There are no prizes so there is no reason to cheat. Hoping people can be honest submitting the same version thei sent to blizzard.
The contest should require at least a video of the game, maybe the downloadable map too (even protectect is ok).
We have a big thread of map submissions to the blizzard contest, we could start from that: http://forums.sc2mapster.com/resources/project-workplace/11340-contest-share-your-blizzard-custom-submissions/
BTW this contest is just to prove that there are a tons of better maps that could have won the prize.
Obviously the voting method should follow what blizzard said on their contest submission page, no hidden criteria like "no WASD" or "15 min short" or whatever.
When I saw the winners, I had zero motivation to load up SC2 and see if they were on B.Net. That, to me, is a failure. Very happy I did not participate.
Rocket Arena I can see. Photon cannon defense or whatever seemed god awfully boring - not only did I not want to play it, the fact that it WON caused me to realize how terrible most of the other custom maps were and I have since ceased playing SC2 at all. Again: that, to me, is a failure.
I didn't submit and so I feel like I've got a pretty neutral perspective. I don't even like most of the other authors who submitted works. But photon cannon defense (and potentially zergling round-up) are just insulting. Blizzard has insulted my intelligence and my taste in gaming.
I had no expectations of winning when I chose to make a TD for the contest, because I pretty much assumed they were going to largely pick gimmicky action-type maps that showed off the capabilities of the engine by being radically different. I haven't played any of the winners so I don't know if this was the correct assumption, but my point is that I didn't expect to win so my thoughts on how the contest were run aren't based on bitterness.
So, that being said, the way they ran the contest was fucking horrible. They would not clarify rules beforehand, they would not let people know when it was okay to release maps on battle.net afterward, they didn't give the winners a single nod during the editor Q&A, the judging process was insanely obscure, they didn't even announce the names of the winners prior to judging, they didn't follow their own rules during judging (not to dig at the maker of MAD, I'm sure your map is awesome, but it was a big deal in the rules that maps had to be unreleased.) and they aren't even featuring the winning maps now which demonstrates how stupid the idea of Featured Maps is when you never actually update what those maps are. Basically this is a prime example of how NOT to run a contest.
Personally I think the root of this and many other issues is that Blizzard does not have a community representative dedicated to custom maps, and until they appoint one their relationship with the mapmaking community will continue to be strained and plagued by communication problems.
If I wasn't on the other side of the fence, I'd say someone's having a hard time letting go!
In all seriousness though, it's been quite a few weeks since the contest submission deadline. Some might have done lots of improvements to their maps, while some haven't done anything, so it wouldn't be the same contest.
It probably would be better to simply host a new contest with clear rules and a deadline that doesn't stress people out.
That's almost like starting your map 4 months before the contest even starts. Oh wait...
lol@ the 2 biased guys defending the contest
your opinions would almost be valid if you weren't the winners
next time they host that contest they should have rules like:
-playable by a 4yrs old and/or retard
-boring so the people dont feel like they have to come back to the playing area
-etc
man you guys should simply port any 2002 flash games or iphone apps next time
casual gaming fuk ye
That's almost like starting your map 4 months before the contest even starts. Oh wait...
Oh, direct attack! I'm sure there were others as well which submitted a map they had been working on since beta. ;)
I just want to clarify: MAD wasn't out in retail. We don't know how Blizzard filtered out released maps, and for all we know they don't count maps which were out in SC2 beta as released. I mean Blizzard's own game wasn't even released.
lol@ the 2 biased guys defending the contest your opinions would almost
be valid if you weren't the winners next time they host that contest
they should have rules like: -playable by a 4yrs old and/or retard
-boring so the people dont feel like they have to come back to the
playing area -etc man you guys should simply port any 2002 flash games
or iphone apps next time casual gaming fuk ye
I'm not defending the contest, in fact I've stated several things Blizzard could've improved, such as being more clear on the rules and what 'released' exactly means. What I said is I think Photon Command and Zergling Round-up were good choices for Blizzard's purpose for their Drive-By playing. Yet some here continue to bash these winners and how bad they think these maps are.
