What is your favorite map to pug?
Gentlemen, we are at an impasse in the history of siege. The community life of the game is currently in period of relatively low activity. However, the gameplay of siege has picked up and has been going strong for several months, kept alive by a small but (unhealthily?) active group of players. With pugs happening every night there have been few visible threats to the vitality of the game, until now. Increasingly we are having impasses on a question that for years rarely troubled pugs, "What map do we play?".
Never before have I seen the variety of opinions and strong preferences on this subject. I believe there are two reasons for this:
First there is no longer a strong siege heirarchy keeping people in line. Where once C5's were universally accepted (though perhaps not respected) as manatees and gatekeepers to decision making in the pug world, we now have no clear leadership. This can be both good and bad. On the one hand it allows new an less experienced players a more welcome environment, and higher likliehood that they will be allowed to contribute to decisions and games (eg. map selection, auto d/o, capts, tactics). However, on the flip side pugs are generally taking a lot longer to organize, and players are leaving or boycotting pugs in attempts to slight or gain a type of power over their rivals. As much as I'm sure many of us like having our voices heard, JKA siege is hardly a place conducive to coming to good decisions as a group.
Secondly, we have more good maps then ever before and the map makers make up a larger proportion of the community then they previously have. I'm instinctivally against change most of the time, however if I think about this objectively the upside to having a variety of good maps to play is clearly greater then the downside (The only major one being that it takes time to learn the maps, provided this is done before we pug them then I think the downside is minimal).
All of this being said, I think our best option to avoid further administrative battles is one of two: Elect up to a max of 5 "pugmasers", who we can trust to make all further administrative in-game decisions (Including which maps to play). This option is terrible because we siegers do not have nearly the level of trust needed built up in our community that would translate to such a system working without complaint and rebellion.
Or
We could have an exhaustive discussion of our favorite maps in a forum, and hope that we come to mutually beneficial community conclusions that will help to shortcut our votes and discussions when in-game. This option wins!
Things to consider when choosing your favorite maps:
-The scenario, you should choose your favorite map according to its optimal conditions. Eg. When considering whether to vote h3h or Cargo, assume we are playing h3h 5v5 and Cargo 3v3.
-The maps potential for you. For instance I suck at Silly, but I realize this has more to do with me still trying to understand the tactics, not necessarily because it sucks.
-Do not vote based on the maps structural potential. eg. Castle would be better if the 10 consoles your supposed to destroy on 2nd objective weren't so hard to find. This is a discussion for mappers to have, we are trying to figure out what maps we should play AS THEY CURRENTLY STAND.
Other stuff:
-Consider other modes like Zombies as well, or quasi siege maps like Silly and Hydroball (only consdier if played).
-State your list, and comment on each of your choices as well as voting. Comment on other peoples choices...
-Discuss.
-Deliberate
-Flame each other
-Decide
-No Csr hate
-No furry pics
I've given you each 4 options for the "official poll". But please, if you comment rank all the maps you've played.