Why do you map?

[Coolz]

So, while I am completely and utterly bored I guess I'll ask a question that I've been wondering for quite a while.

Why do you guys map?
I know for some of you it'd be "Because its my job" but more or less what I mean by the question is why did you start mapping in the first place? What inspired you/horrified you into mapping? For me, more or less its a bit of both.

To start this off, I'll post why I started mapping.

When I got Left 4 dead 2 I had watched so many youtube videos and was a crazy fan for the game, and as such, played it all day every day until it became boring for me. When it got boring, I moved on to Team Fortress 2 with high expectations for the maps the community made, and I must say, no hard feelings, but a lot of them were complete shit. I know all of you have seen about two hundred maps that have Half Life 2 textures or have no detail anywhere in final, or perhaps some other thing that would suggest a two year old designed it.
Of course, the maps on this website don't seem to look like they were designed by two year olds, but still, quite a lot of the servers at the time had those shit maps. As a person who can't stand horrible detail (Alpha and Beta are fine by me, but finals without a prop or anything except blocks everywhere...) I stopped playing most community maps and started to learn hammer to create community maps of my own that weren't designed by a two year old, and hopefully stop the uprising of Two-year-old designed maps. Wouldn't that be nice.
Overall it might be a stupid reason, but its why I began mapping.

 

[Freyja]

I enjoy creating things for other people to experience, and I enjoy being transported to different worlds. Mapping, for me, is a way for both of those to manifest into one hobby, I get to create worlds for other people to enjoy. I mapped for many other games before TF2 but I guess I stuck with this one because it's got quite an active community for it, and I've come to enjoy (mostly) the challenge of trying to make that world play well also.

For me, that also extends into things like writing, reading fantasy, creating fantastical worlds, drawing, etc, but mapping is one of the most rewarding of those because you get to directly experience people enjoying your creation, as well as being able to enjoy it yourself with little "maker-bias" because of the way TF2 works. I think that's something rather unique to multiplayer mapping, which is great!

 

[chemelia]

I said this in chat once and I stand by it. Somehow, some part of my sick, twisted-ass mind finds it relaxing to map. That, and just seeing that I have made something that other people enjoy just makes me so happy.

 

[HQDefault]

Well, I started mapping a LONG time ago. Basically, any game that had a level editor, I played the hell out of it. I was always a very creative soul. And then I got into minecraft, played it religiously on both game modes until I got burnt out. Then I found TF2. I wanted to make maps for it for a while, but I couldn't figure out crap. Then I found tutorials and took off.

So, why do I map? For the satisfaction of winning, in a way. I like to know that people notice what I make. Back when I first started TF2, I was excited about people using my dispenser. You can imagine how awesome this is now.

 

[wareya]

I like it, it's interesting, I'm learning useful skills, and I can make useful things in the meantime.

 

[Waffe]

Well, I started mapping a LONG time ago. Basically, any game that had a level editor, I played the hell out of it. I was always a very creative soul.

This, basically.
For me it started with LEGOs and carpentry(?) though, followed by the various level editors (mainly THPS 2 & 4 and TimeSplitters 2). I also got interested in game design around the same time. After I got addicted to TF2 my friend suggested Hammer and I tried it, got frustrated with it, retried it (for some odd reason) and liked it ever since!

As for why I map? I guess I like making stuff others can have fun with. It's also my main creative outlet for now.

 

[Idolon]

I map to impress the ladies

 

[Pocket]

When I was a kid, I wanted to be an architect when I grew up. I looked at books of home plans from the library and drew my own... then my dad started letting me use his computer and showed me how BASIC worked and that was the end of that career path. But I never lost interest in the idea. And building a house in Hammer is a lot easier than building one IRL.

 

[LeSwordfish]

Idolon got in before me but i was just going to say "the pussy"

I like videogames. I like being creative.

 

[Dain]

It's relaxing.