This is the FIRST TIME ever I've seen people bashing other maps like this on these forums. Not only is it demoralizing towards the map makers, but it puts a negative spin on the community ("Don't try to come out with your map here if it's bad, we won't help you improve it, we'll just tell you it sucks!")
What you are doing is actually making map makers go elsewhere for feedback on their maps.
If you still got a beef with how Blizzard judged this contest, that's fine. Contact them, send them an email or host your own contest if it makes you feel better, no one here is going to stop you. But stop tainting these forums with constant negative and bashing posts. I can tell you for sure that a lot of people don't want to make maps in that kind of community.
Oh, direct attack! I'm sure there were others as well which submitted a map they had been working on since beta. ;)
I just want to clarify: MAD wasn't out in retail. We don't know how Blizzard filtered out released maps, and for all we know they don't count maps which were out in SC2 beta as released. I mean Blizzard's own game wasn't even released.
I'm not defending the contest, in fact I've stated several things Blizzard could've improved, such as being more clear on the rules and what 'released' exactly means. What I said is I think Photon Command and Zergling Round-up were good choices for Blizzard's purpose for their Drive-By playing. Yet some here continue to bash these winners and how bad they think these maps are.
This is the FIRST TIME ever I've seen people bashing other maps like this on these forums. Not only is it demoralizing towards the map makers, but it puts a negative spin on the community ("Don't try to come out with your map here if it's bad, we won't help you improve it, we'll just tell you it sucks!")
What you are doing is actually making map makers go elsewhere for feedback on their maps.
If you still got a beef with how Blizzard judged this contest, that's fine. Contact them, send them an email or host your own contest if it makes you feel better, no one here is going to stop you. But stop tainting these forums with constant negative and bashing posts. I can tell you for sure that a lot of people don't want to make maps in that kind of community.
If the winners want to come to this thread and ask what they could improve upon I would gladly help them. I didn't call them terrible maps, I called them terrible maps compared to what was entered (if I even said that). There's a MASSIVE difference between the two.
There were more deserving people, and they didn't win. We can talk about how much others should have won all we want, you coming in here and telling us otherwise only fuels us.
There is an entirely different portion of the forums that is used for helping people, and improving upon your maps. In there you will only see positive criticism, in here I can't say the same. If they come to this specific thread for criticism or think that this thread means everyone criticizes in this way, they are mistaken.
I feel personally that you should just admit you won because you were lucky with bypassing some of the rules, blizzards hidden judging process favored your map, and that there were better maps that should have won based on the criteria that blizzard asked for in the first place. Instead of blaming it on Blizzard. You've already won, no one can take that from you, so I don't get it.
There were better maps than the maps that won. They didn't win and they should have. Enough said. I'm done in this thread :)
I didn't enter and now I'm even more glad that I didn't. This isn't about bashing the winners. This is about bashing Blizzard. You ask why bash Blizzard? The answer is that this is not a mistake in isolation. If the worst thing Blizzard had done with custom maps was host a terribly designed and managed contest, then I would laugh at the bashing. Unfortunately, they have hosted a terribly designed and managed custom map world too.
I decided to buy SC2 only a few days before the release. Some of you may remember me coming around here just a couple days before the release looking to build a team for Element TD. At that time I was very excited to transition from WC3 and continue to make maps (well singular actually). I did not do my research beforehand and simply assumed that SC2 would be better than WC3 in practically every element.
I think by now it is common knowledge that this idea is far from true. I am truly in awe as to how badly Blizzard fucked this up. I used to consider Blizzard as the best game company, period. WC3 to me was the single best game I had ever purchased. I bought it for the custom games, and it was the only game I played for years. I figured SC2 would be the natural continuation of this.
All they had to do for people like me (custom games) was offer SC2 as a WC3 but with sci-fi theme, better graphics, and a more powerful editor. That's what I expected it to be. I'm sure I'm not alone in this. If any of you think the WC3 model was total fail, allow me to point you to DotA and TDs. I'm sure that SC2 will not be a medium in which widespread genres are created.
I'm not going to rehash all the ways that Blizzard has failed. There are enough threads around the internet about this. Instead, I want to bring attention to a set of facts that along with the above provides for a very grim outlook.
