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Helping Melee Maps Grow
Recently Blizzard Entertainment watched a live interview that involved Jojo (SC2News) and I (Vod Here), where we talked about Ohana, today's map-making, and the future of it all. Because they took notice, I felt like it was time for me to take my chances and start talking to Blizzard directly about the Map Community. I addressed some concerns that involved lack of map exposure, the difficulty of finding play testers, and just the overall lack of support and creativity.
Via e-mail, their response was simple:
Over the last two years we've come to realize that battle.net 0.2 could be the primary cause for leaving community melee maps in the dark, as the system does not currently expose them the way they potentially could, or should.
Since the release of Wings of Liberty, the number of map makers has gone from dozens to just a handful. Why? Because the map community receives zero attention. About a year ago, the mapping community started to receive some spotlight when Mr.Bitter casted Map of the Month and even brought ESL into the picture. Unfortunately, this didn't last very long and it brought little to no attention to the bigger problems that we mappers still face today.
And then Blizzard finally stepped in and brought us a little announcement: The TeamLiquid Map Contest.
I won't go into details about it, but during the TLMC I had a chance to talk to Plexa, who helped host the TLMC, and this is what he said about the map community:
...which made the TLMC all the more popular! The only reason maps like Cloud Kingdom, Korhal, or Ohana even became globally popular was because of the TLMC, which was hosted by Teamliquid. Map of the Month has gone nowhere because it's hosted by map-makers (I bet if it was hosted by TL, it would make a bigger difference). More or less, if you go back and read the numerous comments in the TLMC threads, you'll notice that most posters are implying that they had no idea these maps even existed, because there is no exposure! Nobody knows about them.
Monitor from ESV also states:
And words from MorroW himself:
(source: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=184052)
Here's a few more quotes to help explain the lack of exposure for map makers: + Show Spoiler +
I could go on but this doesn't need a massive explanation. This is more of a post to gather the community together and see what we can do to unify the relationship between Players, spectators, organizers and casters with the mapping community. The mapping community was popular in brood war (at least for a while), and it should be an important element in StarCraft II.
The TLMC was a clutch hit and opened the doors to new possibilities in map-making, but there is one problem: One TLMC is not enough! There needs to be more.
Community map exposure is necessary to not only encourage the current mappers to keep working, but to present the possibilities to the people who want to be a map maker themselves. As of right now, finding play testers is difficult, and getting a map anywhere is near impossible unless an e-sport personality can spotlight it (slim chance of this happening). Exposure is what we lack the most, and it frustrates us time and time again.
What I will do is gather as much feedback in this thread as possible and forward it to Blizzard Entertainment directly via e-mail, and see what they say. More or less, I feel we could do them a favor and help them out by providing our thoughts and opinions about how to help the mapping community grow more and how we can honor the work that they do, from new mappers to the veteran alike.
So, teamliquid community members, here are a few general questions I would appreciate answers to, and something I'm sure would help blizzard in some way, shape or form. Help us mappers give you a better gaming experience!
Questions for the community:
1) Why do you feel community melee maps are often being ignored or left in the dark?
2) Do you want to see more new community maps in competitive play?
3) Would playing on new maps make the game more fun for you?
(optional): 4) If you could present one idea to help the StarCraft community become more involved with the mapping community, what would it be? (ex: more map contests)
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On June 02 2012 09:07 IronManSC wrote: 1) Why do you feel community melee maps are often being ignored or left in the dark? Very few people actually want to play on something new. I have a hard time even getting my own friends to test my maps. I know quite a few players who are high Masters, and they refuse to play on new maps because they feel it is beneath them. These are the kinds of players who could provide useful games on new maps, but they only play on ladder maps, as if another game on Antiga Shipyard will bring their play to a new level.
On June 02 2012 09:07 IronManSC wrote: (optional): 4) If you could present one idea to help the StarCraft community become more involved with the mapping community, what would it be? (ex: more map contests) I would like to see more tournaments that encourage play on new maps. Map contests are worthless unless you can actually run some real games on the maps.
