SC2Mapster

Quote from Anteep: Go

Yeah, said this from the beginning: the solution is to simply remove the popularity system altogether. Have no category for "Top Played". If people want to play a map so desperately, they can pick it out from their bookmark instead of finding it in top played - if a player really liked a map, he'll remember it and try to play it again, he doesn't need "Top Played" list. I think a lot of people just play the top played maps because they believe there is no point playing any other map because there's no players for them. This popularity system creates a destructive herd mentality.

Although, map makers need to also understand marketing techniques. You must make your map stand out in a good way that encourages people to play it. Maps not on page 1 still do get quite a few players thanks to this.

I think with the "new" arcade system, the whole "popularity" list is pretty moot. Especially since only 1 lobby for a game is open at a time. Popular games are often at the very bottom of the game list, because they fill fast. This bumps less played maps to the top. By default, players are browsing open games when they select arcade.

In my opinion, the "top played" list is really just a ranking of sorts; a way for people and mapmakers to check out what the top games are. The way the arcade is setup though, I feel that any map being hosted has at least equal exposure, with less played maps getting more than frequently played maps.

As I mentioned above, would be if they re-did the categories to support more of the less played maps. The "up and coming" list is absolutely worthless, as is "top rated". I think it would be better if "up and coming" maps had to be less than a year old, and had to have been updated within the last month or two. This would give a lot of exposure to new maps. Right now it is actually difficult to search for a decent new map; unless someone is hosting one and trying to recruit players, it is a lost opportunity.

I think that there could be better categories.

The "Up and coming" list is a joke. there are maps from 2010 on the "up and coming" list; which haven't been played at all. There are also maps like "Squad TD" on there, which are more of "Solidified in history" than "up and coming".

the "top rated" list is a half joke. Why? Well, for a map to make the "top rated" list, it needs to have been one of the top maps for a while. While this is nice for some maps (Ultimate boss battles as an example) to get exposure to new players who haven't experienced them. For the most part though; this list is very similar to the top played list. If it couldn't contain any maps from the first 2 pages of "top played" I think it would do much better.

The top played list isn't bad; considering the arcade setup now days. As others have said, it does not take long to get any game started.

The "newest" tab is pretty good; it lets you check out new maps as they are added. The problem is that a lot of maps are added on a weekly basis. IF most people aren't going more than 3 tabs deep on the "top played" list, how deep do you think they will go into the "newest" tab? What I have seen from this, is that some editor will release their game with a slightly different name every couple of week, so they stay high on the "newest" list. but also, complete garbage maps (no offense if effort was actually put into them) where people just drop a few units on a map and upload it, because they do not know how to use the editor, are in the mix.

The current arcade is the best yet; all it really needs now is a way to get more exposure to games without someone constantly spamming arcade chat to get people to join.