The Mappies (An Idea)

[Fruity Snacks]

... I thank all people for their feedback on this, and I thank the site staff for their acceptance of the idea...

I just learned of this, and I have not given it any acceptance. I want to know what exactly you plan to do with it, and how it's going to be ran. I share some issues that Aly has, but I not all of this. I'm not against this idea, but I definitely want to know what exactly you have planned, and what you have envisioned for this ceremony.

 

[ExtraCheesyPie]

Why is this not a thing already?

 

[Idolon]

Here's an outline for a contest I wrote up a while ago. It follows a similar format, but also operates how a traditional mapping contest does. Do what you will with it.

 

[UKCS-Alias]

Some ideas:
Best control point map (includes TC and KOTH, excludes mvm)
Best payload map (both normal and race)
Best arena map
Best MvM map
Best other gamemodes map (modes like SD, RD or any gimmick gamemode people came up with)

Best detailed map
Best optimized map
Best balanced map
Best entity work
Best unfinished map (it has a finished alpha state but is fully undetailed)

Best gimmick (note the waiting moments in thunder mountain and barnblitz are gimmicks)
Best transition (the best reuse of a spawn when going between stage 1 and 2)
Best finale zone (final cap, bomb pit, hatch in mvm - simply the one with the best touch to it)
Best use of a new theme (themes barely in use by valve or other mappers, for example the hong kong, space, japanese, jungle and so on are fine for this - its a skill to design a new mapping theme)

Thats 14 potential awards of which only 5 should get a potential runner up to me.

I don't care if it's a popularity contest.

For a part i do. Popularity simply shows which maps are best accepted. For the first 5 awards in the above example the popularity should matter. For the next 5 things its more technical and doesnt require a perfectly built map. Popularity on those would be a very bad thing and remove all of its usefullness.
Even for our existing contests popularity matters alot. A map no one knows about could be perfect, but if no one knows about it... whats its use about it. Trying to do the effort to at least get your map known is vital. And when it is good it gets popular anyway.

Also, i think that 20 awards is fine. but not all of them deserve a runner up. Only for major categories it should matter, but for details it should not. If someone did some excelent entity work, the chance that someone equals it to begin with is minimal. Its not impossible, but im sure you arent going to get 5 diffirent mappers in many situations. That only happens with detailing contests in 72h format.

The requirement also should be that the map must be finished (except on the unfinished part - of which i would say it still can only be given once to a map)

 

[Grizzly Berry]

One issue that will be brought up is which maps qualify? Do the maps have to have been started in 2015 or just completed?

 

[Uncuepa]

One issue that will be brought up is which maps qualify? Do the maps have to have been started in 2015 or just completed?

I was thinking last 12 months. So by the time this begins, it will probably be maps since May 2014.

 

[fauks]

I still think, keep it simple. It works for the Saxxys.

Best KotH
Best Payload
Best CP (Push or A/D)

Ignore the rest. Promote maps that will get played on servers. The recent survey showed what people like.

 

[Idolon]

Recognizing the best arena map of 2015 wouldn't detract from the popularity of the best payload of 2015. The original point of the Mappys was to recognize excellence in the community, and cropping out the less popular gamemodes seems really backwards (considering that the best this community has to offer is usually innovation).

 

[Fantaboi]

To be honest, a "best of the year" sounds much better than this, and great contributors are already awarded with a medallion to show off.

I really like the idea of more things going on, but I can't imagine getting excited for a generic contest.

 

[Jethro]

I'm also not a fan of this. This doesn't really serve any purpose that isn't already done in some way by the site (showcase section, mapping contests, etc).

Also, the name is pretty generic.

 

[UKCS-Alias]

I still think, keep it simple. It works for the Saxxys.

Best KotH
Best Payload
Best CP (Push or A/D)

Ignore the rest.

Sleep well CTF

Not to mention giving certain map times a higher priority over those that realy matter.
You split koth and cp... which both are CP maps. Yet you seem to ignore flag based maps.

Its just a bad idea to combine map types you cant combine. With the list i posted earlier i even made the same flaw, and that had 5 maps (although a quick reorder can still keep it to 5):

• CP/TC (all use CP's and are much larger than koth)
• PL, PLR (all payload)
• CTF,SD,RD (all maps which are flag based in the gameplay)
• KOTH,ARENA (small single cp maps - and many times a koth can be made as arena map aswel, it might make the choise to go arena a bad one. But the maps themselve are just too similar to each other - but personaly i would prefer seeing them getting split to promote arena more)
• MvM (the only player vs bots mode)

Reducing it much further is just going to give conflicts on the difficulty at mapmaking. As even though MvM uses a flag like CTF. Thats the only same thing. The whole bot control part on that is then somewhat ignored. And it can even use CP's. If you would use that logic arena and koth could be mixed with cp... and even payload could be mixed as its just a moving control point.

At certain moments you just have to split it. And the above list at least did split it on a few important parts:
Koth and CP are both popular at map making they feature alot of contenders just because of that. And with more contenders you can split them on key diffirences (just like music has best male and female singer awards). And the other 3 modes each feature their own contender list and vary enough from each other.

 

[Idolon]

Here's a question: who's judging? I'd imagine that it would be the staff, or some sort of elected board. In that case, it'd probably be best to let the board decide what the categories are once all the maps are in. That way, it's more of a recognition of excellence rather than a contest.