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Mappers, what do you want from PlanetPhillip.com - Have Your Say

Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half Life 1, 2 and 3

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A little while ago I wrote a post entiled I Want Your Mod, with the idea of getting more mappers and team leaders to send me their work instead of me having to search for it.

I really don’t understand why people don’t send me their stuff but they seem happy to use other site. I know that we get into habits and feel comfortable witht hings but promoting your work should be one of your priorities.

Anyway, Mel suggested creating a special area for mappers but that’s just too much work for the time being. He also suggested asking mappers what they want. Which is precisely the reason for this post.

Mappers, what do you want from PlanetPhillip.com?

I am interested to hear from mappers who submit their work to other sites (Snarkpit, FPSBAnana, TWHL and Func_Msg Board).

Why eactly them and not me?

What exactly can I do to encourage you to send me your work?

What additional features would you like to see on the site?

What am I doing wrong?

Of course, non-mappers can also add their opinion!

Manual_Monaro 4th October 2007 at 19:25 1

Unfortunately, I’m not a mapper. (I can make a box in hammer! Actually, I am pretty experienced with the BUILD engine, although that’s about it.)

However, I’ll give out my two cents.

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The blue banner at the top is a good start. So is that ‘I want your mod’ banner. However, you should move that further up the sidebar. Set it apart from the other side banners, so as to draw people to it. Maybe put in “…And if your Interested in publishing your mod blah blah blah…” in the about section? (Maybe in bold?)

The blue banner works because it’s a very different colour to the regular PP tone. However, it might benefit to being a tad larger and note “That Planetphillip can publicize YOUR MOD!” or something.

In the ‘I want your mod!’ topic, cite some statistics and comparisons on previous PP exclusives. Another thing to do in that post is to talk about how you offer author interviews to allow further publicity. Also talk about potential constructive criticism (Wink, wink!) that users/readers/team members at PP offer. (Talk about your reviews as well as reviews from the rest of the team!) Also talk about your syndicated reviews with the other various websites. (Specifically, not generally.)

Also talk about some of PP’s ‘unique features’. The five word summary and the recommendation system are good things to talk about. (I think?)

To answer your question “Why exactly them and not me?”:

Well, in my opinion, these users have more ‘trust’ towards these websites than PP. They seem to have much larger communities and are cited more around the internet on forums and such. Also, they offer some interesting features and gimmicks. One example is TWHL, with their ‘regular’ mapping competitions. Winners get a lot of publicity, thus boosting egos! (You’ve held a lot of comps here, but I recall only one mapping comp, in the form of the FPS Creator. Apparently nobody entered?)

Nonetheless, I think your website is really getting around, now.

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Well, I hope I helped in any way. It’s probably all gobbledygook, but it’s late and I thought it was a shame to see this post being un-commented on. (Unless you’ve been getting E-Mails…)
planetphillip 4th October 2007 at 20:07 2

Regarding you first few points, I don’t bvelieve it’s a matter of promotion of publicity. I don’t know how long you have been visiting the site but I have tried many types of banners and hotspots.

It’s something deeper. It’s probably becasue few mappers are regualrs at the site. Which is why I posted this piece in the first place. IF I could find out exactly what they wanted then maybe I could give it to them.

I definitely can’t start a mapping community in a short time and that fact that I know nothing about the subject makes it even harder.

planetphillip Said:

Well, in my opinion, these users have more ‘trust’ towards these websites than PP.

I’m very sadden to hear this. What exactly do you think the mappers don’t trust about me?

planetphillip Said:

One example is TWHL, with their ‘regular’ mapping competitions. Winners get a lot of publicity, thus boosting egos! (You’ve held a lot of comps here, but I recall only one mapping comp, in the form of the FPS Creator. Apparently nobody entered?)

You must remember that TWHL is built by mappers, for mappers. Are you sure they are more well known than me? Perhaps they are, I don’t know.

But I bet I have more players that visit the site than they do and ultimately a mapper wants thier map played by as many people as possible.

As you said I did have a mapping comp and nobody entered and it actaully had a prize for the winner!

No other site gives amps from various games more coverage. Sure, if a map were to appear of PlanetHalflife.com then it would probably get more attention than me, but hopefully for not much longer.

Does anybody else want to offer an honest opinion?
Manual_Monaro 5th October 2007 at 07:24 3

Phillip, I could be completely wrong. I don’t have a continuous update of any site’s viewer statistics, nor have I visited every forum, blog etc. to see how widespread you are amongst the gaming community.

‘Trust’ is a bit of a strong word. Sorry to have saddened you. I think mappers would trust you, most definitely, since the thousands of readers already do so. (Plus you’ve proposed some very interesting incentives.) It’s just, like you said; there aren’t as many mappers that visit this site. I think this is because they’ve been with the other ‘biggies’ longer.

It’s sort of like how when you have a brand name packet of aspirin that’s been out for ages against the cheaper brand that’s just come onto store shelves. With medication, there’s a strict quality guideline, so all of these aspirins will be of the same quality. Why do people by the brand name and not the cheaper brand? Because they’ve had the brand name longer. They’ve grown up with it. They ‘trust’ it more.

But from my point of view, I haven’t noticed your website being referenced AS MUCH as some other websites. (In fact, the first time I ever visited this site, back in 2003 or 2004; it was from a Google search! Man, this site’s gone FAR since then!) But yours is starting to rise up, obviously.

Again, sorry to have used such a strong word on my part.