Tbh, not a single submitted UMS was even eligible for the Blizzard contest since they want fresh unpublished maps. Don't get me wrong, I think the contest is a great idea, but delaying the deadline twice to have more entries sounds annoying for those mostly interested to experienced feedback rather than the prize itself. I sure was.
Perhaps the competition will come back later in the year. I'm sure a ton of people find the reward of $5,000 more appealing. If you ever want to stop by TDG's irc you are more than welcome. People are usually tabbed into something else / afk, so don't expect immediate responses.
...[you] openly suggested that the entire genre is going to be docked points because you don't like it
That's a flat out lie. I never said that.
If you don't like it, turn the other cheek. We can agree to disagree, whatever you want to call it. I don't think I need to fix anything I've said. Anyone can submit any kind of map they want, as long as it isn't just a melee map. I encourage people to submit various genres of maps.
I only said that I thought DoTA is a bad game. How does that possibly influence my opinion on someone else's map? I never spoke poorly about the genre of Aeon of Strife, you're putting words in my mouth.
TDG was involved with Rising Dusk's Advent of the Zenith, an Aeon of Strife map. Advent of the Zenith was seen by many, especially those on Wc3c, as a great map. Did you ever play that map? Did you even hear of the map? Take a poll of old WarCraft III players and let me know the results. The reason why it didn't get much exposure was exactly the reason I'm talking about.
I think an Aeon of Strife map is a great idea. I never said I don't support Aeon of Strife. However, I don't like the idea of someone making a DoTA clone just because they want to try and make a popular map that thrives off of someone else's ideas. Notice, I said clone. A clone is an exact double. This is not about making a popular map. This is about creativity and invention here. Now you might say what if someone takes Elemental TD and creates the same thing in StarCraft II? I won't reject a map clone like this from entering the contest, but if it isn't submitted by Karawasa himself, I think they would score low on creativity, don't you think? Clones harbor no new thought, but impressive new elements in a game can be done and I know Karawasa will add new things in with Elemental TD to make it much better than it was on the restrictive Wc3 engine.
The points about the porn in the image are poking fun at the situation. Satire apparently eludes you. The situation being overwhelming domination by the DoTA game. You clearly missed the reference I was attempting to make here thus you really don't understand what I'm talking about. You must be really thick if you thought my previous posts were about the fragility of content generated by users that can be uploaded to the masses. I'm not here to get into a debate with you, you are a moderator to help other people with their maps, this isn't a map. It's a third party contest.
If you're going to start off with bias against games that might draw a hostile crowd (any game with competitiveness) or complex gameplay. . . then your contest is a sham. You might as well be asking for Mario Party SC style. . .
I won't be participating or supporting this thread until you change your perspective.
I'm glad to see there is just so much support for DoTA, this clearly supports my position. You can call it bias or whatever you want, this contest is to support mappers, not players. I will have bias if someone makes a DoTA clone because that isn't very interesting. This is about creativity and the ideas that people can come up with, not rehashing old concepts. Ask anyone who was a major mapper back in WarCraft III how dominated the custom game list was by DoTA. I know so many mappers from Wc3c, TH, and Hive who had excellent maps but were not able to get them out over battle.net for this very reason.
What would getting your support do for this contest, you'd put in money to support your fellow mappers? Because if all you'd do is post about it, I mean, I could do that. Call it whatever you want, I don't want to see the DoTA effect happen. Support creativity. Support invention. Support your fellow mappers.
I did work on writing code for DoTA. I also did some analysis of the gameplay as a whole because it is what interests me. The game is heavily reliant on the aspect of interaction with others. If that interaction with other individuals is a bad experience, the game is going to be overly flawed for the player. The game also has a steep learning curve which can impede your ability to play the game against someone who may be very skilled. Another point on this is what the gameplay generates. There is a community that follows this game that is one of the worst and least friendly of any that exists. The individuals you run against can be extremely hostile and for a game, that isn't what you want.
