- Joined
- Mar 18, 2007
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A repost of something I said on the Battle.net forums.
There are merits to the stacking system, and there are merits to being able to select specific games as opposed to the maps. It's essentially a trade-off. With the individually hosted maps, you can specify certain rules, or tell people that you're doing something different, like advertising for a clan or stating the theme for a Roleplaying map. With the stacking system, you'll never have to see a system flooded with the same map over and over again like WC3 is currently experiencing (and always has been). The best solution would be to simply include both, and allow us to choose, but that's understandably a lot to ask for.
Chatroom and other withheld features aside, B.net 2 didn't necessarily do anything wrong. Just different. Uploading your maps to Battle.net allows users to download them much more efficiently, despite you being barred from keeping the map like some kind of pseudo-DRM. Automatically hosting the games means that there would never have to be a host, though like before, it severely limits hosting customization. Basing the map system on popularity means you'd never have to sift through clunky, dysfunctional maps, but the diamonds in the rough may never have a chance to shine.
It's all a trade-off geared towards streamlining the experience. The best and undeniably most greedy way to resolve all the problems this entails is to simply add more options to Battle.net. Allow us to search for a specific map or organize maps by something besides popularity. Allow us to see either individual games or categorized by map.
Better yet, here's an idea: Create two sections of Battle.net. One is hosted by Battle.net and features every uploaded map, like Starcraft 2's current system. The other section is where all the user-hosted games go, and the hosts get all the privileges to name their games and etc. that the users of classic Starcraft and Warcraft 3 enjoy. This way, anyone can join a game like Retribution TD without having to search for someone to host it, but people who want to play Cortex RP with a Nuclear Wasteland Theme can host it themselves with that name. People who just want to play Nexus Wars will play it on the Blizzard-hosted section, eliminating the DotA problem from Warcraft 3 while keeping its customizability. Everyone's happy.
More complex map filters or perhaps even a keyword/search system might do wonders too.
There are merits to the stacking system, and there are merits to being able to select specific games as opposed to the maps. It's essentially a trade-off. With the individually hosted maps, you can specify certain rules, or tell people that you're doing something different, like advertising for a clan or stating the theme for a Roleplaying map. With the stacking system, you'll never have to see a system flooded with the same map over and over again like WC3 is currently experiencing (and always has been). The best solution would be to simply include both, and allow us to choose, but that's understandably a lot to ask for.
Chatroom and other withheld features aside, B.net 2 didn't necessarily do anything wrong. Just different. Uploading your maps to Battle.net allows users to download them much more efficiently, despite you being barred from keeping the map like some kind of pseudo-DRM. Automatically hosting the games means that there would never have to be a host, though like before, it severely limits hosting customization. Basing the map system on popularity means you'd never have to sift through clunky, dysfunctional maps, but the diamonds in the rough may never have a chance to shine.
It's all a trade-off geared towards streamlining the experience. The best and undeniably most greedy way to resolve all the problems this entails is to simply add more options to Battle.net. Allow us to search for a specific map or organize maps by something besides popularity. Allow us to see either individual games or categorized by map.
Better yet, here's an idea: Create two sections of Battle.net. One is hosted by Battle.net and features every uploaded map, like Starcraft 2's current system. The other section is where all the user-hosted games go, and the hosts get all the privileges to name their games and etc. that the users of classic Starcraft and Warcraft 3 enjoy. This way, anyone can join a game like Retribution TD without having to search for someone to host it, but people who want to play Cortex RP with a Nuclear Wasteland Theme can host it themselves with that name. People who just want to play Nexus Wars will play it on the Blizzard-hosted section, eliminating the DotA problem from Warcraft 3 while keeping its customizability. Everyone's happy.
More complex map filters or perhaps even a keyword/search system might do wonders too.