So something that has been on my mind for the past few days...what happened with the SC2 custom mapping community?
When WC3 came out, it had a very robust community of players playing hundreds of custom maps. It had a plethora of map makers constantly making new game modes, and updating existing maps to be better/bug-free/balanced. Hell, WC3 gave the world the MOBA genre (DOTA)!
I remember fondly playing tons of maps and them all having a different gameplay feel. I remember playing some very micro heavy hero battle games, some Co-Op defense games, and very intense Tower Defense games that had really good tower strategy formats.
Yet, when I played SC2 both when it came out, and recently. It has never felt the same. The map community tried to convert/port a lot of the popular WC3 mods over a long time ago. To name a few, Dark Deeds, Kobold Tribes (WC3's Ice Troll Tribes), Element TD. But even the handful of WC3 maps that got recreated didn't feel the same. Either thematically or balance-wise. Not only that but the types of games that seemed to be popular in SC2 seemed to be very polarizing and monotonous.
The games in SC2 that turned out to be popular were generally poorly scripted/balanced or just spam click fests. Some examples were games like MineralZ, Line Tower Wars, Desert Strike. To elaborate a little. Line Tower Warz and Desert Strike are non-micro games that just enforce spamming counter units at the right time to try and eliminate opponents. And Mineralz, while fun at first when I played it, turned out to be a nearly never ending game that would go on for HOURS.
Overall, the quality/diversity of maps in SC2 never felt like it did with WC3. The remade maps just weren't the same, which can be understood to a degree since a lot of the original map makers didn't remake the maps in SC2, but the other problem is that the maps in SC2 just didn't feel diverse enough.
I guess this observation came due to the new Premium Arcade Maps in SC2 a few days ago. I'm not sure how I feel about this since it does cause the Bethesda problem of having mods be paid will cause community splits. Custom maps/mods should never be paid for. Paid stuff should be DLC (like the sc2 co-op heroes) not custom maps. Paying for mods is a slippery slope that leads to nowhere except a worse gaming experience in the future.
That being said, the quality of the custom maps in SC2 feels so low that I've actually contemplated buying one of the premium maps because at least I know it'll be balanced and high quality. It's a bit of a conundrum.
Anyhow I've digressed a little. To sum up my free-standing question: Why does SC2 custom map community not feel like the WC3 custom map community? What are your thoughts on the current situation with SC2. Would love to hear other community opinions on this.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
So something that has been on my mind for the past few days...what happened with the SC2 custom mapping community?
When WC3 came out, it had a very robust community of players playing hundreds of custom maps. It had a plethora of map makers constantly making new game modes, and updating existing maps to be better/bug-free/balanced. Hell, WC3 gave the world the MOBA genre (DOTA)!
I remember fondly playing tons of maps and them all having a different gameplay feel. I remember playing some very micro heavy hero battle games, some Co-Op defense games, and very intense Tower Defense games that had really good tower strategy formats.
Yet, when I played SC2 both when it came out, and recently. It has never felt the same. The map community tried to convert/port a lot of the popular WC3 mods over a long time ago. To name a few, Dark Deeds, Kobold Tribes (WC3's Ice Troll Tribes), Element TD. But even the handful of WC3 maps that got recreated didn't feel the same. Either thematically or balance-wise. Not only that but the types of games that seemed to be popular in SC2 seemed to be very polarizing and monotonous.
The games in SC2 that turned out to be popular were generally poorly scripted/balanced or just spam click fests. Some examples were games like MineralZ, Line Tower Wars, Desert Strike. To elaborate a little. Line Tower Warz and Desert Strike are non-micro games that just enforce spamming counter units at the right time to try and eliminate opponents. And Mineralz, while fun at first when I played it, turned out to be a nearly never ending game that would go on for HOURS.
Overall, the quality/diversity of maps in SC2 never felt like it did with WC3. The remade maps just weren't the same, which can be understood to a degree since a lot of the original map makers didn't remake the maps in SC2, but the other problem is that the maps in SC2 just didn't feel diverse enough.
I guess this observation came due to the new Premium Arcade Maps in SC2 a few days ago. I'm not sure how I feel about this since it does cause the Bethesda problem of having mods be paid will cause community splits. Custom maps/mods should never be paid for. Paid stuff should be DLC (like the sc2 co-op heroes) not custom maps. Paying for mods is a slippery slope that leads to nowhere except a worse gaming experience in the future.
That being said, the quality of the custom maps in SC2 feels so low that I've actually contemplated buying one of the premium maps because at least I know it'll be balanced and high quality. It's a bit of a conundrum.
Anyhow I've digressed a little. To sum up my free-standing question: Why does SC2 custom map community not feel like the WC3 custom map community? What are your thoughts on the current situation with SC2. Would love to hear other community opinions on this.