ESRB doesn't rate online gameplay for this very reason.
The points we plan on judging a map on are something I've been debating with a few people.
Popularity will never be a merit I will judge a map on. For anyone that played WarCraft 3 the last 3 years or more, DoTA dominated the UMS games and for a lot of the map making community, it crippled the chance for other great maps to thrive. I wouldn't consider DoTA a good game.
I really don't know if posting the judging critera would be a good idea either. If I say something like...User Interface being a huge part of the grading, people will try and focus heavily on that to get points on that, right? If I don't say anything to that effect then people will just want to continue making their map and not worry about what I have listed should be there. This limits the creation of ideas and concepts in a map, I don't want to limit thought and the expansion of ideas.
However, I do think there are two very important points for map design:
Playtime - A game should be able to entertain a person for a few hours or entertain a person through high replay value. An example would be something like a RPG, those types of maps typically have a very long playtime whereas a shooter or a Footmen Frenzy kind of game is shorter, but fun through various playthroughs.
Ease of Use - The map shouldn't be overly complex at the start. Anyone should be able to start up the map, play your game, and feel as though they know what is going on. This isn't to say that they should be able to play on par with a seasoned veteran of your map, but the learning curve shouldn't be insanely challenging.
Various people have came to me through email to inform me that they would like to participate in the contest but there isn't enough time for them with these deadlines. Other people have told me that some of the changes with the most recent Beta Patch have also caused game breaking issues with their map. I feel there is no negative ramifications in extending the deadline, essentially bumping everything down to a more appropriate level. This will be beneficial overall for the follow reasons:
More people can participate. More maps for players is more fun for players
Anything broken by patches now has time to be fixed
People won't feel rushed to try and get their maps done with all of this Beta stage shenanigans.
The judging process will also change. Instead of having 2 stages to the judging, there will be a single evaluation. There will be no touch-up period. Looking at the initial idea for that touch-up period, it sounded good but really it would just cause a lot more problems than it solved. Being that this is our first contest, this is a learning process for us. I don't think this will cause any major disruptions for any of the current participants or those that wish to enter but previously couldn't.
The Final Deadline for all maps is 10 September 2010, 11:59PM (PST).
I'd like to thank Kenoli from Star Depot for getting on my ass about this and making sure things happened.
Hello pjb, any chance you will have access to EU realm as well?
I would really love to join the contest, mostly to have quality feedback should you like my map, but I will only upload it there till Blizzard implements the cross-realm feature... I may attach a private version, but it has a strict 8+ players requirement and testing it internally wouldn't be easy :)
If I have to buy another copy of SC2 to ensure I can do EU judging I will.
Do we only need to fill the form out when we actually submit our map?I plan on entering when my maps done, idk if I have to show my intent to join as well.
You can submit the form at any time between now and when I make the due date. The participation form is required. You must fill it out if you plan on participating, hence the name. Intent to join is pretty self explanatory. You intend to participate in our contest.
The purpose of the form is to get a list created of individuals and their maps. This makes our jobs as judges much easier when trying to find a map for the contest and judge it.
Increased the prize pool by $10, I was annoyed with having an odd, $390 prize pool. This brings the pool up to $400.The varied placement prizes has been decided.
First Place: $200
Second Place: $125
Third Place: $75
Another week passes and a few more people have filled out participation forms. Hopefully the beta will come up next week so online testing can continue. If you plan on entering the contest but haven't completely formulated your thoughts you can still send in a very generic form.
(Changed the title to include prize total, to be more encouraging)
Just like to say thanks to those individuals that have submitted their participation forms. I hope to see a surge in submissions over the next few weeks. Any questions or comments, feel free to post here or on our forums.
Contest Participation Form - This must be filled out to show your participation in the contest. Complete the form and either post it on Map-making Contest Forum or email them to [email][email protected][/email] with the title "StarCraft II - Contest Participation Form".
