Broken maps were a bit of a problem in Warcraft 3. Maps could be locked effectively, so if it was no longer maintained then good luck playing it in the latest patch! Most of these problems occurred with the patches that addressed vulnerabilities which could not be reversed for security reasons.
Just imagine a situation where you pay for a map and it is broken due to a recent patch and but the modder no longer plays/ updates the map. Now imagine that happening to a player base equal to the entire DotA community.
Bank protection is another problem, because when you start paying for maps cheating becomes much more of an issue. Modifying bank data already annoys plenty of players in free to play maps and without secure map locking, encrypting the bank is just another delay instead of a roadblock.
I'd like to see the marketplace no earlier than Legacy of the Void.
It can be hard to admit you are wrong and I do agree that Blizzard should be respected for this, however I also find it annoying when they promise things at major conventions such as Blizzcon and then don't deliver after you have purchased the game.
While my previous post may sound a little harsh, I intended it to be more realistic than anything. From memory, there were no updates or previews about the marketplace since Blizzcon 2009.
I think that the existing system would need a tremendous amount of work to cater for this system. As you mentioned, map protection needs work, but that is only one of the pieces in the puzzle. The way they seem to describe the premium maps is something similar a big custom campaign. It is is not currently possible to do that kind of mod with the current user upload limits.
Even the sales of the maps will have to be handled delicately, because there is no way to fully ensure that the uploader of a map is the legit creator. Another issue to consider is server resets wiping the map database, losing your past map transactions.
If a user removes their map that others have paid for, just imagine how many people will demand their money back. If Blizzard take control of the ownership of the map on the server to prevent this, updates will be much harder to deal with as well.
I actually kind of feel like this is good news because I never liked the marketplace idea to begin with. I felt it was just a tool for them to get money from map maker's efforts. It's true that they provided the engine and assets and that the modders will also get some money out of it too, but I still didn't like the way they went on about it.
It was something that was all talk; there was never any previews for it, not even a really rough one like of alpha screenshots. So it's not like it was much of a realistic goal to begin with for the first year or so of release. Besides, there is an expansion which is supposedly in development for a release in the next couple of years. That should be taking preference.
This is something towards the end of the list for the needs of the community anyway. For starters, releasing the assets promised from alpha would be nice. Yay! It's a Nullifier icon with no model to go with it. Weren't they already complete from alpha? Or perhaps they could work on the 7 month problem that is the popularity system.
@Vexal: Go
Broken maps were a bit of a problem in Warcraft 3. Maps could be locked effectively, so if it was no longer maintained then good luck playing it in the latest patch! Most of these problems occurred with the patches that addressed vulnerabilities which could not be reversed for security reasons.
Just imagine a situation where you pay for a map and it is broken due to a recent patch and but the modder no longer plays/ updates the map. Now imagine that happening to a player base equal to the entire DotA community.
Bank protection is another problem, because when you start paying for maps cheating becomes much more of an issue. Modifying bank data already annoys plenty of players in free to play maps and without secure map locking, encrypting the bank is just another delay instead of a roadblock.
I'd like to see the marketplace no earlier than Legacy of the Void.
@Vexal: Go
It can be hard to admit you are wrong and I do agree that Blizzard should be respected for this, however I also find it annoying when they promise things at major conventions such as Blizzcon and then don't deliver after you have purchased the game.
While my previous post may sound a little harsh, I intended it to be more realistic than anything. From memory, there were no updates or previews about the marketplace since Blizzcon 2009.
@SouLCarveRR: Go
I think that the existing system would need a tremendous amount of work to cater for this system. As you mentioned, map protection needs work, but that is only one of the pieces in the puzzle. The way they seem to describe the premium maps is something similar a big custom campaign. It is is not currently possible to do that kind of mod with the current user upload limits.
Even the sales of the maps will have to be handled delicately, because there is no way to fully ensure that the uploader of a map is the legit creator. Another issue to consider is server resets wiping the map database, losing your past map transactions.
If a user removes their map that others have paid for, just imagine how many people will demand their money back. If Blizzard take control of the ownership of the map on the server to prevent this, updates will be much harder to deal with as well.
I actually kind of feel like this is good news because I never liked the marketplace idea to begin with. I felt it was just a tool for them to get money from map maker's efforts. It's true that they provided the engine and assets and that the modders will also get some money out of it too, but I still didn't like the way they went on about it.
It was something that was all talk; there was never any previews for it, not even a really rough one like of alpha screenshots. So it's not like it was much of a realistic goal to begin with for the first year or so of release. Besides, there is an expansion which is supposedly in development for a release in the next couple of years. That should be taking preference.
This is something towards the end of the list for the needs of the community anyway. For starters, releasing the assets promised from alpha would be nice. Yay! It's a Nullifier icon with no model to go with it. Weren't they already complete from alpha? Or perhaps they could work on the 7 month problem that is the popularity system.