Although most people include themselves as "part of the creative team", no matter what their contribution to a project, this is something I want to do exclusively.
After playing around a dozen custom campaigns and map packs, there's a common denominator: word soup. Sentences that don't make sense, punctuation that doesn't belong, words that are awkward and out of place, passive voice lines of text, boring story lines, stereotypical and shallow characters, and a general blind eye in terms of proofreading is all over the mapmaking community. If you just read this and got offended, you're probably a guilty party. Hear me out.
Imagine you're playing WoL, and Raynor pops up to give you a bonus objective. You're knee deep in zerg, and Raynor says:
"Your not going to be able to hold the line here, fall back to th eprimary bsae."
The magic of the map is gone, and the story just died on the spot. You see this and you say to yourself, "My God. How did they not catch this? This is...ugh". Be real and consider how you can be taken as a successful mapmaker and storyteller with your audience distracted by your communication method.
Any jerk can offer criticism, but I'm a big believer in offering a solution as well - I want to help people out with this. I'm offering to do this because, apparently, nobody in this community (that I've seen) has offered, and it really badly needs to be done to raise the quality of the campaigns coming out of sc2mapster.
If you are:
A mapmaker who has a current release (specifically an alpha or beta stage) that needs some revision
An up and coming mapmaker who is still in the planning stages
A team of mapmakers that want to give your content to an outside pair of eyes
Doing a translation to English and need a fluent proofreader and editor
Planning on making a new map or campaign in the near future and looking to flesh out ideas
... then you should send me a PM. I love SC2 custom campaigns, and I want to contribute to the community that makes it possible. Every quality map that gets produced is a feather in the cap of the custom community, spreading the word of this site and the hard work that goes on here. Every successful and popular map will draw more people and encourage more mapmakers. Remember, Starcraft has two more expansions coming out, presumably offering more and more support of the mapmaking community over time, so now is the time to make friends and get involved.
Send me a PM, chat with me and we'll see where you're at. If you're serious, I'll be glad to help you out - possibly even be willing to sign on long term. The worst thing I can say is "You should look at this" and you get another beta tester.
I'm not interested in flexing verbal superiority on the internet, nor am I looking to lord over any projects. I just want to help make some of these projects even better, because even the most amazing custom campaign can be completely derailed by a poor choice in words.
The people on B-net(EU) are far to dumb to even realize correct contra incorrect grammar anyways?
My map have sloppy dialogs, as they are just placeholders, but from all the feedback I've ever gotten, no person have ever reported anything about the grammatical state of the map. I believe there is an unwritten rule on the EU server that states it's okay, or fine, to have bad grammar.
Some of the best maps I've ever played, like the Dominion maps from KyleValkar, originated in German and got butchered through the translators. This is sort of my point: to head off that sort of thing while it's still on the front page. In fact, I could argue that the best custom campaigns out there originated in a language other than English.
Also, you're not going to see people openly give you grammar tips on a public forum, specifically because "grammar nazi" has become the rallying cry of the masses who can't be bothered. The fact that most every campaign on this site is full of mistakes is evidence that the standard is pretty low, for one reason or another.
This post, and my help, is contingent on the idea that you want to look better. I like playing maps that look like the authors have pride in them, and I'm willing to donate my time to make that happen.
The people on B-net(EU) are far to dumb to even realize correct contra incorrect grammar anyways?
My map have sloppy dialogs, as they are just placeholders, but from all the feedback I've ever gotten, no person have ever reported anything about the grammatical state of the map. I believe there is an unwritten rule on the EU server that states it's okay, or fine, to have bad grammar.
But that is the case for 90% of your map, not only dialogs. You won't get super valuable testers that give constructive criticism, because thinking about good criticism and giving valuable tips about what exactly you can improve or what bothers them about it is not always easy and can take just as much time as making the basis of the game in the first place. Hell, if you run through a full price video game title (or even many Indie Games) there will be so many small things about the Interface, the general appearance, little things during gameplay, maybe some small outlines around objects, how exactly the Interface pops up, specific dialogs, waiting times during gameplay, specific sizes, colors etc. that got changed and iterated on countless times and hours were spent just for each of these details. Will you acknowledge all of that directly as an average gamer? Will you even recognize it as something that consumed development time? Probably not, but all the improvements of these little flaws will most likely enhance your experience with the game nonetheless. Even if it is not something that your average gamer would give feedback about.