Also I like the community aspect too - getting feedback and playing imps and shittalking each other. If there was no community I probably wouldn't be motivated enough to finish anything.

 

[radarhead]

I map because I want to create something that will stick around for people to see, and they will look back and say, "Wow that [map], I'm glad someone made that. I like it". Also I like tf2 and I like creating worlds and scenarios and narrative.

 

[Boccow]

I am a lover of landscapes of all kinds, whether from an old romanticism painting or the scenography of a movie . I like to live in beautiful places and learn about their history, especially here in Italy.

I start study level design because since I played titles that have given me wonderful scenario, full of colors, filled with a special atmosphere. From the old days with the NES and PSX playing Maui Mallard in Cold Shadow, Crash Bandicoot (Good Days!) to the latest Arkham City for example. I want to create a virtual landscape that can entertain the player, teach him something or tell a story like an adventure book.

 

[Crash]

I've always loved creating worlds/ stuff for others to interact with. I DM a pretty long-running DnD game as well. Anything level editor or character creation tool in a game always ends up sucking me in for hours. I even dabbled with Duke Nukem 3d's Build editor a bit way back when that was a thing, but didn't get further than a managing to spawn into a few basic rooms connected to each other (to be fair, I was like 9 years old). TF2 just finally legitimized those efforts.

But the big thing that always comes to mind is when I was a wee dude playing de_ratz on CS 1.6 or so. Those maps always stood out to me as a fond memory and were just good fun. It's exciting to see something I created possibly become something like that for someone else. I've watched a few videos of young people playing on Trainsawlaser or Wubwubwub and it really makes me excited to know that 10-20 years from now they could think back fondly on something I created. "Hey remember that one crazy TF2 map with the trains that fell from the sky/ dubstep music?"

Also in it for the ladies/ fat stacks of bills, yo. Aw yiss.

 

[TyeZenneth]

It is a personal philosophy of mine that one should always be doing something constructive, even in your free time, and learning and perfecting mapping is just another thing I am attempting to do.

 

[Fruity Snacks]

I was bored.


I know that doesn't contribute much, but I was bored one day freshman year. I picked up hammer while I was waiting for my now girlfriend to get up so we could to brunch one weekend and it just kind of stuck. It was fun, I enjoyed doing it, so I rolled with it. But seriously, I was bored as hell.



... My whole potential career was built on me being bored and my gf (at the time) being a late sleeper.

 

[Sergis]

thats just the way my dice rolled

had it rolled differently id have applied myself elsewhere

instead of doommaps the world could have had doomastrophysics or something

 

[puxorb]

I have always had a fascination with game design.

Every always has the whole "graphics vs gameplay" debate, and I find that they overlook a lot of what gaming really is. I have always been the creative type. When I was a kid I would spend all day in my room, sometimes forgetting to eat breakfast and lunch because I was building a spaceship out of lego bricks. As I got older I really got into minecraft because I found it cool that you can make something awesome out of only cubes.

After a conversation one day with my friends about how much people overlook some of the most important elements of game design, I finally caved in. I just had to figure out how to map for tf2. I wanted to know how you make someone look beautiful while keeping it easy to run on a low-end computer. How to balance an area so that one class is not better than another/one player is better than another by a large margin. I wanted to know how buildings were made and how game-developers interpreted realism and adapted it for their genre. I wanted to get a feel for how long it take and what kind of skills you need to do the job.

I am not a good worker. I never was a straight A or even a B student. I failed out of college due to overwhelming tests and depression. But when I map, I can sit there for 8 hours straight. Its like I am a kid again, lost in bliss. It's what makes me truly happy.

The world is a scary place, and lots of things change when you become an adult, but sitting in front of my computer, creating fictional worlds and watching the reactions of all you nerds, people who are passionate about what I also like, makes me happy; It is what I truly love to do. I feel like kid again, and it is the most important thing to feel like this as an adult who's life is constantly changing.

 

[Prestige]

manipulating/predicting human behavior is fascinating and i was addicted to tf2