First the conclusion, Blizzard is not the same company. WoW was their first experience with perpetual cash flow. In other words, milking users. Furthermore, there was an acquisition by a much larger company. They say that changed nothing, if you believe that I pray for you. Both of these things happened after WC3. What am I getting at? We will never see the good old days again.
Let's bring it back to the topic at hand. This contest was supposedly about creating good maps. I don't think anyone entered this contest thinking otherwise. Thanks to the revelation by one of the winners, we now know that instead this contest was simply about creating "drive-by" maps for Blizzcon. That's it, nothing more. In other words, this contest was about creating simple and short maps that made SC2 look good. This contest was not about the custom map community, at all. It was about creating promotional material for Blizzcon so that investors and industry people could gobble it up.
If you haven't seen what I'm getting at yet, I will lay it out bluntly. Blizzard is never going to deliver to us the custom map world that we should have. They don't view their products as singular releases of greatness anymore. Instead, they see them as perpetual cash flows. Pay to change your name, two expansions announced before release, a marketplace to exploit maps, and other features that they will find a way to profit from.
You may ask, why make this post now? In fact, it was the revelation from one of the contest winners that was the last straw for me. They don't give a fuck about me, or you, or any of us. If you think for a second that Blizzard cares about the custom map community, I want what you're smoking.
At least you're honest, I'll give you that. I for one haven't looked a lot into the contest submissions, so I can't say if there are better maps or not, nor would I since anything I'd say could be called out as biased. I simply make statements based on the facts given to me. I wasn't referring to you directly when I said people have been bashing the contest winners unnecessarily harsh (and without any comparison to other entries). Constructive criticism is one thing, but some of what we've seen here is far from it. Non-constructive criticism, no matter how you spin it, is never good for an online community with creativity in the center of it.
Many members of this community, SC2 players I know, and friends suggested I submit my map because they felt I had a chance of winning after trying it in beta, and still I get feedback and support from the same (and new) people that the map deserved to win. Personally I don't know, but to say I definitely won due to a glitch? We have no information what so ever on how Blizzard filtered out 'released' maps or what they counted as released.
I think they do care though. Otherwise they wouldn't be updating the editor with every patch or answering questions in the forums.
I wouldn't focus on blaming Blizzard, as I said it's the first time they're doing this sort of thing. In the end we're all human, even the guys working at Blizzard (which many, including myself, forget sometimes). Still, we want them to do everything perfect and we want it done now, preferably in a way that suits us.
When something goes wrong, the focus shouldn't be on finding out who is to blame. It should be to figure out how we can improve so it won't happen again. Hopefully that is what Blizzard is doing, and we'll see in the future.
So I hope you're not giving up on your project, I loved Element TD for WC3. I believe I've seen videos of a port to SC2 which looked awesome, dunno if they are yours.
At least you're honest, I'll give you that. I for one haven't looked a lot into the contest submissions, so I can't say if there are better maps or not, nor would I since anything I'd say could be called out as biased.
Many members of this community, SC2 players I know, and friends suggested I submit my map because they felt I had a chance of winning after trying it in beta, and still I get feedback and support from the same (and new) people that the map deserved to win. Personally I don't know, but to say I definitely won due to a glitch? We have no information what so ever on how Blizzard filtered out 'released' maps or what they counted as released.
Blizzard should have answered to many questions about the contest we made DURING the contest. That's another of their fault.
Many of us sent them that questions using the blizzard report system but noone cared about the modders community. We asked about the meaning of "released" and if we could publish the map as private to test it with friends.
I wouldn't focus on blaming Blizzard, as I said it's the first time they're doing this sort of thing. In the end we're all human, even the guys working at Blizzard (which many, including myself, forget sometimes). Still, we want them to do everything perfect and we want it done now, preferably in a way that suits us.
No, it's not the first time they make a mapping contest.
In 2006 they made 2 contests for warcraft 3 ums maps. The first was the sports map contest, the second was the halloween map contest.
Both of them had a well done judging, each winning map had a rating of fun, creativity, thecnical and polishness and they made good choices. There was a bunch of honorable mentions too!!!
I found the old link here: http://classic.battle.net/mod/
These contest were perfect and the prizes were lower... now with a 15.000$ prize pool I would have expected more seriousness in the map choices!