Interesting. Not sure what else to say. I'm sure some people could make use of this, but I don't know whether they will.
I might consider sending you the text files of the pokemon map sometime - Not to check for grammar/spelling mistakes (I don't wanna say I don't make any, but I'm a partial grammar nazi and try to pay attention to that stuff, and english is my best language) but more for consistency and so on. Of course, if I do this, it would be in 2 or more months :p
Anyway, I hope you do actually get some "customers". It's nice to see someone try and help out the community :)
Average gamers download a game, play it for five minutes or until they get frustrated, then go back to bumbling through bronze league and Aiur Chef.
The focus is on the small things; conveying ideas, having characters that say things that are worth reading, feeling like you're participating in a mission - all these things add up to something big. If you can combine it with good triggers, good terrain, and enough people willing to help you test it, you're going to strike gold.
This offer is just the end result of being blown away by so many great maps, and then facepalming when a character opens their mouth to deliver a line that doesn't make any sense. It just makes these gorgeous campaigns seem... neglected.
I'm not sure how many people will take advantage either, but I'll help out anyone who is willing to take the time. Including your Pokemanz. =]
I am actually looking for someone who can do dialog and lore for my game + tutorial missions + possible further missions. Will probably shoot you a PM in a couple weeks time. :)
This is a good initiative! Poor writing and inexcusable mistakes can really detract from a game and make it seem unprofessional. The occasional mistake doesn't irk me; we all make mistakes and when there is a lot of writing some of them are easy to overlook, but when maps are littered with spelling and grammar mistakes you can't help but frown upon it. I suggest for people that don't use Garrthos to at least try to double check your work for obvious writing mistakes. An amazing game can lose a lot of potential players due to poor writing.
I appreciate the offer. I have been brainstorming for months a campaign in the works, and I would be interested in yet more input, as certain sections certainly need some work. I might drop you a line later today.
Although most people include themselves as "part of the creative team", no matter what their contribution to a project, this is something I want to do exclusively.
After playing around a dozen custom campaigns and map packs, there's a common denominator: word soup. Sentences that don't make sense, punctuation that doesn't belong, words that are awkward and out of place, passive voice lines of text, boring story lines, stereotypical and shallow characters, and a general blind eye in terms of proofreading is all over the mapmaking community. If you just read this and got offended, you're probably a guilty party. Hear me out.
Imagine you're playing WoL, and Raynor pops up to give you a bonus objective. You're knee deep in zerg, and Raynor says:
"Your not going to be able to hold the line here, fall back to th eprimary bsae."
The magic of the map is gone, and the story just died on the spot. You see this and you say to yourself, "My God. How did they not catch this? This is...ugh". Be real and consider how you can be taken as a successful mapmaker and storyteller with your audience distracted by your communication method.
Any jerk can offer criticism, but I'm a big believer in offering a solution as well - I want to help people out with this. I'm offering to do this because, apparently, nobody in this community (that I've seen) has offered, and it really badly needs to be done to raise the quality of the campaigns coming out of sc2mapster.
If you are:
... then you should send me a PM. I love SC2 custom campaigns, and I want to contribute to the community that makes it possible. Every quality map that gets produced is a feather in the cap of the custom community, spreading the word of this site and the hard work that goes on here. Every successful and popular map will draw more people and encourage more mapmakers. Remember, Starcraft has two more expansions coming out, presumably offering more and more support of the mapmaking community over time, so now is the time to make friends and get involved.
Send me a PM, chat with me and we'll see where you're at. If you're serious, I'll be glad to help you out - possibly even be willing to sign on long term. The worst thing I can say is "You should look at this" and you get another beta tester.
I'm not interested in flexing verbal superiority on the internet, nor am I looking to lord over any projects. I just want to help make some of these projects even better, because even the most amazing custom campaign can be completely derailed by a poor choice in words.
@Garrthos: Go
Im looking for a word smith to some extent for SpaceWar Tribute....
Something I could use. Too bad you are on US...
