72hr competition #3/Ironmapper comp - Charity?

LeSwordfish

semi-trained quasi-professional
aa
Aug 8, 2010
4,102
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if people choose their favourites, they'll name ones they've already played 90% of the time. Which means that once a few maps edge ahead even slightly they'll get an irreducible lead as their votes and requests grow exponentially.

Maps that don't get played often equally get less and less plays, until they are never played, simply because no-one has heard of them. And they won't be bad maps. Most likely simply ones the creator can't be constantly pimping.
 

Terwonick

L6: Sharp Member
Aug 25, 2010
278
190
if people choose their favourites, they'll name ones they've already played 90% of the time. Which means that once a few maps edge ahead even slightly they'll get an irreducible lead as their votes and requests grow exponentially.

Maps that don't get played often equally get less and less plays, until they are never played, simply because no-one has heard of them. And they won't be bad maps. Most likely simply ones the creator can't be constantly pimping.

That does make sense, but that's why I (thought I was) asking for a large number of top maps. Let's say we get 100 maps, how many people do you think will play all of them? I know I won't have the time. I do see the problem you're pointing out, I just cant think of a way to fairly have a vote for so many maps.
 

grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
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Mar 4, 2008
5,441
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There isn't. But then Nobody will care/blame Valve if Valve pick the best looking ones like they did with the artpass. Valve map vs 10 or so select maps or something.

If it's only a 72 hour thing then it's not like you "wasted" 3 months (Like the artpass), just a weekend.
 

Boylee

pew pew pew
aa
Apr 29, 2008
1,068
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Which map? If we get a 72hr contest set up, and valve mappers enter, there could potentially 100+ entrants. The voting would be ridiculous.

But I'm game.

How about a 72 hour map where we allow people to make teams of say up to five people? It would (read should) dramatically lower the number of entries whilst simultaneously raising the bar for quality. Not only this but it would allow people to map in shifts meaning the streams would never go idle (like ironmapper but less gruelling) and the mappers themselves would be able to broadcast comms too which, would greatly increase viewers' insight into the process.

Loving the VALVe vs. TF2Ms idea btw. I'd almost say it has enough legs to be a major comp.
 

grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
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Mar 4, 2008
5,441
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I like the shifts idea. 4 people per team gives each person a 6 hour shift on each of the 3 days to do what they want with the map. Communication would be key, though, in order to prevent each project becoming a themeless cluster fuck of content.

If the teams could prepare and draw concepts before the contest there's less chance people will flake out during the limited event time.

Would streaming be made a requirement though? We couldn't possibly watch everyone at once if there are even a moderate amount of entries.

Don't see much room for Valve in this idea, but including Valve isn't a necessity.
 
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Dr. Spud

Grossly Incandescent
aa
Mar 23, 2009
880
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Since you're talking about involving charities, why not make the contest about giving to the TF2 community, rather than just involving our community.

I still think a 72 hour mapping contest isn't going to produce terribly great maps. A flood of 100 okay maps isn't going to benefit the community, and similary when we start talking about collaborating within 72 hours, I think the quality is only going to suffer.

If you focus on giving to the larger TF2 community, then maybe making full maps isn't what we want in the first place. What if it was 72 hours for TF2Maps members to work on a content pack to aid mappers. It could be in the same vein as the swamp/construction packs, but wider scope. People could work on props, prefabs, scripts, 3rd party tools, map templates, vmf galleries, etc. 72 hours would be enough time to produce really useful stuff. It would also be easier to involve Valve in this, because at the end Valve could (with some amount of quality control) release it like they did the Swamp pack. The charity part could be that the money Valve would pay to purchase it goes to a charity instead, or something. There are multiple ways you could monetize it.
 

grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
aa
Mar 4, 2008
5,441
3,814
Since you're talking about involving charities, why not make the contest about giving to the TF2 community, rather than just involving our community.

I still think a 72 hour mapping contest isn't going to produce terribly great maps. A flood of 100 okay maps isn't going to benefit the community, and similary when we start talking about collaborating within 72 hours, I think the quality is only going to suffer.

If you focus on giving to the larger TF2 community, then maybe making full maps isn't what we want in the first place. What if it was 72 hours for TF2Maps members to work on a content pack to aid mappers. It could be in the same vein as the swamp/construction packs, but wider scope. People could work on props, prefabs, scripts, 3rd party tools, map templates, vmf galleries, etc. 72 hours would be enough time to produce really useful stuff. It would also be easier to involve Valve in this, because at the end Valve could (with some amount of quality control) release it like they did the Swamp pack. The charity part could be that the money Valve would pay to purchase it goes to a charity instead, or something. There are multiple ways you could monetize it.

Whilst i agree with this sentiment, isn't this just what we've always done, i thought the idea was that we'd try and do something differently and involve communities outside of the mapping area. Even a content pack will only really reach mappers (at least until they do something with it for players to appreciate several months down the line).

I suppose we could invite people from other content creation sights like polycount so that it's not the same old modellers spear heading each project. But again, we're still not reaching an audience who aren't already aware of us.
 

Boylee

pew pew pew
aa
Apr 29, 2008
1,068
709
Then the issue with teams is prizes.

... I have a job, but I'm not THAT rich.

Teams also usually get a littl weird after a while, where it usually ends up being 1-2 people working on it, even though there is 5.

Prizes? I thought this was for charity.

To everyone worried about quality, male it a 72 hour koth contest. Job done.
 

MangyCarface

Mapper
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Feb 26, 2008
1,626
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I thought a cool variation on iron mapper would be a cross-atlantic partnership contest; start things in the UK/europe, and then pass the map on after x hours to a US partner, and maybe 1 more round to finish off the dual 'map'. Bonus idea: no communication between partners, other than a tweet-length note accompanying the vmf every time

edit: no idea why i put map in quotes
 

Sel

Banned
Feb 18, 2009
1,239
2,570
Can't tell if joking.
By that, do you mean the servers always empty now..? Their websites still up.

The website is still up, but the activity on both the forums and server has plummeted compared to a year or two ago.
 

grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
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Mar 4, 2008
5,441
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Asses. They will be handed to us.

But would they? I prefer more of the custom officialised maps and non-official custom maps than Valve created ones. Alright, my favourite map of all time is badwater and i enjoy trolling people on 2fort, but the quality gap between serious amatuer level designers and industry employed ones... i don't see as that big.