You're right about the WC3 contests, but we don't know if it's the same people that did the SC2 contest. Also, it's the first time they've had to pick contest winners which would be set up on pc's to be played at Blizzcon. All in all, I agree that it's sad we didn't know more about what they were looking for. :\
"I for one haven't looked a lot into the contest submissions, so I can't say if there are better maps or not, nor would I since anything I'd say could be called out as biased."
Perhaps you should look at some of the other contest submissions, because if you did then you might realise how poor the choices for the custom map winners were.
Well, as a sidenote, I entered the cine contest thinking my experience with sc2 cine-making would give me an advantage. Lol I was sorely wrong and beat out by decent WoW cines... I accept defeat on this one haha. But I understand the anger from the custom map contest side... :/
Karasawa, just wait... we'll get what we want eventually! They're gamers too... but yeah you bring back war3 memories for me that blew my mind back then heh...
You guys need to give it a rest. I have looked extensively through the maps submitted to the contest by sc2mapster users. Personally, I would rather play many of those entries over the winning entries. However, just because I think a certain map is more fun to play doesn't mean that it should win and just because you don't like a map as much doesn't mean it should lose. The fact is that everyone has a different idea of how the winning maps should be chosen. Some of you feel that the winner should be the map that uses the editor in the most unique way. Some believe that the winner should be the map that implements the most innovative game mechanic. Some believe that the winner should be the map that is the 'most fun' to play. There are innumerable criteria that one can believe the winning map should have. Should the map be a short, simple game good for playing in quick sessions? Should it be a lengthy complex game with a lot of depth and potential for skill? There are so many ways to decide what map should win that it isn't as simple as all of you make it out to be.
Perhaps the concept of a custom map contest is the real problem.
There are so many great maps that excel in a vast range of areas that one cannot just point out the best map, or best three maps, out of the countless entries submitted. A different map is always going to 'deserve to win more' if the winners are chosen from slightly different criteria. There are so many great entries that it ultimately comes down to, "These 30 maps are all great, which one do I want to play the most?" As long as the winning map isn't fundamentally broken and people enjoy playing it, it is a valid candidate for 'winning the contest'.
Honestly, the map that wins is not important. What is important is that you participated. The very fact that people are complaining that other maps should have won means that other people appreciate the work you have done regardless of whether you won. If you only care about the prize money, then I have no sympathy for you. If you care about making maps that others can enjoy, then you do not need to win a contest to succeed.
In closing, I would like to thank everyone who submitted a map to the custom map contest. I truly appreciate all the time you have put into producing content for others to enjoy!
EDIT: on a side note, if you haven't read Acemore's post regarding his talk with a Blizzard representative, it is very enlightening and you should read it before complaining any further. The first few paragraphs explain how so many maps were cut and this is why you shouldn't care if you lost this contest. Only a small fraction of the maps submitted were really judged anyway so there's a good chance Blizzard didn't really 'count' your map as a submission.
But hey, it's not like they went to your house and deleted the map from your computer because you didn't win. You still have your map and if you actually believe it's good, then you still have something to be happy about. You haven't really lost anything.
There are no prizes so there is no reason to cheat. Hoping people can be honest submitting the same version thei sent to blizzard.
The contest should require at least a video of the game, maybe the downloadable map too (even protectect is ok).
We have a big thread of map submissions to the blizzard contest, we could start from that:
http://forums.sc2mapster.com/resources/project-workplace/11340-contest-share-your-blizzard-custom-submissions/
BTW this contest is just to prove that there are a tons of better maps that could have won the prize.
Obviously the voting method should follow what blizzard said on their contest submission page, no hidden criteria like "no WASD" or "15 min short" or whatever.
@Bibendus: Go
When I saw the winners, I had zero motivation to load up SC2 and see if they were on B.Net. That, to me, is a failure. Very happy I did not participate.
Rocket Arena I can see. Photon cannon defense or whatever seemed god awfully boring - not only did I not want to play it, the fact that it WON caused me to realize how terrible most of the other custom maps were and I have since ceased playing SC2 at all. Again: that, to me, is a failure.
