tournament organizers became impossible. Many of the old guard of map makers retired including Johanaz, Superouman, IronmanSC (now back), Sidianthebard, NullCurrent, iGrok, Barrin, and more very knowledgeable map makers. It appeared as if map making had been laid waste to.
Something interesting happened as a result. We re-organized ourselves and began working in a manner compliant with what I saw as the problems and solutions. We began setting the bar in terms of not only how we communicated, but propelled our relationships with small tournaments. I only had 1 true map under my belt at this point, a joint effort that I contribute much of the hard work to my team on helping me learn how to properly map (see: Bazaar). So I focused the majority of my efforts elsewhere. Working with tournaments gave me new interest, and I staved off desires to abandon ship. We had had a rocky start, but with the implementation of a website (no longer used), continuous improvement by my team mates in their quality, discussions with other map team leaders, and the development of a few key community events (i.e. development of sc2melee.net, discussion between MLG, lefix, and myself, and the culmination of community frustration about map pools) we strove on.
It is at this point that we found our stride. As we began communicating more and more trying to propel and change the way a map team approached the industry and its leaders to leverage not only our works but the works of our peers we began to see some success. We had a lot of help in this regard, and much of it came from non-DF map makers and other industry workers. However getting into that gets us into what I call our primer period.
Coming Soon to a blog near you: Origins: Dream Forge pt. 3 "Primer"
