ATLAS Community Map Variant Submission Analysis

ATLAS Group on Bungie.net, is the “Official Bungie Group for Community Forge Variant Submissions for Halo 3 Matchmaking”. It was officially opened to membership October 23, 2008.

Many times and in many forums, I have read comments referring to ATLAS and Community Map variants in matchmaking as a failure. Well, if at least 60 community made maps in matchmaking playlists is the measure of a failure then I should be so lucky as to fail in such a manner. Has any other video game company succeeded in a cooperative effort with its community as well as this? 60 maps played on, in matchmaking, by hundreds of thousands of Halo 3 gamers. It seems phenomenal to me.

 

Bungie delivered to the masses 24 of its own Halo 3 multiplayer maps. ATLAS group delivered 60! The quality of ATLAS maps can be debated but the quantity is there. As for quality, that is somewhat subjective and I offer these comments. I believe it would be reasonable to break down the quality of ATLAS maps into three equal groups of 20 high, 20 medium and 20 low quality maps. Every accepted map produced by ATLAS members had its proponents and opponents. The same is true for Bungie’s maps.

 

The process of dealing with ATLAS map variant submissions and their authors could be improved.

933 Number of topics at 25 per page over 37 pages. Includes 8 pinned topics for which no page could be found.

599 Map topics submitted for review.

15 Topics initiated by Bungie.

319 Other topics. Includes spam, map submissions removed or declined by author, Group forum glitches, repeated map submissions for unmodified maps, map submissions for which no map information could be reasonably determined.

 

411 Map submissions for Sandbox.

91 Map submissions for Foundry.

97 Map submissions for any Halo 3 map other than Foundry or Sandbox.

30 Maps explicitly rejected by Bungie. Rejection was via any anecdotal comments referring to rejection or locking.

NA Maps implicitly rejected by Bungie. Unknown since all but two topics had gone stale and the locked topic information was not visible to me.

60 Maps accepted explicitly or implicitly by Bungie into any matchmaking playlist. 2 Updated map submissions excluded.

54 Sandbox map variants accepted into any playlist. Includes explicit and implicit acceptance.

6 Foundry map variants accepted into any playlist. Includes explicit and implicit acceptance.

3 Maps explicitly accepted by Bungie. Acceptance was via comments referring to the map's inclusion in a matchmaking playlist.

57 Maps implicitly accepted by Bungie. Acceptance was via the map's inclusion in any matchmaking playlist. 2 Updated map submissions excluded.

9 Maps explicitly or implicitly accepted into any full-time matchmaking playlist.

0 Maps other than Foundry or Sandbox variants accepted for any matchmaking playlist.

 

424 Unique Map submission authors.

13 Highest number of maps submitted by one author.

4 Highest number of maps accepted to any matchmaking playlist by one author.

 

124 Bungie comments in all topics.

53 Bungie comments in topics created by Bungie.

71 Bungie comments within map submissions.

24 Bungie comments within map submissions accepted to any matchmaking playlist.

47 Bungie comments within map submissions not accepted to any matchmaking playlist.

8 Highest number of Bungie comments within any map submission accepted to any matchmaking playlist.

8 Highest number of Bungie comments within any map submission.

50 Map submissions to which Bungie commented.

9 Accepted map submissions to which Bungie commented. Includes explicit and implicit acceptance.

53 Accepted map submissions to which Bungie never commented. Includes explicit and implicit acceptance.

20 November 2008 Submission date for first map accepted into any matchmaking playlist.

04 December 2009Submission date for last map accepted into any matchmaking playlist.

 

1. Only map submission topics were allowed in the ATLAS group. Any other type of topic was threatened with instant locking and author banning.

2. Only map submission topics meeting the minimum standard were allowed in ATLAS group. 3. Topics not meeting the minimum standard were under threat of lock with repeated offenses resulting in author banning.

3. Around 08.07.2009, the ATLAS Group forum was attacked via a spambot. The result was nearly two hundred pages of spam topics. Bungie had to lock the group and clean the mess up. It appears a few map submissions got duplicated in the process or the database indexing for the group was messed up a bit. For example, there are 221 pages of topics but the last page of unique topics ends at 37. Paging beyond that results in unpredictable but usually repeating results. Also, as a result of the attack, the group was closed to new membership and this remains true 06/22/2010.

4. Once a topic became archived, the information on whether it was locked or not was no longer available to me. I could have used topic locking as an implicit rejection of a map submission. It would also be an implicit Bungie comment.

5. Information for maps implicitly accepted to any matchmaking playlist was gathered from Bungie.net news and current playlists.

6. While I checked my data mining and entry for errors, I expect at least a 1% error rate. I am confident any errors would not significantly affect the conclusions and observations.

7. Communications between Bungie and map authors via methods outside of ATLAS group were an unknown quantity.

8. The author of this document, DEEP NNN, is a member of ATLAS with one map entering a community map playlist.

 

 

Observations. Some of these observations are from first hand knowledge in forums and in matchmaking and not from the data mining exercise.

1. It surprises me that with hundreds of thousands of unique users in Halo 3 matchmaking every day, that only 599 discernable map submissions were made to the ATLAS group. The fact the group was closed to new members after a spambot attack does not fully explain it to me.

2. A huge number of map submissions did not meet even the tiniest part of the minimum submission requirements. I did not tabulate it because it was somewhat subjective. This would explain, in part, the huge difference between the 60 accepted and the 599 total submitted maps.

3. Comments from Bungie had little relevance as whether a map was accepted or not. No comments yielded the greatest number of successes.

4. Very little real collaboration occurred between Bungie and the bulk of map authors.

5. The majority of Bungie’s helpful comments were only in a few map submission topics. They became difficult if not impossible for newer members to find and use for reference.

6. Gametype objects are not explained well enough in Bungie’s Forge guides. It created repeated divisive forum discussions.

7. ATLAS members were rarely given any indication as to whether their maps were being considered.

8. The status of ATLAS is unknown to its members. No one knows if it is possible to get a new or updated map into a playlist. It’s been in this state for six months.

9. Request for updated versions of maps already in playlists occurred only once.

10. Maps which were frequently reported to have construction errors were rarely pulled for update.

11. Bungie’s in-house map checking twice failed to prevent the wrong version of a map entering a playlist.

12. Many ATLAS members are fervent fans who wait in excited anticipation for actions for which they have no idea will happen. This appeared to lead to jaded attitudes as time wore on.

13. No statistical information was ever given for successful maps.

14. Certain forum member titles were not always bestowed as promised.

15. Many map authors did little to help the other members. They dropped their map submission and were never heard from again.

 

1. Map submissions should be an automated process using web forms of some type. Successful submissions generate a membership automatically thus eliminating much of the chafe.

2. Map authors should be informed if their map is being considered for a playlist to prevent repeated updating without cause.

3. Map authors should be informed if their map is not being considered for a playlist with some indication as to why.

4. Bungie should improve its Forge guides with special emphasis on gametype objects and spawning.

5. All cooperative and helpful comments from Bungie should be pinned topics that are easy to find no matter when a member joined.

6. Bungie should keep all ATLAS group members informed of related activities directly and in one location.

7. Never make the Internet a promise you can’t keep.

8. Bungie could submit their map requirements to Forging-centric sites. Those sites could vet maps before submission to Bungie. If a site fails to properly vet maps then they lose their special status, what ever that might be.

9. Map authors could be used as assets for quality control if organized and informed properly.

10. Bungie should provide matchmaking statistics for successful ATLAS maps.