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Glad you are bringing attention to this Ironman, its definitely an issue. I think it should be spotlighted to raise awareness as it affects the whole community!! Its the difference between mapmakers quitting or not~
1) Why do you feel community melee maps are often being ignored or left in the dark?
Firstly because the map scene has been controlled heavily by the koreans in the GSL up until now. Only recently have things started changing.
One strange paradox is that almost all of the maps until the past few months have been very very similar, and have thus lost the community's interest a little bit. However now its hard to make creative and new stuff because its so risky that no tournament wants to use it. And no, I'm not talking about something like Frigid Pass. I'm talking really innovative stuff that bring new dynamics to the game and change MUs drastically.
(optional): 4) If you could present one idea to help the StarCraft community become more involved with the mapping community, what would it be? (ex: more map contests)
-Tournament support for new maps -More contests for getting maps into tournaments -Publicity from TL, Blizzard, and other organizations
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1) Why do you feel community melee maps are often being ignored or left in the dark?
Many reasons. Lack of support from Blizzard, tournaments, e-sports celebrities, etc. Bad custom game system on Battle.net. The hyper-competitive nature of Starcraft and the limited amount of time people have to play/practice. More I can't think of right now.
2) Do you want to see more new community maps in competitive play?
Absolutely yes!
3) Would playing on new maps make the game more fun for you?
Yes. I play my own maps probably too much.
(optional): 4) If you could present one idea to help the StarCraft community become more involved with the mapping community, what would it be? (ex: more map contests)
Blizzard can create a "future map pool". They don't need to make any promises or commitments at first at the very least. Just post on their website a number of maps that have potential to become ladder maps. If people think there is a chance that a map will be introduced in the future they will play it. It plays to the hyper-competitive nature, people can get an edge if they are ahead on new maps first. When Blizzard announces new maps people jump all over them. Create polls, and perhaps get people to submit replays somehow to get gameplay data. All of this can be done "outside" the game i.e. no Battle.net changes.
Also, I think Blizzard is all for experimentation in maps. Have you seen some of the maps they put out? E.G. Arid Plateau.
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if pros feel like their time is too important to work with map makers, then map makers should just train and get a high skill/knowlage of sc2 themselfs. problem solved. exept the publicity thing, but atm with vetoes i can play mainly only community maps in the ladder so its not that bad.
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On June 02 2012 13:56 Sea_Food wrote: if pros feel like their time is too important to work with map makers, then map makers should just train and get a high skill/knowlage of sc2 themselfs. problem solved. exept the publicity thing, but atm with vetoes i can play mainly only community maps in the ladder so its not that bad.
I think it's unrealistic to expect map makers to have enough time to both make maps and practice SC2 enough to achieve a high level of play.
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Blizzard really has most of the power when it comes to deciding what maps most SC2 players (ladder) will play on.
I think most competitive players are much more resistant to change (rightfully so, it takes time and practice to learn a new map) Therefore, the best way to get players more into community maps would be through the arcade system -
The feature I would most like to see would be a matchmaking system where players could play on random community maps, but still be matched using an MMR. This way, the system could choose a random map, then find two evenly matched players. It would be like ladder, but less competitive and with an enormous map pool. The system could even pick higher rated maps more often.
Since this is something the community doesn't have the power to do, contests would provide great motivation to mappers - winning maps being used in a tournament. I would also like to note that the 3v3, and 4v4 map pools on ladder have not been updated since season 3, and 2v2 has not been updated since season 4.
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On June 02 2012 09:07 IronManSC wrote: 1) Why do you feel community melee maps are often being ignored or left in the dark?
2) Do you want to see more new community maps in competitive play?
3) Would playing on new maps make the game more fun for you?