I didn't submit and so I feel like I've got a pretty neutral perspective. I don't even like most of the other authors who submitted works. But photon cannon defense (and potentially zergling round-up) are just insulting. Blizzard has insulted my intelligence and my taste in gaming.
I had no expectations of winning when I chose to make a TD for the contest, because I pretty much assumed they were going to largely pick gimmicky action-type maps that showed off the capabilities of the engine by being radically different. I haven't played any of the winners so I don't know if this was the correct assumption, but my point is that I didn't expect to win so my thoughts on how the contest were run aren't based on bitterness.
So, that being said, the way they ran the contest was fucking horrible. They would not clarify rules beforehand, they would not let people know when it was okay to release maps on battle.net afterward, they didn't give the winners a single nod during the editor Q&A, the judging process was insanely obscure, they didn't even announce the names of the winners prior to judging, they didn't follow their own rules during judging (not to dig at the maker of MAD, I'm sure your map is awesome, but it was a big deal in the rules that maps had to be unreleased.) and they aren't even featuring the winning maps now which demonstrates how stupid the idea of Featured Maps is when you never actually update what those maps are. Basically this is a prime example of how NOT to run a contest.
Personally I think the root of this and many other issues is that Blizzard does not have a community representative dedicated to custom maps, and until they appoint one their relationship with the mapmaking community will continue to be strained and plagued by communication problems.
That's almost like starting your map 4 months before the contest even starts. Oh wait...
Angry birds = sure win xD
Oh, direct attack! I'm sure there were others as well which submitted a map they had been working on since beta. ;)
I just want to clarify: MAD wasn't out in retail. We don't know how Blizzard filtered out released maps, and for all we know they don't count maps which were out in SC2 beta as released. I mean Blizzard's own game wasn't even released.
I'm not defending the contest, in fact I've stated several things Blizzard could've improved, such as being more clear on the rules and what 'released' exactly means. What I said is I think Photon Command and Zergling Round-up were good choices for Blizzard's purpose for their Drive-By playing. Yet some here continue to bash these winners and how bad they think these maps are.
This is the FIRST TIME ever I've seen people bashing other maps like this on these forums. Not only is it demoralizing towards the map makers, but it puts a negative spin on the community ("Don't try to come out with your map here if it's bad, we won't help you improve it, we'll just tell you it sucks!")
What you are doing is actually making map makers go elsewhere for feedback on their maps.
If you still got a beef with how Blizzard judged this contest, that's fine. Contact them, send them an email or host your own contest if it makes you feel better, no one here is going to stop you. But stop tainting these forums with constant negative and bashing posts. I can tell you for sure that a lot of people don't want to make maps in that kind of community.
If the winners want to come to this thread and ask what they could improve upon I would gladly help them. I didn't call them terrible maps, I called them terrible maps compared to what was entered (if I even said that). There's a MASSIVE difference between the two.
There were more deserving people, and they didn't win. We can talk about how much others should have won all we want, you coming in here and telling us otherwise only fuels us.
There is an entirely different portion of the forums that is used for helping people, and improving upon your maps. In there you will only see positive criticism, in here I can't say the same. If they come to this specific thread for criticism or think that this thread means everyone criticizes in this way, they are mistaken.
I feel personally that you should just admit you won because you were lucky with bypassing some of the rules, blizzards hidden judging process favored your map, and that there were better maps that should have won based on the criteria that blizzard asked for in the first place. Instead of blaming it on Blizzard. You've already won, no one can take that from you, so I don't get it.
There were better maps than the maps that won. They didn't win and they should have. Enough said. I'm done in this thread :)
I didn't enter and now I'm even more glad that I didn't. This isn't about bashing the winners. This is about bashing Blizzard. You ask why bash Blizzard? The answer is that this is not a mistake in isolation. If the worst thing Blizzard had done with custom maps was host a terribly designed and managed contest, then I would laugh at the bashing. Unfortunately, they have hosted a terribly designed and managed custom map world too.
I decided to buy SC2 only a few days before the release. Some of you may remember me coming around here just a couple days before the release looking to build a team for Element TD. At that time I was very excited to transition from WC3 and continue to make maps (well singular actually). I did not do my research beforehand and simply assumed that SC2 would be better than WC3 in practically every element.
