Over 65,000 StarCraft 2 Maps Uploaded to Battle.net

Greg Tito

PR for Dungeons & Dragons
Sep 29, 2005
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Over 65,000 StarCraft 2 Maps Uploaded to Battle.net



Since StarCraft 2 launched on July 27th, users have submitted a veritable buttload of maps to Battle.net.

Player-created content has long been a hallmark of Blizzard's realtime strategy games. Since WarCraft II: Tides of Darkness, Blizzard has provided a "Map Editor" for users to tinker with in-game assets and create interesting new maps. Such devotion to creative endeavors has kept fans interested in the game long after they've gotten bored with the content that Blizzard provides. And in 2003, several users contributed to a custom map for WarCraft III called Defense of the Ancients which spawned a whole new genre and a position at Valve for one of its creators.

StarCraft 2 was no different and launched with the powerful Galaxy Map Editor included on the disc. Creative StarCraft fans were quickly able to Mario Kart [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/103145-Fan-Remakes-World-of-Warcraft-in-StarCraft] while Blizzard included the Lost Vikings minigame in the StarCraft all using the Editor. It appears that these people were not alone.

In an investor conference call, CEO and President of Blizzard Mike Morhaime said that the fans of StarCraft 2 have used the editor provided with the game to create over 65,000 maps.

That's a lot of maps. And while not all of them are amazing, there is quite a lot of creativity being displayed. Blizzard announced that it would implement a store on Battle.net so that map-creators would be able charge money for other users to download and play their maps, but this has not yet been implemented.

Perhaps with the plethora of maps now available, that system will come soon and the creativity of these users can be rewarded. Only if their maps are any good, of course.

Source: Big Download [http://news.bigdownload.com/2010/11/04/starcraft-ii-has-over-65-000-user-made-maps-and-mods-uploaded-on/]


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Rad Party God

Party like it's 2010!
Feb 23, 2010
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If they do charge to play some extra maps somebody made, I just hope it's a reasonable price, like no more than $1 per map. More than that and it's a total steal.
 

Gorden Springel

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Apr 3, 2010
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Too bad the popularity list is the worst idea ever conceived by a game developer, much less one of blizzards caliber .
 

microhive

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Mar 27, 2009
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How the hell can this be a good thing due to the structure of the custom list? It is based on popularity meaning only around 1000 of those maps are actually played for real.

EDIT: Yeah, only Blizzard approved maps can actually be sold.
 

Tehlanna TPX

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Mar 23, 2010
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Notice that it said 'could'. It wasn't mentioned as mandatory for custom maps to be purchased. Talk about getting your panties in a bunch for nothing. As usual.
 

kouriichi

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Sep 5, 2010
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I can understand it being 10 or 15 cents a peice.
But if it starts to get over that im just going to quit playing SC2 all together.
 

oneplus999

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Oct 4, 2007
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Defense of the Ancients which spawned a whole new genre and a position at Valve for one of its creators.

AFAIK Icefrog is not one of the original creators, he is just the current maintainer. Even the "original" folks, Guinsoo and Pendragon, weren't the "creators", since it's all based on a game called Aeon of Strife, who's original creator I'm sure is a lost piece of history.
 

John Funk

U.N. Owen Was Him?
Dec 20, 2005
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People do understand that the *map maker* decides whether or not to sell their maps, right?
 

microhive

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Mar 27, 2009
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John Funk said:
People do understand that the *map maker* decides whether or not to sell their maps, right?
The issue is that some people are only interested in the main points of the article and since you put the clarification at the bottom it will not get attention nor read by them.
 

Windexglow

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Apr 30, 2009
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"Defense of the Ancients which spawned a whole new genre"
Areon of Strife was the first (popular one, at least). Dota wasn't especially good either, it's community is still the worst I have ever met (WTF NUB YOU CLICKED 0.002352 SECONDS LATE IM LEAVIN ****IN NUB).

"People do understand that the *map maker* decides whether or not to sell their maps, right?"
I'm sure blizzard respects this very highly, especially after they ban maps without any warning should they please (also revoking upload rights of the mapper. Sure would be fun spending months making a game and having it ruined for no told reason).


I modded wc3 for years and loved it, sc2 was supposed to be the holy grail of modding. I got into the beta and had an orgasm the editor was released. Heavily disappointed in it.
 

Nouw

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Mar 18, 2009
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Awesome to see. I saw some really awesome ones on Youtube like the Starship Troopers one.
 

Throwitawaynow

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Aug 29, 2010
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Windexglow said:
"Defense of the Ancients which spawned a whole new genre"
Areon of Strife was the first
Argh NINJA! Yeah, AOS was first and every other map of that genre was called an AOS type map.
 

Catalyst6

Dapper Fellow
Apr 21, 2010
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And I haven't played a single one of them. Hrm.

On the by, what's the map in the pic?
 

randomsix

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Apr 20, 2009
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Robot Overlord said:
Charge to play user made maps... are they fucking mental?
Agreed.

OT: I'm willing to bet that a lot of those are version updates or slightly altered variations.
 

s0m3th1ng

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Aug 29, 2010
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65,000 maps and people only play ten of them...
Worst map list ever created. They had to make an effort to screw it up THIS BAD. Publishing maps is a hassle that doesn't make any sense either.
Little did I know it was all in preparation to charge people money for maps Blizzard didn't even make. For fuck's sake...