(optional): 4) If you could present one idea to help the StarCraft community become more involved with the mapping community, what would it be? (ex: more map contests)
1. I think that community melee maps are often left in the dark for a variety of reason including that there are basically tons of them. It may not seem like it to you, but it is hard it keep up with all of the maps that are posted on here, at least for me a casual player that loves new maps and designs. Also, the game and the maps are still evolving, so it is really hard to know what is good, not good, balanced or not, as if this time. We just have to see something, try it, and hope we enjoy it. I know IronMan that you and I have talked a bit about maps, also there is a bit of love from shows here and there, but overall I think it would be good to get a show or something going with mapmakers and talking maps, but also including a pro player, get another opinion and point of view on. I think something like that would help a mapper-type of show, not only in popularity, but also in discussion.
Add this all to the fact that most people are so intimidated by the Galaxy Editor in general that most people never even open the thing. When we get newer maps that might be interesting, but don't look that nice due to lack of editor experience, many people never even give them a chance and poo poo them from the first pic.
On top of all this...to the normal, casual player and TL user, we rarely see much that captures our attention in the maps that are coming out. This is one reason I am a huge fan of maps by Superouman. His maps always are interesting looking as well as in play. What this means though may be that people, mappers and the like, are just not thinking as outside the box or creatively as they could be. It is a problem though because when people build strange or new maps, it usually means that they are not going to get attention from the pro scene much at all, so it seems like a double-edged sword.
Also...cross-region posting is huge. I only have NA, so I hate it when I can't play on a map that is only posted in KR or EU. It is just frustrating and I tend to forget that map if I can't play it when I try.
Overall though, I think that part of the problem is just simply that mappers don't always understand players/fans and players/fans don't always understand mappers. It is like two completely separate halves of the community and neither side seems to know as much about the other. Yeah, there are a couple of players that cross-over into mapping and a couple of mappers that are high-level players, but to sum it all up, it seems like there is a divide between the two halves and we just don't understand what the other does most of the time. At least that is how it seems to me.
2. As for this question, I just want to see good maps and good games as a spectator. I personally don't give a rats ass as to who made them as long as they are interesting to play and/or to watch. That being said, if the maps are community made and end up with a ladder or Blizzard edition, I am more likely to use those in customs just because I want to support the community a bit, not that playing them really does a ton of help to that regard.
3. Yes, I love playing on new maps. I play a ton of customs with friends and against AIs or whatnot just for fun and practice, so I usually try to get at least one or two new maps played per session.
4. I have a couple of ideas, but I am not sure how plausible they might be. First of all, a show/podcast ideas like I mentioned above. Something like the mappers show you guys do, but also with more of a player personality on it as well. I would like someone with a different point of view on their to liven up the conversation and give a different point of view on the discussions.
Also, I have seen a few attempts by yourself and others at a Galaxy Editor tutorial type of thing, but I think there are a ton of places still to go with that. Maybe a cool interactive class/video type of thing so that instead of just watching, you are participating in learning how to make maps.
Some kind of newsletter maybe...something to compile the new maps, ideas, and changes into a simple, fun, easy to swallow pill for the casual reader/player to swallow. Like if once a week there was something like the "Pony Tales" type of download that would talk about things, showcase a few new maps to try out, talk about map features and whatnot. Maybe a "This Week in StarCraft 2: Mappers Edition."
Small daily tourneys, for non-pro players, like Z33k dailies or something like that, which would be set into seasons. each month it has a new map pool of 5 maps or whatever, all-community driven maps. This would give people some time to practice them and keep working with them, plus, since it is not aimed toward pro-players who just complain that they are not the maps they need to practice on, it may still go over well with amateurs that are just trying to play a bit competitively.
I would like to see more discussion about the gameplay value of maps, as opposed to balance or aesthetics. What I mean by this is that it seems to me, I might be wrong, that people complain too much in the map threads about features being slightly imba for a race or another instead and mappers seem to cater to that. I would like to see more discussions about setting up maps and bases to try to force certain situations in games or to add features with the thought of "Well, in certain late-game scenarios, this cliff right here could be used to drop tanks and zone with with..." That might be simplifying it a bit, but I think that a majority of the "community" are casual fans and players who love to watch the game as well as play the game. If we think about the spectator aspect more as well as pushing the players into certain things, it may add some attention.
