Say NO to Private Matches! - Page 4

On July 22 2011 21:35 Rodrigo(scdebates) wrote:
Every average Starcraft player has hosted at least one private match, specially when the custom map is not popular. It's easy to host a game, invite a few friends and start. However, many people still don't know that private matches DO NOT increase the map's popularity.

Private matches hurt map makers because it keeps their maps with low popularity while people are constantly playing them. Although I am a map maker, I'm not speaking just for myself. This is indeed happening to my iCJug 1v1+Obs maps that are not on first page because 90% of the games are private, but the same is happening to many other maps (as Mephs' Smashcraft).

So, please, whenever you host any custom map on Battle.net, always, ALWAYS click on "open to public" before start a game (even if the lobby is already full). This will make the makers happy and will help to promote the map, so more people can play and more map updates can come. Unless you really hate the map and don't want it popular, then you are allowed to not open to public.

Map makers appreciate.
Thank you.



edit: If you don't believe, you can confirm this by yourself. Get a map with really low popularity, host it privately, add a computer, play it for a few minutes and check the map's popularity. No changes. Now host it again, but this time add a computer and click "open to public." The popularity of the map will increase. [tested last time on 22th July, 2011 - SC2 v1.3.5]

edit 2: Please, keep this thread active, or this will disappear forever, and no one will know about it. People must know this. This is one of the reasons why MLG maps are so low in popularity compared to the 1st page maps.