04 Jun 11, 09:15PM
Some people may be surprised by this...
But I really think the map quality requisites should be removed.
I remember back in the day, when this discussion was first made, the following arguments were presented:
1. It's the devs game, they can do what they like
2. People join AC, see nothing but gemas and emjezvilles, play for a few days, and then quit because they think the game sucks
3. These maps make the game look ugly
I would like to present some counter-arguments:
1. Most games that had active players for a long time thrived on community-made content. Generally speaking, this content was not monitored, and people recognized easily enough what was quality and what was not. Neverwinter Nights is a good example. Halo: Reach just released some community-made maps into the main map rotation.
2. Lots of people who play nothing but emjezville will eventually move on to trying TOSOK on other maps, and then eventually play some other modes and maps (and on these very forums we have seen the evolution of some of these clans). Remember the HI-SKILL servers, probably widely considered some of the best servers by AC? They ran endless rotations of CTF on power, shine, and sunset. Some people get bored with that. One man's trash is another man's treasure.
3. Yes, most of these maps are horrendously ugly. However, I don't think most of the 12 year old kids who are playing on them are very concerned about how pretty they are. And even with the quality requisites, it is still possible to create an awful map. One of the main complaints with emjezville was the textures. You can still make maps like that (ever seen zj_concrete_facility)?
But I really think the map quality requisites should be removed.
I remember back in the day, when this discussion was first made, the following arguments were presented:
1. It's the devs game, they can do what they like
2. People join AC, see nothing but gemas and emjezvilles, play for a few days, and then quit because they think the game sucks
3. These maps make the game look ugly
I would like to present some counter-arguments:
1. Most games that had active players for a long time thrived on community-made content. Generally speaking, this content was not monitored, and people recognized easily enough what was quality and what was not. Neverwinter Nights is a good example. Halo: Reach just released some community-made maps into the main map rotation.
2. Lots of people who play nothing but emjezville will eventually move on to trying TOSOK on other maps, and then eventually play some other modes and maps (and on these very forums we have seen the evolution of some of these clans). Remember the HI-SKILL servers, probably widely considered some of the best servers by AC? They ran endless rotations of CTF on power, shine, and sunset. Some people get bored with that. One man's trash is another man's treasure.
3. Yes, most of these maps are horrendously ugly. However, I don't think most of the 12 year old kids who are playing on them are very concerned about how pretty they are. And even with the quality requisites, it is still possible to create an awful map. One of the main complaints with emjezville was the textures. You can still make maps like that (ever seen zj_concrete_facility)?