Sometimes I download maps and forge them, sometimes I just comment on pics posted. Sometimes I comment on maps from people I interact with a lot, sometimes on maps of whom I have never interacted with before. I rarely indicate how much time I spend looking at a map or pictures, and I don't think I would remember to do so as I comment. I fully understand that my feedback is only from my observations, but whether the other guy realizes this is not something I feel I need to stress over.
Whenever I make a comment about a map, particularly a critique that suggests a change, I always try to explain why. And if the map is beyond repair, I usually don't bother commenting.
I have learned that when someone gives me feedback I need to listen. Every time - and I do mean every time - I get a comment that something needs to be changed, I feel like I am being attacked. This is the truth, I really feel this way. It wouldn't matter how small it is, that is the instinctive reaction that I feel. For about the whole of 3 seconds. Then I get over myself and read what they wrote, over and over until I understand it. If I agree I plan accordingly. If I disagree, I drop it. And if from their comments I see that my map is beyond repair, I chuck it.
The greatest strides in learning to forge that I have had all come from listening to someone tell me that I hadn't a clue about something. And sometimes the criticisms I have learned the most from have come from people that are the hardest to receive from. The best people to receive from are the best players, even if they never forged before in their life. The best resource any forger can have are a group of high level players to test their maps and give them feedback.
If any forger comes up to me and presents the case for why I should listen to them as they have conceptualized the game type for months, or they have a map in match making, or their maps have won contests, etc., I just run from them.
I have witnessed and grieved over "veteran" forgers brutally beating up a map just to prove their forge-ness. There is a word for that - narcissism. What I have learned is just don't reply to them. Not only do you defuse the situation, but you make clear to them what you think of their post. It is hard for me to follow this advice myself, but I have come to realize it is the most effective way to deal with problem critics.
The common "flawed" arguments are just fallacious, and I think they are obvious enough.
Whenever I make a comment about a map, particularly a critique that suggests a change, I always try to explain why. And if the map is beyond repair, I usually don't bother commenting.
I have learned that when someone gives me feedback I need to listen. Every time - and I do mean every time - I get a comment that something needs to be changed, I feel like I am being attacked. This is the truth, I really feel this way. It wouldn't matter how small it is, that is the instinctive reaction that I feel. For about the whole of 3 seconds. Then I get over myself and read what they wrote, over and over until I understand it. If I agree I plan accordingly. If I disagree, I drop it. And if from their comments I see that my map is beyond repair, I chuck it.
The greatest strides in learning to forge that I have had all come from listening to someone tell me that I hadn't a clue about something. And sometimes the criticisms I have learned the most from have come from people that are the hardest to receive from. The best people to receive from are the best players, even if they never forged before in their life. The best resource any forger can have are a group of high level players to test their maps and give them feedback.
If any forger comes up to me and presents the case for why I should listen to them as they have conceptualized the game type for months, or they have a map in match making, or their maps have won contests, etc., I just run from them.
I have witnessed and grieved over "veteran" forgers brutally beating up a map just to prove their forge-ness. There is a word for that - narcissism. What I have learned is just don't reply to them. Not only do you defuse the situation, but you make clear to them what you think of their post. It is hard for me to follow this advice myself, but I have come to realize it is the most effective way to deal with problem critics.
The common "flawed" arguments are just fallacious, and I think they are obvious enough.