Perhaps Ill contact you later if I run out of ideas or want cofirmation of some text parts on my RPG
sounds like a nice and helpfull idea anyway
The people on B-net(EU) are far to dumb to even realize correct contra incorrect grammar anyways?
My map have sloppy dialogs, as they are just placeholders, but from all the feedback I've ever gotten, no person have ever reported anything about the grammatical state of the map. I believe there is an unwritten rule on the EU server that states it's okay, or fine, to have bad grammar.
@JakeCake26: Go
Some of the best maps I've ever played, like the Dominion maps from KyleValkar, originated in German and got butchered through the translators. This is sort of my point: to head off that sort of thing while it's still on the front page. In fact, I could argue that the best custom campaigns out there originated in a language other than English.
Also, you're not going to see people openly give you grammar tips on a public forum, specifically because "grammar nazi" has become the rallying cry of the masses who can't be bothered. The fact that most every campaign on this site is full of mistakes is evidence that the standard is pretty low, for one reason or another.
This post, and my help, is contingent on the idea that you want to look better. I like playing maps that look like the authors have pride in them, and I'm willing to donate my time to make that happen.
But that is the case for 90% of your map, not only dialogs. You won't get super valuable testers that give constructive criticism, because thinking about good criticism and giving valuable tips about what exactly you can improve or what bothers them about it is not always easy and can take just as much time as making the basis of the game in the first place. Hell, if you run through a full price video game title (or even many Indie Games) there will be so many small things about the Interface, the general appearance, little things during gameplay, maybe some small outlines around objects, how exactly the Interface pops up, specific dialogs, waiting times during gameplay, specific sizes, colors etc. that got changed and iterated on countless times and hours were spent just for each of these details. Will you acknowledge all of that directly as an average gamer? Will you even recognize it as something that consumed development time? Probably not, but all the improvements of these little flaws will most likely enhance your experience with the game nonetheless. Even if it is not something that your average gamer would give feedback about.
@Garrthos: Go
Interesting. Not sure what else to say. I'm sure some people could make use of this, but I don't know whether they will.
I might consider sending you the text files of the pokemon map sometime - Not to check for grammar/spelling mistakes (I don't wanna say I don't make any, but I'm a partial grammar nazi and try to pay attention to that stuff, and english is my best language) but more for consistency and so on. Of course, if I do this, it would be in 2 or more months :p
Anyway, I hope you do actually get some "customers". It's nice to see someone try and help out the community :)
@Bommes: Go
This guy gets it.
Average gamers download a game, play it for five minutes or until they get frustrated, then go back to bumbling through bronze league and Aiur Chef.
The focus is on the small things; conveying ideas, having characters that say things that are worth reading, feeling like you're participating in a mission - all these things add up to something big. If you can combine it with good triggers, good terrain, and enough people willing to help you test it, you're going to strike gold.
@TheAlmaity: Go
This offer is just the end result of being blown away by so many great maps, and then facepalming when a character opens their mouth to deliver a line that doesn't make any sense. It just makes these gorgeous campaigns seem... neglected.
I'm not sure how many people will take advantage either, but I'll help out anyone who is willing to take the time. Including your Pokemanz. =]
I'm available if you want to shoot me a PM with where you're at with that.
I am actually looking for someone who can do dialog and lore for my game + tutorial missions + possible further missions. Will probably shoot you a PM in a couple weeks time. :)
Give me a moment to think about this. . .
This guy is me. Seriously, it's scary. Excellent post mate. I might want you on my team if I ever get started on that 'awesome campaign' product.
I will remember this; I could probably use a consultant on some future character developments. <3
This is a good initiative! Poor writing and inexcusable mistakes can really detract from a game and make it seem unprofessional. The occasional mistake doesn't irk me; we all make mistakes and when there is a lot of writing some of them are easy to overlook, but when maps are littered with spelling and grammar mistakes you can't help but frown upon it. I suggest for people that don't use Garrthos to at least try to double check your work for obvious writing mistakes. An amazing game can lose a lot of potential players due to poor writing.
I appreciate the offer. I have been brainstorming for months a campaign in the works, and I would be interested in yet more input, as certain sections certainly need some work. I might drop you a line later today.
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