[Suggestion / Opinion] Community Involvement and Map Submission Process - Part 2

[Suggestion / Opinion] Community Involvement and Map Submission Process - Part 2
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Part 1 for Reference - http://www.forgehub.com/threads/sug...ent-and-map-submission-process-part-1.151456/

Hello again,

Last week we had some lengthy discussion that brought out some great possibilities that we could see 343 Industries adding to an official website, that would allow everyone to properly submit maps to 343i. Most of us seem to feel that if we were supplied with a system like this, proper handling of announcements, map judging, and all around central hub for all things Forge creations. Some of you were in favor of similar system like Steam Workshop, that used a voting based review system that would help content that was well received amongst the community should merge well integrating into the matchmaking system. Then there were great counterpoints to that argument that faced us with users abusing that system. This article will be as long as the last one. I also will share some ideas that I had manipulating some of Halowaypoint’s code that give us some visuals of what sort of system we could have. Again I appreciate your participation with this write-up.


Foundation:

The Halo community is subdivided into numerous communities, many of these were mentioned in the post, so we won’t bring up each and every one of them again. But let’s take a community that has a specific cultural that doesn’t branch very far from its core gametype, Grifballhub. Grifballhub is a community that houses most, if not all of its content based on Grifball. So in essence, we classify them as subcommunity. That community even though it’s small, their passion for the game is as strong as all of the others. So for the casual person who is playing Grifball on matchmaking right now, I bet a high percentage of players have no clue where those maps came from or the process behind it. Luckily Forgehub’s map database has been our bandaid for all things forge and customs. But what if there was a place where every Halo player in the community knew where they could find that amazing Sandtrap remake at, without having to dig through text fields to find out who the creator is or following the The343Favorites profile to bookmark it.

What if this system would allow everyone to view, share, comment on the most outrageous mini game ever created? Right now, unless you’re embedding yourself into following various subcommunities, it can be difficult to find some quality content. Which has led to various discussions over the years about the Community Cartographers. This system, if implemented correctly and community driven, the Community Cartographers could have a a easier time that would allow them to focus on higher priority items like coordinating, testing, and reviewing quality maps rather time spent working against a system that could develop into an unfair and biased to decisions being made because of lack of time that is allotted. I am not saying that this is a cause and effect of the Community Cartographer’s past decision making, this is me simply saying they have enough on their plate so let’s eliminate several factors that benefit the community as a whole. Let’s work smarter, not harder. Let us create something that will stand the tides going forward, we need to make our foundation as strong as we can possibly make it.


Cartographer:

Over the past week, I was reminded of how much I love looking at architecture and what my life would be like today if I went in the direction of being an architect. From simple designs to complex masterpieces, understanding the design and the mind of the person who designed it is like an access code in order to creating your own design. Each design will never be 100% the same, because you may not like the way that person created a doorway, where a doorway shouldn’t have been.

Where am I going with this? Every content creator within the Halo community has a unique vision how they want the game to be played. We are all masters of our access code. Every one of us has a unique signature to our level designs. So why wouldn’t you want to share your design with the world?

Instead of me continuing that compelling story, I wanted to show you all what ‘could’ our system look like. What features that I would like added that could help us all. So I would like to start off on Halo Waypoint. So I decided to look at code of the website (Halowaypoint), felt like the direction of the system could be housed under the Community section. Oh and by the way, I named this system the ‘Cartographer’s Library’. Simple and understanding, plus it’s kind of fitting for our purposes. I wasn’t able to create everything that I wanted to create, but some these images can give some sort of inkling of what I was trying to achieve.

So I took various pages within the site and moved things around, like images from other sections, manipulated the submit new forum topic form and made it into a map submission page, and created a simple page for our beloved new favorite BTB map, Scavenger. These pages are exactly how I wanted, but with limited time that I had, I just threw some things together.

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This simple mockup can spark endless ideas of how we can achieve a central site to house all our creations. I keep referring back to Forgehub’s map database, because it’s pretty close to what we need and it’s already done an amazing job for all past and current intended purposes.

Here’s another thing that would work in conjunction to the Cartographer’s Library, having an in-game feature, similar to what we had in the past, but something a little more modern. A system that would allow us to publish a map that is working, playable, and polished for matchmaking standards. We currently have a system in game that allows us to store our ‘Files’ and ‘Bookmark’ other’s creations. Now what if this publishing system was an easier way for us to share our creations that are finished instead of linking the world to our working items. I know we are in due for a File Browser system that is in the works by 343i that could inevitably be the exact thing that we are currently talking about. So the next few photos will show you some of the ideas that I had that I was referring to earlier. Also, these photos have captions on them for better explanations.

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For those who rather view these images in an album form, here’s the link https://imgur.com/a/FpKdv


The Librarian(s):

This section will refer back to our community involvement topic and a proposed voting system like Steam Workshop. Some of you brought up excellent points about the possibilities of abusing the system to your advantage, so in some regards we will have to be stewards of our own system if we want to hold ourselves to a standard. So here’s an example of what I think could work.

