porkenbeans wrote:Then why is this fact disguised with words in the guidelines such as 'suggestions". Why not just come right out and say, that if you do not do what you are told by the A team, your project will not be allowed to go forward ? Why not just come out and say that, this is a collaborative effort, and all decisions regarding every aspect of your map, will be made by the foundry and its elite ? If you ask me it is wrong to give this power to the ones giving the helping hand. The power of approving maps for live play should be in the hands of the community. Not this small group of Foundry members that face it, are blind with power, and just can not wait to haze the next noob that dares to step foot in their Foundry.
I'd like to address this point in particular, as your argument has several fallacies. To be honest, you've been here long enough and should know better.
If you're looking for a place that will immediately and unreservedly embrace your idea, wrap it in white linen, and convey it bodily to final forge without challenging everything from theme to gameplay, then you sir are mistaken.
Not every map idea deserves to see the light of day. Obviously there are taboo subjects, like maps depicting Auschwitz or the Rwanda genocide or the Rape of Nanking. But there are also completely unsuitable subjects, and by unsuitable, much of the time I mean "boring". Someone could come in here full of piss and vinegar, determined to make a map of North Dakota. And I tell ya, unless the graphics and/or gameplay were simply transcendent, the foundry community would, by and large, tell the mapmaker that it's not worth the time and effort.
Also, you speak of a foundry elite. You make reference to an "A-team", whose edicts must be obeyed. I can tell you that this is simply not the case. We're just one big community here, and like it or not, you also are a part of the foundry community. Yes, you, porkenbeans, are a foundry insider. By my reckoning you've made over a hundred posts here, and have started over a half-a-dozen maps. That puts you in the 99th percentile of the CC forum community, and in the 99.99th percentile of the overall CC userbase. And this idea of an elite... like any community, there are people that have been in it a long time and have quite a bit of accumulated knowledge to bring to bear and pass along to more inexperienced members of the community. Certainly, anyone with a quenched map is probably listened to more attentively than someone who's never posted in the foundry, but that's how communities work. And more to the point, despite your assertions, the experienced members of the foundry do not speak with one voice. For instance, I recall several times where experienced foundrarians have expressed, sometimes profanely, grave reservations about some of cairnswk's maps. And cairns has made more maps than anyone here. By your reckoning, he's the elistist of the elite, and yet he's been subject to the same brutal criticism to which you have been.
You also seem to think that this foundry elite, which simply does not exist in the sense that you think it does, wishes to stifle your innovation. Nothing could be further from the truth. Think of it this way: a map is composed of three essential elements: theme, graphics, gameplay. At this point in CC's history, a map really needs to excel in at least one of those areas, preferably two (three is probably asking too much, especially of inexperienced mapmakers). I guarantee that if you created a map with that absolutely nailed one of the three aforementioned elements, and were willing to accept constructive criticism about the other two elements, that the foundry community would be more than willing to help you see your map to completion. For whatever reason, you have yet to deliver the goods, which is hardly the fault of the foundry community (of which, lest you've forgotten, you are a part).
If you've experienced resistance in the mapmaking process, that simply means you need to work harder and create better maps. The foundry, as has been stated before, is the ultimate peer review system. Reputation doesn't matter, only the map does. Create a great map, and you'll understand.
)
