Reviews - where to put it? (Free cookies inside!)

radon

L1: Registered
Sep 5, 2009
28
8
So i'm a reviewer. I reviewed popular community maps back in ut2004 times. I love to write useful and detailed critiques about a map I like or those who deserve a qualified and founded review.
(With review I mean a review in artistical sense, not in technical sense like this one)

I miss the times where every good mapper waited for his community review and got it. Take a look at insite, this is just what i mean just for the unreal tournament series: http://insite.beyondunreal.com/

But i didn't find that in tf2 universe yet.
Yesterday i found this new tf maps site: http://www.teamfortressmaps.com/ (no, I don't work for them and it is no advertising!)
What do you think of that. Would mapper look out for reviews on their maps? Could this be the right place?
Would there be other users/mappers who feel like they would write reviews? Or do you all just not care about this stuff?
Or did I miss something?

Oh and here is your prize:
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YM

LVL100 YM
aa
Dec 5, 2007
7,135
6,056
We used to have a review section with a few members writing semi-regular reviews for finished maps, only there weren't that many and playing them enough to be able to review them was challenging and long story short it fell though.

However, we'd love to have your reviews here. Either this forum or the TF2 talk forum would be appropriate, if they're awesome enough there might even be a front page feature after you post one.
 

radon

L1: Registered
Sep 5, 2009
28
8
Don't get me wrong, but this is a mapper forum. Which is totally fine.
Reviews aren't only for mappers, they are also for players.
And a review-thread in a mapper-forum where users mostly go to learn mapping isn't the right place to put it imho.
And that is also what I experienced in the past few years in the unreal community.
Mapperforum, review site, general community boards and download bases were always seperated and it worked great.

Alternatively, if the map isn't finished feel free to "review" it on it's thread. Most map makers would appreciate it.
Then a review (which usually costs about 3+ hours of work) would simply get lost in a thread with 5 pages. And this would not be the point of an artistic review at all. Don't forget, review != comment(!)
Also like I said, a review shouldn't be only for the mapper.
 

YM

LVL100 YM
aa
Dec 5, 2007
7,135
6,056
If you're posting reviews of maps on other sites and decide not to duplicate them here (I can understand not wanting them solely here) then it would be nice if you could track down the author of the map, or it's wip thread and let them know about the review.

The TF2 wiki also might be a good place for map reviews, they have a custom map section, whilst I don't know how used it is, it certainly wouldn't be a bad place to get reviews up to.
 

Acumen

Annoyer
aa
Jun 11, 2009
704
628
first you link to the page. then a mod says "great idea you can post here and there" which you decline and post a link to the site again.
hm.....just gets me thinking :/
maybe you don't "work" for them, but still you have a featured review on the site ?

i mean, i don't want to offend you, but yet i have not fully understand what your goal with this thread is ?
you offer reviews but don't wanna post on tf2maps.net site, yet you post links to this teamfortressmaps-site. so i think you might wanna rephrase your intention with this thread just so we fully understand how we can help you out with feedback on your idea ?
 

radon

L1: Registered
Sep 5, 2009
28
8
Yeah Acumen, I figured that it would look like this.
The problem is, I am not as good in english to put my idea in the right words. So let me try again:

I want to speak to the mapper community directly, because I feel like this (tf2maps.net) is their home. That's why I posted this thread here in the first place.
I'm actually asking you all, where you would look first if you wanted to read reviews (if you want that at all) and of course I want to encourage you to do this too. (I didn't find the right place for reviews of tf2 maps yet, so why not starting one?) and writing reviews without anyone reading and commenting them is rather useless for me.

but still you have a featured review on the site ?
hm, the review is featured because mine is the latest review. The site is new and I though I also might share it to you.

So I have no idea how many of you found this thread yet, but I'll start off writing a few reviews for some popular maps over at TFM and perhaps some others will try this too? We'll see. Know a better site? Let me know!
This is my way of giving something back to the community, as I really can't map and have no idea how to work out a great map :)

You want your map or someone elses reviewed and like my style of writing? PM me!
You think you can write a quality critique yourself? Do so! But not scattered all over the internet, but in one place.

I hope you can get my point now.
 

Swiftmind

L2: Junior Member
Dec 6, 2009
73
20
Why hello there Radon. As a map developer I always love to read more reviews about my map. First place I check for reviews is actually on the map's developer thread. Yeah its not all flashy and public that other review sites are but it is a central place for feedback and such over time. Most mappers have the developer threads in their signatures. But you can also hop on over to the "Maps" forum and they are all there.

Maps Forums: http://forums.tf2maps.net/forumdisplay.php?f=44

Beyond that I go check websites like FPSbanana, CalculatedChoas custom reviews and such.

So to answer your question, I do not know of any special place on these forums for just reviews. So far it really just goes under the map's developer thread like I said.
 

radon

L1: Registered
Sep 5, 2009
28
8
Thx Swiftmind, that was pretty much that what I expected to hear :)

I also got a few PMs with map suggestions, so I'll just start writing and put a link on their map development thread to the review (if its not forbidden by the forum rules)
 

HeaH

L8: Fancy Shmancy Member
Oct 2, 2008
553
102
I also got a few PMs with map suggestions, so I'll just start writing and put a link on their map development thread to the review (if its not forbidden by the forum rules)

That should be okay :)

I don't understand why the mods aren't more openminded against you. I think it would be nice to take another stab at the map review stuff on the site, and the community have grown a lot lately. Seems like the perfect time to me. This is the biggest TF2 mapping site, so this would be a logical place to kick off those map reviews
 
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drp

aa
Oct 25, 2007
2,273
2,628
That should be okay :)

I don't understand why the mods aren't more openminded against you. I think it would be nice to take another stab at the map review stuff on the site, and the community have grown a lot lately. Seems like the perfect time to me. This is the biggest TF2 mapping site, so this would be a logical place to kick off those map reviews
i dont think its about being open mindedness. we have seen one or two people bring this topic up in the past 6 months. when we did have the review section, it was lonelier than a 24/7 Arena server :p
 

Remix

L69: Deviant Member
Feb 27, 2008
69
15
Hey radon, I know Community Fortress is always looking for more writers. This is probably the best place to get to the competitive community, because most articles on CommFT can be found relinked on Gotfrag.

If you are interested in writing for them, then contact them in this thread.
 

HeaH

L8: Fancy Shmancy Member
Oct 2, 2008
553
102
Funny this should turn up around now, i was planning such a website/resource myself.

Check your PM's soon, i will be sending one shortly.

So map reviews coming up! Sounds great :)