I think by now it is common knowledge that this idea is far from true. I am truly in awe as to how badly Blizzard fucked this up. I used to consider Blizzard as the best game company, period. WC3 to me was the single best game I had ever purchased. I bought it for the custom games, and it was the only game I played for years. I figured SC2 would be the natural continuation of this.
All they had to do for people like me (custom games) was offer SC2 as a WC3 but with sci-fi theme, better graphics, and a more powerful editor. That's what I expected it to be. I'm sure I'm not alone in this. If any of you think the WC3 model was total fail, allow me to point you to DotA and TDs. I'm sure that SC2 will not be a medium in which widespread genres are created.
I'm not going to rehash all the ways that Blizzard has failed. There are enough threads around the internet about this. Instead, I want to bring attention to a set of facts that along with the above provides for a very grim outlook.
First the conclusion, Blizzard is not the same company. WoW was their first experience with perpetual cash flow. In other words, milking users. Furthermore, there was an acquisition by a much larger company. They say that changed nothing, if you believe that I pray for you. Both of these things happened after WC3. What am I getting at? We will never see the good old days again.
Let's bring it back to the topic at hand. This contest was supposedly about creating good maps. I don't think anyone entered this contest thinking otherwise. Thanks to the revelation by one of the winners, we now know that instead this contest was simply about creating "drive-by" maps for Blizzcon. That's it, nothing more. In other words, this contest was about creating simple and short maps that made SC2 look good. This contest was not about the custom map community, at all. It was about creating promotional material for Blizzcon so that investors and industry people could gobble it up.
If you haven't seen what I'm getting at yet, I will lay it out bluntly. Blizzard is never going to deliver to us the custom map world that we should have. They don't view their products as singular releases of greatness anymore. Instead, they see them as perpetual cash flows. Pay to change your name, two expansions announced before release, a marketplace to exploit maps, and other features that they will find a way to profit from.
You may ask, why make this post now? In fact, it was the revelation from one of the contest winners that was the last straw for me. They don't give a fuck about me, or you, or any of us. If you think for a second that Blizzard cares about the custom map community, I want what you're smoking.
@Anonymoose: Go
At least you're honest, I'll give you that. I for one haven't looked a lot into the contest submissions, so I can't say if there are better maps or not, nor would I since anything I'd say could be called out as biased. I simply make statements based on the facts given to me. I wasn't referring to you directly when I said people have been bashing the contest winners unnecessarily harsh (and without any comparison to other entries). Constructive criticism is one thing, but some of what we've seen here is far from it. Non-constructive criticism, no matter how you spin it, is never good for an online community with creativity in the center of it.
Many members of this community, SC2 players I know, and friends suggested I submit my map because they felt I had a chance of winning after trying it in beta, and still I get feedback and support from the same (and new) people that the map deserved to win. Personally I don't know, but to say I definitely won due to a glitch? We have no information what so ever on how Blizzard filtered out 'released' maps or what they counted as released.
@Karawasa: Go
I think they do care though. Otherwise they wouldn't be updating the editor with every patch or answering questions in the forums.
I wouldn't focus on blaming Blizzard, as I said it's the first time they're doing this sort of thing. In the end we're all human, even the guys working at Blizzard (which many, including myself, forget sometimes). Still, we want them to do everything perfect and we want it done now, preferably in a way that suits us.
When something goes wrong, the focus shouldn't be on finding out who is to blame. It should be to figure out how we can improve so it won't happen again. Hopefully that is what Blizzard is doing, and we'll see in the future.
So I hope you're not giving up on your project, I loved Element TD for WC3. I believe I've seen videos of a port to SC2 which looked awesome, dunno if they are yours.
Here you can see some of the mapster submissions, some are really cool:
http://forums.sc2mapster.com/resources/project-workplace/11340-contest-share-your-blizzard-custom-submissions/
Blizzard should have answered to many questions about the contest we made DURING the contest. That's another of their fault.
Many of us sent them that questions using the blizzard report system but noone cared about the modders community. We asked about the meaning of "released" and if we could publish the map as private to test it with friends.
No, it's not the first time they make a mapping contest.