Like most things these days, we don’t buy things blindly. We either read reviews or buy simply from the voting system that is based on those who reviewed an item before our purchase. If the product meets our personal standard, we usually buy it. If that product is bad, we review that product of having some sort buyer’s beware context that will deter future purchasers from buying a product that has flaws. We the buyers, undoubtedly trust that system. We actually trust people, those who we have never met before and somehow they have either convinced us to buy a product or not. So why can it we not have a similar experience with a map rating system. What can we do to either help the 343i and the community to either play our maps or not?

We can ultimately be the curators of the community. Everyone has the ability to be purchaser who buys based on someone’s review or we can be the reviewer that can ultimately give a map a stamp of community approval. I believe overtime, with a solid map rating system with a prominent set of standards the rating is based off of, maps overtime can be heavily influenced by top-reviewers, similar to those from a top online store. Those particular reviews mean so much, because those reviews can help curate how the map’s design is judged. Facing the gauntlet of these top-reviewers can help cultivate better maps before reaching our Community Cartographers and thus before reaching 343i.

All of this is my humble opinion what could possibly work, if it’s done correctly. I’m not trying persuade the entire community on a map voting process, just showing a positive take how a voting system if used correctly can actually shape and progress our community standards.


The Reclaimer:

What can be said if this system is in place, it’s functioning properly, and everyone is extremely happy with the improvements? Now, what? Referring to the point that was brought up, what if there were playlists that were either more permanent (Grifball, 2v2, BTB) and we have maps from all different areas that need to be brought up to speed for matchmaking. Well, since Grifball and BTB were just updated, it will likely be months before those maps will be revisited or updated. Having these past initiatives to get a map pool of forge maps, has been great, even better than past Halo games. If the Cartographer’s Library functioned as intended and playlists that were structured differently, do we think this process could work in favor for everyone as well?

Back to the Operations from CS:GO, we are fortunate to play on new maps that bring a whole new team dynamic to the game for a limited of time. Those maps that are played more, stay in a more permanent role. But CS:GO has a flaw, their map playlist selection is very limited to either Hostage (VIP), Bomb, and Team Deathmatch to name a few. With Halo, we are blessed with an abundance of gametypes. Rotating playlists is easy for 343i as it does bring attention to that playlist, knowing we will not see Team Snipers probably for another month. I will be sure to make time available to play that gametype when it comes back into rotation. With the introduction of new maps currently, it’s almost like a spare tire. The tire works as intended, but we all know the real tire should be replaced before the spare tire malfunctions.

When the maps are submitted to the Cartographer’s Library, we can reach out to a multitude of testers, rather than our subcommunity who will grant us only a limited amount of playtest prior to submitting to a CC. This kind of access is a plus! Then we run into an issue with matchmaking servers, where maps seem to either work great or they break horribly resulting in experiences that either shape or break someone’s first impressions of a map. Having a way mitigate those issues would be ideal, getting there is a process that could be shaped by the community. If we introduced maps in conjunction with our Seasons, whether the map was a Race track or a Grifball court or even Competitive Core map. Using the seasons to the gain data on which maps fared better than others, those maps can either be rotated into a more permanent role and those who did poorly can be short lived.


Final Remarks:

Topping this post off with a thank you for making it this far. This write-up was based off of last week’s opinions / suggestions, both mine and yours. Some of you influenced me to push this topic as a common goal for all of us. We all want a better system. We all want pride in achieving the status of getting a map into matchmaking. And there some of you who are the real MVPs. Those who help and take the time to play test maps, reviewing them, that ultimately shapes both the creation and the creator. We all share the same passion of having the best Halo experience. So why don’t we influence those who can make the change by giving them a solid forethought of what we all desire.


Thanks,
Nitro


TL;DR - Introducing a new home for all things content within Halo Waypoint and how it could work. Plus there are images for those who love seeing things visually like me.

 

I didn't mention in the OP, but I will have some extra time this week if I want to really try to recreate an actually look alike on waypoint (Forgehub's map submission).

 

Thanks, means a ton. Versioning is something that I would REALLY like to see added. I plan on continuing my quest in this series. Next week will dive deep into the voting process, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

 

Thanks for taking the time to reading it! I honestly had no XBOX access last week since I was moving, so I chose to do something that was still productive.

The voting process was touched a little bit more today and a lot in the comments in the last post. All-in-all, it will based around that. Thanks again!

 

I figured since it was less-drama, it wouldn't spark much interest. But still, I feel it's necessary to keep the quest for change going. Your points were hinted by a lot of people. I hope we will see a file browser that negates this post, then again I would love to see 343i implement a workshop/map database for us. Integrated with in-game features that make the world forge and customs seem in tune with the rest of the game.