Eh...maybe not the best ideas, but still some food for thought. Mind you, I made maps back in BW, but have only opened the SC2 GE once or twice, so I really am speaking only from my point of view that I see about the mappers, who I love and respect a ton. If I am completely off-base on something, I apologize and feel free to inform me.
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BTW, has anyone been watching Doa's show Cartographer, where he talks with pros about maps? I don't think that show gets enough attention, even from the map making community.
Will be back to post more in detail about all this, though.
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On June 02 2012 09:07 IronManSC wrote: Questions for the community:
1) Why do you feel community melee maps are often being ignored or left in the dark?
2) Do you want to see more new community maps in competitive play?
3) Would playing on new maps make the game more fun for you?
(optional): 4) If you could present one idea to help the StarCraft community become more involved with the mapping community, what would it be? (ex: more map contests)
1) Oversaturation. I can understand players being pissed if they have to practise too many different maps. GSL and the money tournaments are not the place to go for new community maps. What I am looking for is unranked match making. Blizzard could implement a ton of stuff there, hardly anybody would complain.
2) Yes, of course, but that is not necessarily possible. The current system (GOM pretty much decides about what maps are to be used at the time) is fine to me. More maps would, like I said, be too much for the players. What we could do is to make tournaments with unnkown, random maps. Players would have to have just basic skill. Fuck yeah I would watch that!
3) Yes. I am much faster tired of a map than the ladder changes. Again, here could the unranked matchmaking be helping a lot. Blizzard could just throw stuff in here.
4) The random, unknown map tournament I just fabulized (I hope that is a word) about. As a viewer I am incredibly tired of the already existing maps. I can´t see Antiga anymore. I HATE dual sight. Because I have seen so many different games on them they all mix up to an undefined mass. Mess. If we could get any kind of SC "celebrity" (I am looking at you, Morrow) to cast a weekly tournament for 100$ and are able to provide the community with new content I am pretty sure we could attract a ton of viewers. If you analyze the map a little bit beforehand you have your exposure right there.
Honestly, I would even feel spoiled if I gained a lot of attention for my maps. Its a hobby, not work. I enjoy it, even if nobody ever looks at my maps.
On June 02 2012 17:41 Gfire wrote: BTW, has anyone been watching Doa's show Cartographer, where he talks with pros about maps? I don't think that show gets enough attention, even from the map making community.
Will be back to post more in detail about all this, though.
No, never heard about it. When is it, where can I watch VODs?
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A major change that would be nice would be to let the author view all the games played on their map via server-side stored replays. I dont hold out much hope for this though. Perhaps if each replay was deleted after a week, giving you time to download it if you want
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1) Why do you feel community melee maps are often being ignored or left in the dark?
It's probably not really a high priority for leagues, since getting new maps and making sure they are good is a tough process, and requires a good system. Leagues are still figuring other stuff out, and map pool is just one piece. Typically, though, there are major problems with tournament map pools and even pressure from pros not to switch maps so much (I think the problem here is more about having so many different maps from all the different tournaments and not that learning a new map is too difficult, just perhaps not worth it for just one league.) It makes sense that there would be leaders of the map pool (GSL,) and other tournaments would mostly follow that with some delay. That's good for the consistency, but we don't have many opportunities to make maps for GSL, as they still use the maps from the same guys they always have. Getting a map onto ladder is the best thing anyway, as all the leagues can grab it easily and everyone can play it on ladder.
I think the TLMC was a great contest, and Blizzard took a good number of maps from it. The problem is that there hasn't been another one. It's okay that Blizzard took a long time to get the maps into the ladder, of course testing and giving a map time to have changes made is important, but that doesn't mean you can't get started looking for more maps before those ones are implemented, if it takes that long.