In 2006 they made 2 contests for warcraft 3 ums maps. The first was the sports map contest, the second was the halloween map contest.
Both of them had a well done judging, each winning map had a rating of fun, creativity, thecnical and polishness and they made good choices. There was a bunch of honorable mentions too!!!
I found the old link here:
http://classic.battle.net/mod/
These contest were perfect and the prizes were lower... now with a 15.000$ prize pool I would have expected more seriousness in the map choices!
@Bibendus: Go
You're right about the WC3 contests, but we don't know if it's the same people that did the SC2 contest. Also, it's the first time they've had to pick contest winners which would be set up on pc's to be played at Blizzcon. All in all, I agree that it's sad we didn't know more about what they were looking for. :\
Perhaps you should look at some of the other contest submissions, because if you did then you might realise how poor the choices for the custom map winners were.
Based on what Iv seen the winners are just fine. There wasnt any entry that was super exiciting (neither were the winners).
I would have cried if bomberling arena would have won. Bomberman is like the oldest game there is and there are 1000 different versons from it.
There might be equally good entries tought...so maybe you just have to pick couple of the good ones. (I have no idea what the zerg map was like)
@iiequalsexpipi: Go
Quote... first watch other submission videos, then you can understand why we are complaining :|
Well, as a sidenote, I entered the cine contest thinking my experience with sc2 cine-making would give me an advantage. Lol I was sorely wrong and beat out by decent WoW cines... I accept defeat on this one haha. But I understand the anger from the custom map contest side... :/
Karasawa, just wait... we'll get what we want eventually! They're gamers too... but yeah you bring back war3 memories for me that blew my mind back then heh...
@Bibendus: Go Reread my post. I was quoting Acemore. Acemore is the one who hasn't seen other entries (despite winning the contest), not me.
@iiequalsexpipi: Go
I was quoting you not replying to you :D
That means I'm agree!!!
@Bibendus: Go
Sorry, I got confused. :)
You guys need to give it a rest. I have looked extensively through the maps submitted to the contest by sc2mapster users. Personally, I would rather play many of those entries over the winning entries. However, just because I think a certain map is more fun to play doesn't mean that it should win and just because you don't like a map as much doesn't mean it should lose. The fact is that everyone has a different idea of how the winning maps should be chosen. Some of you feel that the winner should be the map that uses the editor in the most unique way. Some believe that the winner should be the map that implements the most innovative game mechanic. Some believe that the winner should be the map that is the 'most fun' to play. There are innumerable criteria that one can believe the winning map should have. Should the map be a short, simple game good for playing in quick sessions? Should it be a lengthy complex game with a lot of depth and potential for skill? There are so many ways to decide what map should win that it isn't as simple as all of you make it out to be.
Perhaps the concept of a custom map contest is the real problem.
There are so many great maps that excel in a vast range of areas that one cannot just point out the best map, or best three maps, out of the countless entries submitted. A different map is always going to 'deserve to win more' if the winners are chosen from slightly different criteria. There are so many great entries that it ultimately comes down to, "These 30 maps are all great, which one do I want to play the most?" As long as the winning map isn't fundamentally broken and people enjoy playing it, it is a valid candidate for 'winning the contest'.
Honestly, the map that wins is not important. What is important is that you participated. The very fact that people are complaining that other maps should have won means that other people appreciate the work you have done regardless of whether you won. If you only care about the prize money, then I have no sympathy for you. If you care about making maps that others can enjoy, then you do not need to win a contest to succeed.
In closing, I would like to thank everyone who submitted a map to the custom map contest. I truly appreciate all the time you have put into producing content for others to enjoy!
EDIT: on a side note, if you haven't read Acemore's post regarding his talk with a Blizzard representative, it is very enlightening and you should read it before complaining any further. The first few paragraphs explain how so many maps were cut and this is why you shouldn't care if you lost this contest. Only a small fraction of the maps submitted were really judged anyway so there's a good chance Blizzard didn't really 'count' your map as a submission.
But hey, it's not like they went to your house and deleted the map from your computer because you didn't win. You still have your map and if you actually believe it's good, then you still have something to be happy about. You haven't really lost anything.