Honestly. Are you good at spotting what maps are good for matchmaking? Yes? Can tell people why a map is good and back it up with prior experience? Yes? Can you extend your reaches to the community to find content applicable for matchmaking? Yes? Then you're good to go. Anyone can be a CC as long as they can do those things really well. We're not all wizzs at forge anymore because we've shifted our focus to finding and critiquing maps, and we've all developed the skills to do so at some point or another. Personally I'm afraid to forge anything because if it gained traction and was a potential MM candidate it would be inherently viewed as bias by the community. So the few maps I have forged, I don't even test those for fear that people would construe it as abuse of position. It's just not worth all the negative media.
You know about griffball. So you're a griffball CC. That makes sense. You shouldn't be dealing with race maps. Or competitive maps. And you don't, so it's fine.
Yes. You shouldn't. None of you guys should. I made that explicitly clear some time ago. Like last year, ya?
Grifball is one of the least significant of my duties as a CC. I was second in charge of the Race Playlist task with Ducain, and i was almost always second in charge when other CC's stepped up for their first task lead. I was in charge of updating several of the dev maps for 2v2 and other playlists. I was in charge of player containment for almost every forge map in Reach and Halo 4 (plus some dev maps). I built the map and game type for Spartan Bowl/Turkey Bowl, the most successful weekend playlist ever (outside of regulars like Infection). I was in charge of organizing and preliminary scrutinizing of the 285 Reach 4v4 forge playlist candidate maps. I could go on. None of these assignments required artistic or map design skills. They all required something which i am a specialist in. I know how to get **** done, as efficiently and effectively as possible. 343i recognizes this and knows that, when called upon, i will deliver above and beyond their expectations.
Okay, so you have a good work ethic? That's great, honestly it is. But that's an attribute that is applicable to quite literally any job. We're talking specifically about forge cartographers here. Now, I don't know what exact you mean when you say "preliminary scrutinizing of the 285 Reach 4v4 forge playlist candidate maps" but if it means selecting quality maps that go into matchmaking, then yeah. That absolutely entails design knowledge. In fact, pretty much everything you mentioned requires design skills in some way or another. It's very possible that there are much more talented forgers out there who might've edited those maps for 2v2 better than you might've, wouldn't you agree? And there's many forgers who might've done a worse job. Literally everything a cartographer does involves selecting, editing, or helping with map creation in some way. It's literally ****ing ridiculous that I'm sitting here on a forge forum, arguing with forgers, trying to convince them that some forge skill should be required to be a forge cartographer. But hey. My father has excellent work ethic though. He'd make a great forge cartographer.
Never. One of the qualities needed is a level head and some maturity, which I appreciate that you have.
As I do. But I see that and a lot of other factors as the weeding process among those who have the necessary expertise in the field of level design. It's like the job requirements saying have to have deep understanding of level design. You don't necessarily say need to be a leader, or need to be a community organizer. Those are for the interview. Let's not obfuscate the topic of the need to be versed in the art by pointing to virtues that many people hold.
He has those qualities as well. Have you watched Nokyard on Twitch, or been in a Forge session with him? I have.
wow noky, I wanted to PM you, but apparently you blocked me. so sad... --- Double Post Merged, Apr 26, 2016 --- well I can honestly point to the day that I lost ALL faith in every CC (I had lost faith in a number of them already). It was when I read an article in which the simple concept of why flags are stood in the open was explained. I had never NEVER heard any CC explain this before. As far as I am concerned, they are all at the beginner level. And some forge works I have seen lately are amazing. Those are the people I would be courting for the CC if I were 343. Look we can disagree, okay? The world does go on. You won't change my mind.
I just checked and I'm not able to message him in any way either. Lmao. I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that it's a result of some strange antisocial non-contactable social setting he's applied to his forgehub account that applies to everyone. That being said... it's more than likely not. Great guy. Superb way to handle any sort of conflict within the community. Just block people you don't agree with. Edit: looks like it's privacy settings for his account. That's cool then
^^^Damn straight. Especially: "... If you can effectively design something on paper, cleanly transfer it in forge, understand all the tools and gameplay basics a halo map needs and then identify and fix any type of issue then you're more than qualified for that portion of being a CC. I wholly disagree with many design concepts well known individuals that would be CC candidates preach but that doesn't mean they don't qualify. I'm not completely close minded enough to miss that. A CC needs to be a well rounded and mature individual that has expertise in being a leader, an organizer and all other obvious factors. Most important is someone who can stay devoted to the community for a long period of time and doesn't just drop off the map. So good luck finding someone who holds all of that down because now that were talking reality here there aren't many. The halo community is small and its not easy to find people like this. CCs don't get paid for this **** and they do it out of genuine enjoyment and for others."
@MrGreenWithAGun @MultiLockOn It might be something weird with FH. There is no Start a Direct Conversation button for a lot of profiles that I look at despite (hopefully) none of them blocking me. But there is another location other than the main profile page for that option. If you go to someones profile, click on the Information tab then scroll down to the Interact section. Under there is a Start a Conversation button.
Profile Settings by NOKYARD, on Flickr Yeah, i do not remember changing these settings but have opened them up just now. I will answer the rest later but for now i have to clear this up. Generally, the CCs DO NOT select the maps for matchmaking. We present all community supplied maps which pass preliminary scrutiny (can it play the intended game type? are there spawns? is the map complete? does it support the intended player count?) to 343i in test sessions and they decide which maps they want to see in the next test. The team at 343i who review these maps are the ones with the desired skills you describe here. We are merely the gate keepers who keep out ill fitting/broken content so their time is not wasted, and those gates are much, much wider than you seem to think they are.
The position of the Community Cartographers is so often misunderstood, even after all this time. They curate community content. That literally means they bring content from the community to 343, whether it is popular content or underexposed content or content solicited from their friends. The screening process is 343's job. The CCs most important responsibility on the other hand is to be a community leader: somebody who can take charge and organize testing sessions, work with Forgers to clean up their maps for matchmaking, and do whatever else 343 asks them to, like update player containment on multiplayer maps. Or as @NOKYARD said, "get **** done." Most of the good designers in this community would not make it passed this stage. It doesn't matter how long you've been designing, how adept you are at Forging or how many maps you've made. If you can't handle simple community responsibility, nobody is going to care. Nobody is saying that CCs do not need to know anything to have the position. I would expect people who are brought on for their specialty to be familiar with it. Nokyard can't be the Grifball guy if he didn't know anything about Grifball. I wouldn't want to see a "BTB" guy who doesn't even play BTB, and so on. Obviously the CCs have to be familiar with Forge, the same as anyone has to know how to use the equipment to do their job. But 343 isn't looking for designers, they're looking for people who can bring them content from the designers. That doesn't mean there shouldn't be good designers in the system, but there are so few who fit the qualifications that it wouldn't make much difference. Besides, we're unlikely to see individuals with those skills brought on considering that the recent drama surrounding the system, legitimate or otherwise, has put many of the advancement talks on hold - perhaps indefinitely.
Nokyard, you are one of the mildest, most modest persons I've met online. I hope this settles the issue.