Map Details
Map Name - List your map's name so it can be easily identifiable.
Description - Give a very brief description of your map.
Genre - What category does your map fall under? If you are unsure, list as Other.
Player Size - How many players does your map support? How many do you recommend it to be played with?
Developers
Name of Team - List the name of your development team, if applicable.
Individuals' Names - List the names of the developers of your map. You may list their roles / jobs if you like.
History - If you would like to list anything about your development team's prior map-making titles, please list them here.
Notes
If you would like to make any notes or clarifications please list them here.
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Perhaps the competition will come back later in the year. I'm sure a ton of people find the reward of $5,000 more appealing. If you ever want to stop by TDG's irc you are more than welcome. People are usually tabbed into something else / afk, so don't expect immediate responses.
0
I do hate me some Country...
0
That's a flat out lie. I never said that.
If you don't like it, turn the other cheek. We can agree to disagree, whatever you want to call it. I don't think I need to fix anything I've said. Anyone can submit any kind of map they want, as long as it isn't just a melee map. I encourage people to submit various genres of maps.
I only said that I thought DoTA is a bad game. How does that possibly influence my opinion on someone else's map? I never spoke poorly about the genre of Aeon of Strife, you're putting words in my mouth.
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@ProzaicMuze: Go
TDG was involved with Rising Dusk's Advent of the Zenith, an Aeon of Strife map. Advent of the Zenith was seen by many, especially those on Wc3c, as a great map. Did you ever play that map? Did you even hear of the map? Take a poll of old WarCraft III players and let me know the results. The reason why it didn't get much exposure was exactly the reason I'm talking about.
I think an Aeon of Strife map is a great idea. I never said I don't support Aeon of Strife. However, I don't like the idea of someone making a DoTA clone just because they want to try and make a popular map that thrives off of someone else's ideas. Notice, I said clone. A clone is an exact double. This is not about making a popular map. This is about creativity and invention here. Now you might say what if someone takes Elemental TD and creates the same thing in StarCraft II? I won't reject a map clone like this from entering the contest, but if it isn't submitted by Karawasa himself, I think they would score low on creativity, don't you think? Clones harbor no new thought, but impressive new elements in a game can be done and I know Karawasa will add new things in with Elemental TD to make it much better than it was on the restrictive Wc3 engine.
The points about the porn in the image are poking fun at the situation. Satire apparently eludes you. The situation being overwhelming domination by the DoTA game. You clearly missed the reference I was attempting to make here thus you really don't understand what I'm talking about. You must be really thick if you thought my previous posts were about the fragility of content generated by users that can be uploaded to the masses. I'm not here to get into a debate with you, you are a moderator to help other people with their maps, this isn't a map. It's a third party contest.
0
I'm glad to see there is just so much support for DoTA, this clearly supports my position. You can call it bias or whatever you want, this contest is to support mappers, not players. I will have bias if someone makes a DoTA clone because that isn't very interesting. This is about creativity and the ideas that people can come up with, not rehashing old concepts. Ask anyone who was a major mapper back in WarCraft III how dominated the custom game list was by DoTA. I know so many mappers from Wc3c, TH, and Hive who had excellent maps but were not able to get them out over battle.net for this very reason.
What would getting your support do for this contest, you'd put in money to support your fellow mappers? Because if all you'd do is post about it, I mean, I could do that. Call it whatever you want, I don't want to see the DoTA effect happen. Support creativity. Support invention. Support your fellow mappers.
P.S.: This only ended up getting worse
0
@ekcolnovkol: Go
I did work on writing code for DoTA. I also did some analysis of the gameplay as a whole because it is what interests me. The game is heavily reliant on the aspect of interaction with others. If that interaction with other individuals is a bad experience, the game is going to be overly flawed for the player. The game also has a steep learning curve which can impede your ability to play the game against someone who may be very skilled. Another point on this is what the gameplay generates. There is a community that follows this game that is one of the worst and least friendly of any that exists. The individuals you run against can be extremely hostile and for a game, that isn't what you want.