The other thing is that there just aren't that many times maps are switched out, so it's actually hard to say where everything is going. I want to see what maps Blizzard is adding in season 8. Maybe we need maps switched out more often. BW had a great system for implementing new maps in Korea, and I think we can use that as a benchmark. Recent years haven't had too many maps because they haven't had many tournaments, but for instance in 2008 they had around 30 maps in korean leagues. We could say that in SC2 we should be adding a new map, somewhere in big tournaments worldwide, on average every two weeks, which is more than we're doing right now, probably by quite a lot. Players probably shouldn't complain and we should implement more new maps.
But we can't just throw maps and tournaments and hope they use them. I mean, it would be bad if they did use them. There needs to be a good system for testing them.
2) Do you want to see more new community maps in competitive play?
Absolutely, yes.
3) Would playing on new maps make the game more fun for you?
Yes, it certainly would.
(optional): 4) If you could present one idea to help the StarCraft community become more involved with the mapping community, what would it be? (ex: more map contests)
More contests, for sure. The TLMC had a lot of importance, and I wish they did like 3-4 each year. Maybe on average 1 community map per month coming from contests like that. Maybe we should have %50 maps from contests and %50 maps by other means, like from the same mappers GSL uses or Blizzard maps (and I think Blizzard should continue to make maps sometimes, as Blizzard maps really do set a lot of standards and have a mostly positive impact on mapping, unless it's so bad people just throw it out at once.)
I also wonder what will happen to all the korean BW mappers who make the current BW maps, if they will switch to SC2.
On June 02 2012 18:53 Aunvilgod wrote:Show nested quote +On June 02 2012 17:41 Gfire wrote: BTW, has anyone been watching Doa's show Cartographer, where he talks with pros about maps? I don't think that show gets enough attention, even from the map making community.
Will be back to post more in detail about all this, though. No, never heard about it. When is it, where can I watch VODs? I only saw the latest Vod on IPL's youtube, not sure where the others are, and this episode he didn't have pros due to availability issues, so he just had some masters players. Hopefully that doesn't become standard.
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To skip straight to number 4:
Blizzard has MVPs on the Battlenet forums. They have shown they are willing to imbue people with special permissions. Even if it's nothing too special for an MVP. I think Blizzard needs to hand the reigns over to select members of the mapping community. Even if it means that this council (made up of at least 1 person from each mapping team, and a neutral party) only get to pick one map per season, they need to let mappers put maps into the ladder.
The maps picked should be highly scrutinized by the community, by the council, and by Blizzard. But at the end of the day, we would have the creative maps being used competitively. If something goes wrong, they could always pull the plug, but I think they really need to try it.
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On June 03 2012 00:57 Chargelot wrote: To skip straight to number 4:
Blizzard has MVPs on the Battlenet forums. They have shown they are willing to imbue people with special permissions. Even if it's nothing too special for an MVP. I think Blizzard needs to hand the reigns over to select members of the mapping community. Even if it means that this council (made up of at least 1 person from each mapping team, and a neutral party) only get to pick one map per season, they need to let mappers put maps into the ladder.
The maps picked should be highly scrutinized by the community, by the council, and by Blizzard. But at the end of the day, we would have the creative maps being used competitively. If something goes wrong, they could always pull the plug, but I think they really need to try it. Oh yeah, it would be cool to have like a mapper's council who can represent all the teams and work with Blizzard.
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1) Why do you feel community melee maps are often being ignored or left in the dark?
There's little exposure aside from the Custom Map forum here, and even there maps will be posted that you can't play on (haven't been published, or are only published on some servers).
2) Do you want to see more new community maps in competitive play?
yes!
3) Would playing on new maps make the game more fun for you?
100%, I love playing on new maps. It gives me ideas for builds, for new maps, it helps starcraft become the intellectual powerhouse that I want it to be.
