Well just so you know, protecting the map, never contributed to mapping either!
One hundred percent correct. However, it does harm the people PLAYING the map if people begin making dozens of slightly altered versions that annoy the player base so that they no longer wish to play at all.
I don't care if there's a wiki, I don't care if there's tutorials, I don't care if there's an assistance forum. That's all just website trash, OSMAP lets people get first hand experience as to how to do something.
I learned map making from the Staredit help menu and a little bit of talking with Endarire. Learning from maps is not necessary, and any map that has been cracked open lacks too much of the original data to be very useful. Any map that was never protected in the first place is a far better learning tool.
My main problem with map cracking is not map stealing, which is unlikely to occur and should not be a problem if your map is good and spreads quickly. The problem I see is shown by such maps as Normandy or Raccoon City. Those were great maps that were unprotected and then dozens of different versions were created, ultimately leading to those maps no longer being hosted.
The problem is slightly complicated by the fact that not every shitty little map needs to be protected. Simple maps are useful for learning a few basic things by examining them. Nowadays every god damn Cat and Mouse map is protected. An awful state indeed. I do not see map cracking as an acceptable solution to that problem however.
Essentially.. only good maps that do not need to be edited should be protected. But who is to decide what is good or not? That becomes a problem. You are basically forced to either to allow the map maker to choose or allow no one to choose. I think that allowing everyone to choose is a far more morally appropriate stance, regardless of the problems it may cause. It is just like freedom of speech, not everyone is going to use their freedom correctly, but that doesn't mean you take it away.
Supporting map cracking is an elitist stance that says you know better than the maker. That may be true, it may not. Either way it is not the sort of belief that successful nations like the United States are based on.
I just realized that analogy is
totally fucking awesome.
Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Sep 23 2007, 1:46 am by Esponeo.
None.