Figured it out!

I'm not sure exactly what you're referring to to be honest. If its the employee-forged maps in matchmaking(smashed and cubed), then I think you might be correct, those were made by people who don't play the game competitively. Their actual maps though, are all pretty good from a gameplay standpoint, and they're all desgined(or at least approved) by people with degrees in game design and a history of mapmaking.

If you're referring to the "What were they thinking?" decisions to make Foundry and Sandbox's crypt have uneven walls, then I've got absolutely no idea. And I don't think you can chalk up either to the way they play the game, cause I think everyone would agree that being able to snugly place things against a wall would be a good thing. I've got no idea why they would do those things.

 

That actually makes a lot of sense. It's a difference of opinion rooted very deeply in a difference in gameplay style. Because they look at the game and can see everything behind it, they use amazingly different strategies and tactics that normal players aren't used to. Because of this, when they make maps, they test them with their own strategies and develop them around the same. But because of how drastically different their playstyles are from the rest of the world, the perfection achieved in studio testing is lost in translation. The maps which Bungie praises as wonderful maps become the scorn of the community.

Brilliant deduction, Time Glitch!

EDIT: I'd recommend posting this on the B.net forums, because it's a pretty drastic problem that isn't terribly difficult to correct.

 

Agreed. I've also 'analyzed' early BETA gameplay of Halo 3 and then gameplay on the same map today, and they are so different. You can't complain about how the map was built today, because the testers played them well when the game first came out. Watch the ViDocs of Halo 3 in the early stages and you'll see players running across the open areas with assault rifles and using equipment for cover. Today, watch the same game and see players gaining the advantage over the opponent by using the higher grounds and power weapons. Great idea.

 

This is a pretty interesting concept. People like Shishka have played the Halo trilogy for their whole life, but Walshy isn't really an exception to that. As for Shishka playing a completley different style than the average player, it's hard to say. There really aren't that many different ways to play. Its either passive or aggressive, good BR or bad BR, etc. Walshy definitley doesn't have a bad BR for obvious reasons, and Shishka's (from the video) was fair too.
Note that they played on Assembly before it was released on LIVE. Shishka has obviously played Assembly throughout its development and final stages, whereas Walshy probably played it a more minimal amount of times. Shishka probably knew all the tips and tricks on the map, however minimal there are.
Nice post, it made me think.

 

Did you ever notice they ruined a few of the only good things about some maps?

Snowbound use to be amazingly fun with laser, ghost, sniper and camo. Now all the battle takes place in the basement with little on the upper parts. I don'y know what they were thinking there at all. lol

Zanzibar in halo 2 promoted gameplay in all areas. now we have last resort where te battle takes play in the middle only. No beach fights, no flood wall fights. It's because they wanted to add aesthetics.

I personally don't think they play halo 3... I think they just build the maps by looks, That's my theory.

 

I partially agree with Blaze here. All of the old maps were for gameplay cause they didn't have to work at making a map look good. they have the same virus as some of FH does.

 

I think that this theory fully applies to the Assault Rifle. Bungie claims that it is the "perfect starting weapon," but if you take just one look at the Bnet forums, you'll see about 47.8 threads complaining about how the BR should replace the AR as the starting weapon in all gametypes. I also think that the testing that they did internally wasn't a good indicator of quality because everyone was new to the game. Obviously, after having the game for over a year, people play differently than they did when they only had it for a week.

 

The creators having a different idea of how people play the game isn't all that weird. Most games are built from the creators point of view but the players chose to do what the creator would have never done. For example, in gears of war, They expected everyone to use the lancer. Well, that didn't happen, everyone just used the shotgun.

 

This problem is present in anything and everything that man creates.
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During the process of designing anything, the designer usually puts a lot of thought into the advantages and disadvantages of his/her design. Everything is thought out thoroughly and is tested to see if it gives the result that the designer originally had in mind. Needed alterations are then implemented into the design and tested again. This keeps on going until everything or close to everything in the design corresponds with what the designer originally had in mind.

Now, when someone else goes out and uses said design, they will more than likely use it differently than how the designer used it. Thus presenting issues in the design that the designer did not originally foresee. This is why new versions of anything that man creates are often made.
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Forged creations in Halo 3 are a great representation of this process.

Before going and actually forging a map, the map maker (designer) lays out a design for his/her map. After finishing the design, the designer makes any changes he/she deems necessary and comes out with a final design.
Said designer then starts forging the map. Again, alterations to the original design will more than likely be made during the forging process for various reasons.
After finishing the forging process of the map, it goes into the testing stage. Tests provide more feedback from other people so that the designer can make his final product correspond more exactly with what he/she had in mind. (Of course, testers can provide feedback that may be new or go against what the designer originally had in mind, but that's not the point.)

After testing, the map gets released. People play it (hopefully) and give the designer even more feedback to try and perfect his/her map. The designer goes back and fixes any sort of problems and adds or removes anything suggested.
A second version of the map is then released and the cycle may or may not repeat.
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What is stated in the OP and what I said above cannot really be described by the word "problem."
It is more like human nature. Everyone is different. Therefore, anything and everything will be interpreted differently by each and every person in the world. So there is no "perfect product" or "perfect map" as everything ever presented to man will be different for everybody.

 

I thought Bungie hired non-employees to test their maps. That's what the Beta was for, right? I also thought they took in suggestions and input by the gamer population, and not just from within the company. Guess I was wrong.

I like most of Halo 3's maps anyways, except for Construct and Isolation. Most, if not everything happens on the upper floors of Construct, and Isolation is just plain whack on matchmaking.

Snowbound was an awesome map, but now everything takes place underground. I got a perfection on Snowbound, but most of my kills were from underground. I want more ground level fighting. Bring back all the things Bungie took out. (Wait, didn't they? Aren't Snowbound and Boundless available in MM? Whatever.)