(optional): 4) If you could present one idea to help the StarCraft community become more involved with the mapping community, what would it be? (ex: more map contests)
I think we should have several different custom games with varying map pool sizes. One that has 6-8 maps that rotate every month (TL Maps of the Month), another that has 2-3 that rotate every week (TL Maps of the Week), so that you could have one place where you would consistently go to play/test upcoming maps. These maps would have to be constantly updated by somebody to include maps that were being posted here. I would set it up so that every Tuesday you pick the 2-3 maps from the forums from the previous week that have gotten the most attention (views/discussions/etc) and don't worry that much about quality. For Maps of the Month I would encourage something similar to the current MotM contest and put the top several maps in this pool (voted on by a select few individuals from the community, rotated each week as they currently are).
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what it boils down to is how much incentive you are giving people to play on your maps. how much + Show Spoiler + are you willing to throw at players? esv is fortunate with their sponsorship, and can hold korean weekly, where players can win a good sum of cash, but have to play on esv maps. tpw also has an agreement with nasl but i am unsure what their sponsorship situation is, if any. that leaves the rest of us pretty much nowhere.
sc2 players are a unique bunch. while many, many other games couldn't exist without community content, sc2 players have this blind faith in everything blizzard. blizzard gave its blessing to tl for its contest and now we're playing on those maps. what if there were no blizzard consent? would TL even ever held a contest for mappers? would blizzard have picked those maps if so?
many questions, very little answers.
right now, as far as exposure. the easiest way i can think of is a rotating map-of-the-day on the front page.
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1) Why do you feel community melee maps are often being ignored or left in the dark?
Because very few people tryed to make a map. How can you get involved in something you don't like/do ?
2) Do you want to see more new community maps in competitive play?
I would love to but it needs to be tryed on daily/weekly cup before big tournaments ( boring maps ( or with balance issues should be banned from big tournaments )
3) Would playing on new maps make the game more fun for you?
I would love to too but it's hard to play on a new map in custom game because you never play against someone with your level. As a gold player , playing against a master or against a bronze is not interesting for me
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On June 02 2012 09:07 IronManSC wrote: Questions for the community:
1) Why do you feel community melee maps are often being ignored or left in the dark?
2) Do you want to see more new community maps in competitive play?
3) Would playing on new maps make the game more fun for you?
(optional): 4) If you could present one idea to help the StarCraft community become more involved with the mapping community, what would it be? (ex: more map contests)
1. I don't know how to find them mostly on BNET. Whenever I want to play customs I just search ESV. 2. Yes - if they play out differently then maps currently in the pool. I don't see the point of switching to new maps that are effectively the same as old maps. It's the point monitor brings up though - now there's no incentive to make a map like this as no one will play it. 3. Yes - if it was different and I had seen some pro's play it so I knew good strategies to use.
My opinion is that it's the viewers who really benefit from seeing new maps in tournaments, as seeing different play styles is always fun and it gets tiring to see the same maps over and over (again relating to all the games being the same). For a pro player, I'd assume if there was one very well balanced map, they'd prefer it never changed so there's less to practice. So to me, it seems the people who should really encourage new maps are tournaments, as they should look to please the viewers. Also, when a tournament switches it's map pool, it forces the pros to play the new maps too (while pros playing new maps has no immediate bearing on the tournament map pools). It also exposes the map to new players, again something that pros switching has no immediate effect on.
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On June 02 2012 09:07 IronManSC wrote: Questions for the community:
1) Why do you feel community melee maps are often being ignored or left in the dark?
It's too hard for a map to become part of a high level map pool, mostly because of having to learn new maps.
2) Do you want to see more new community maps in competitive play?
I feel this is really the question that doesn't need answering. I would say almost invariably that we all would like to see new maps in competitive play. There is a caveat to this though - the new maps have to be moderated in their quantity of course, as it is competitive play. A constantly shuffling map pool can distort the level of play we see on current maps, making it hard to know who's really the best. That said, our worry never really has been that Blizz puts out too many new ladder maps, has it?
