Has Mapping Ruined Your Gaming? Created 18 years ago2005-11-15 08:10:00 UTC by alexb911

I play a lot of games, and no matter what game it was, I was always impressed by something. But now, replaying HL2, its lost a little of its magic, I now longer see a massive door, and think wow that must of been hard to make!

But is this a good or bad thing?

At least now I can enjoy the little things that I know were harder to make than a door... I'm not sure. :

So how about you? Do enjoy FPS games any more or less for knowing how everything is done, so nothing is 'special'?

Not only do I enjoy them less. I even get pissed off when I see something in a level that I could have done better. Fortunately, I dont know how to model or code pixel shaders, so those still surprise me
On the other hand, I think I could/will have a bright future in the world of level design seeing how bad some concept art is nowadays.
HL2 has lost a little of its magic. Looking up at the Citadel isnt as mysterious when you've already been to the top floor. There is still some darn good level design in HL2 though.
F.E.A.R or Doom3 just seem to copy themselves over and over again.
And FEAR has optimization problems. Someone needs to learn how to use hints and occluders. Maybe their engine just doesnt have that kind of luxeries.

it hans't ruined my gaming. I'm just less impressed with Valve now that I kow how they did everything.

HL2 impressed me. Certainly shouldn't mod for a game before one's completed it.

I mapped for Source before i completed HL2

it didnt ruin anything cos i couldnt figure out how the tirggering system worked

I didnt star mapping for HL until a year after my brother bought it. But when HL2 came out, it wasnt long before vALVE announced the HL2DM competition. I had to start mapping an learning the ropes before finishing the game. There was even a period of time when by DVD reader was K.O and I couldnt play the game. I used Hammer but couldnt check my progress.

yes,mapping kinda ruined my gaming,Example: I enter a corridor and see an explosion in front me I say''Well,here goes the trigger_once''
But making my FPS game is my dream so is my MOD ,a compltly new mod or game thats been done by you ,100s of people playing it,trying to figure out your home made puzzles,looking at your walkthrough trying to solve the puzzle and that people thinking in their school ,work''I cannot wait to play Xen Assault when I get back home''its a splendid feeling. (I guess)

The consciousness can "ruin" anything in your life : once you (think you) got how something is working, this thing become less exciting for you, it may happen with girls, computers, video games, food, TV reports, a politician speech, a sport challenge or anything else (try to guess how your doctor watchs you now he know how everything in your body is working), but this consciousness may be on an other hand a way to reach a new level of perception : now you know how something is working, you might realize something other, that you might have first thought "omg what a shit!" is finally a piece of art (a guy who did a crap-looking map, but with awesome triggers for example) : your "intelligence level" is modifying the way you see the whole world, and I think you really shouldn't be afraid to be ... less stupid, you just have to look for the fun into something "higher" now ...

I am a need to know person and enjoy seeing how things work, I started mapping for that reason.
I still enjoy playing the hl and hl2 games to get a feel of how others think when they make maps, and I enjoy making small maps for LAN gaming rooms, like awp maps/knife maps but I also enjoy making bigger CS bomb maps but find it hard to finnish one lol.

yes J.C all maybe true in what you said, maybe that is why I never finnish some things because deep down I dont want them to end

When I play games these days I often see things happening that I feel are scripted, but somehow it doesn't hinder the games pleasure a lot. I like to see how those scripted sequences are used, I like to see things I technically understand being used well. Sure, you know how things are triggered, you can imagine the entities behind them but when I play, that's not what I think of. I'm curious to see how this stuff is being used and enjoy it as well.

Of course, games have lost their magic somewhat after you played a lot of them and especially when you know how things are made, for me they're no longer so 'special' but at the other hand, things become more interesting because I understand more and more gameplay mechanics and games stimulate my creativity.

For example, I played Codename Panzers: Phase one recently. I liked it, it has great detailed environments and the units look and feel real, but the gameplay didn't live up to it at times. Something I hate is endless streams of enemies coming at you, and especially with such graphics I expected the gameplay to be more realistic as well. This makes me thing about how different parts of a game interact with each other and how they work together. You can't simply mix up stuff like where the graphics are cartoony but the story is dead-serious.

Mapping isn't my only interest, I model and do textures as well and I'm working out concepts and I'm on a programmers education. So there's lots of things I can explore and look into and maybe that's what makes games so much more interesting to me even though I can spot flaws and all much faster. About flaws, I believe it's not little flaws that count, taking into consideration that developers have limited time to do their job. The larger, more structural things like gameplay aspects or whole map parts count much more. I don't care for some misaligned textures in a backalley. I care much more if that backalley is long, boring and repetetive and needs to be travelled through 5 times before I can make progress. Design > technical.

/rant

I dont map a lot but for some reason I think programming in general has ruined my gaming in terms of how often I play. I haven't played a game for about 2 weeks now and yet I go on the computer every day! Bye Im off to play CS:S

Wow, I really haven't been "gaming" for years...

Played a little CS now and then...
Thats it...

To me every level I see is now in level design terms. when I see a scripted event in any game I see with in milli-seconds the proper setup to do so in VHE. I get pissed with blatently bad level design and wonder who the mapper was that made such a gross error. I get pissed when I see stuff that I could have done when I started mapping.

so yes, gaming has lost some of its fun, until those events where I can't find a quick solution with my Game to Hammer conversion

Mapping has improved the gaming experience for me, because whenever I play a game, I'm more inclined to know what's happening underneath (i.e. How a particulary effect was done, the level design in general, scripted_sequeces). As such, playing other games gives me inspiration to map.

I do tend to get a little bit picky sometimes ("Why doesn't Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb have rag-dolling?!") but oh well.