ESRB doesn't rate online gameplay for this very reason.
0
The points we plan on judging a map on are something I've been debating with a few people.
Popularity will never be a merit I will judge a map on. For anyone that played WarCraft 3 the last 3 years or more, DoTA dominated the UMS games and for a lot of the map making community, it crippled the chance for other great maps to thrive. I wouldn't consider DoTA a good game.
I really don't know if posting the judging critera would be a good idea either. If I say something like...User Interface being a huge part of the grading, people will try and focus heavily on that to get points on that, right? If I don't say anything to that effect then people will just want to continue making their map and not worry about what I have listed should be there. This limits the creation of ideas and concepts in a map, I don't want to limit thought and the expansion of ideas.
However, I do think there are two very important points for map design:
Playtime - A game should be able to entertain a person for a few hours or entertain a person through high replay value. An example would be something like a RPG, those types of maps typically have a very long playtime whereas a shooter or a Footmen Frenzy kind of game is shorter, but fun through various playthroughs.
Ease of Use - The map shouldn't be overly complex at the start. Anyone should be able to start up the map, play your game, and feel as though they know what is going on. This isn't to say that they should be able to play on par with a seasoned veteran of your map, but the learning curve shouldn't be insanely challenging.
0
Various people have came to me through email to inform me that they would like to participate in the contest but there isn't enough time for them with these deadlines. Other people have told me that some of the changes with the most recent Beta Patch have also caused game breaking issues with their map. I feel there is no negative ramifications in extending the deadline, essentially bumping everything down to a more appropriate level. This will be beneficial overall for the follow reasons:
The judging process will also change. Instead of having 2 stages to the judging, there will be a single evaluation. There will be no touch-up period. Looking at the initial idea for that touch-up period, it sounded good but really it would just cause a lot more problems than it solved. Being that this is our first contest, this is a learning process for us. I don't think this will cause any major disruptions for any of the current participants or those that wish to enter but previously couldn't.
The Final Deadline for all maps is 10 September 2010, 11:59PM (PST).
I'd like to thank Kenoli from Star Depot for getting on my ass about this and making sure things happened.
0
If I have to buy another copy of SC2 to ensure I can do EU judging I will.
0
You can submit the form at any time between now and when I make the due date. The participation form is required. You must fill it out if you plan on participating, hence the name. Intent to join is pretty self explanatory. You intend to participate in our contest.
The purpose of the form is to get a list created of individuals and their maps. This makes our jobs as judges much easier when trying to find a map for the contest and judge it.
0
Increased the prize pool by $10, I was annoyed with having an odd, $390 prize pool. This brings the pool up to $400.The varied placement prizes has been decided.
First Place: $200
Second Place: $125
Third Place: $75
Another week passes and a few more people have filled out participation forms. Hopefully the beta will come up next week so online testing can continue. If you plan on entering the contest but haven't completely formulated your thoughts you can still send in a very generic form.
(Changed the title to include prize total, to be more encouraging)
0
Just like to say thanks to those individuals that have submitted their participation forms. I hope to see a surge in submissions over the next few weeks. Any questions or comments, feel free to post here or on our forums.
0
Contest Participation Form - This must be filled out to show your participation in the contest. Complete the form and either post it on Map-making Contest Forum or email them to [email][email protected][/email] with the title "StarCraft II - Contest Participation Form".
Map Details
Developers
Notes If you would like to make any notes or clarifications please list them here.
Example
Map Details
Developers
Notes Sunshine, rainbows and candy for everyone.
0
Kenoli, an administrator of Star Depot, has graciously added $200 to the prize pool bringing the total to $390!
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@Squeegeez: Go
You'd have to elaborate. If it's a 14 person melee map, no. I made that point that these are for custom games.