3) Would playing on new maps make the game more fun for you?
Absolutely. I love seeing new venues to duke our stuff out on. Not to mention seeing all sorts of new maps with unique features inspires me to no end.
(optional): 4) If you could present one idea to help the StarCraft community become more involved with the mapping community, what would it be? (ex: more map contests)
Now see, this is difficult, I really have 2 ideas. I guess technically it's one though, because the first is a sort of side note - more contests akin to the Team Liquid Map Contest are needed. Ideally, I think having one TLMC per ladder season would be a great way to regularly shuffle in new maps.
The second idea is sort of in the same vein, but goes more with Blizz's UI changes to the game - have a Map of the Week(or month, w/e), which is showcased in the game like all the other announcements, and at the end of each season hold a vote to see which map which was shown over the season was the best, which Blizzard would then consider adding to next season's ladder.
Also as another side note/idea, having a separate section for melee maps under custom games would help to showcase them a lot, since they get buried under every UMS ever made.
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1) Why do you feel community melee maps are often being ignored or left in the dark?
Quite simply because there is no organised testing community. I spoke to Barrin about this about a year ago and had some ideas of how to get this kind of active community together where feedback is structured and the mapmaking process starts to belong to everyone, not just one maker (which needs to be a perfect maker if he lacks proper feedback, and those people often spend their talent elsewhere).
However, because I was asked to take the full responsibility over this kind of community I decided to decline. My real life situation took and takes enough of my time already and if I would take this task on me I would want it to be professional and cost more time than I currently have.
2) Do you want to see more new community maps in competitive play?
Well, yes, thats the whole purpose of a mapmaking community in the first place. The best thing about it is that if the community is large enough (and a 'collective brain' as was said) that the quality of the maps will exceed that of Blizzard made or individual made maps.
This is what a mapmaking community is going to be contributing to the professional level of esports, which is an awesome and unexplored (marketing) concept. Imagine this: soccer players cannot vote on what field of grass their teams are playing, but you can get a community to make the battlefield and vote for it!
That is a level of interaction with the (e)sport you want to watch that is not offered anywhere else at the moment and I am sure some sponsors could be found for it.
3) Would playing on new maps make the game more fun for you?
Yes, it is my firm belief that every new ladder season at least half of the maps in each pool (1v1 and 2v2) needs to be replaced with fresh meat. This gives new players, or players that have not participated for several seasons a chance to fight because the maps are new to everyone, not just them.
Another big reason is that it is just fun to watch pro's explore the new terrain on high end level and see how they exploit aspects of a map not seen before. You get that massive 'wow' in barcrafts like that, which is absolutely awesome.
4) If you could present one idea to help the StarCraft community become more involved with the mapping community, what would it be? (ex: more map contests)
- Blizzard should award at least one map made by the community to become part of the new season. The glory of seeing your (voted upon, or created) map is quite an award on it's own.
- Blizzard should award a 'mapmaker' portrait or unique unit skin to a winning mapmaker each season.
- A sponsor should give away some (slightly more valuable) gaming tools to the top (3-5) contributers of the mapmaking community.
- A sponsor should randomly elect active testers for an additional set of prices (lets say ~50 dollars or 40 euros worth of game-store money (which can be blizzard store or game-store cards for hardware).
What do the sponsors get out of this?
Important question that should not be overlooked: Sponsors that sponsored the winning map would get their logo permanently assigned to the map (on the loading screen, on the 'search for map' UI and perhaps even in the game itself). I can understand that people may not enjoy this commercialisation of the mapmaking community, but unfortunately this is the only way to get sponsors in.
Blizzard will get their own reward by just making their product more popular and selling more in their store.
Why do we need sponsors?
To pay the people who take a (full-time or part-time) job on managing the testing community, electing maps and making maps.
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