I'm a little skeptical of the maps in the popular maps area primarily because many of them are high in preferred but are low in number of times played. So my suggestion is either to require a certain number of times played for it to go on the popular maps page or to have a separate tab to sort by number of times played.

Obviously both have their problems. The first worry I'd have is that new versions of maps. The second is that it favors small, two player maps that people can quickly go through a round. Third, it'd be easy to stack.

All of those worries considered, though, I think it's still more useful than having maps that are never played but high in preferences showing. Like that dumb butterfly map or the WeeWar map. Who cares that they look good? They aren't fun to play, so they shouldn't be on the popular maps list.

The alternative would be to give some editorial control. This would have a couple of advantages 1) you could remove old versions of a map so that the latest and best version is the one that shows and gets new customers and 2) you could watch out for people trying to game the system.

Have you played a game on my "dumb butterfly" map? I'm sure you haven't, so how about playing a game on it before you so negatively label it! ~Niki

Zoraster,  I extend an invite to an unrated game on the butterfly map to you, however I haven't received a reply...:  (

I didn't get an invite.

And I probably shouldn't call it dumb as you're right -- I haven't played it. But my point was more that NO ONE has played it. It looks nice, and it's impressive in that regard, but it's never been played (at least since popular maps started), so I question whether or not we should really call it a "popular" map.

Anyway, my point wasn't really that your map is a bad one, just that in order for it really to be a legitimate popular map, people should have tried playing it.

Hmmm... depends on your definition of popular. I mean, Britney Spears, she is quite popular right, mostly cause she does or at least used to look hot. But seriously, who's really listening to all that crap she produces...

well, i'd like to think that the popular function is an attempt to show which maps are actually people's favorites. I don't think Britney Spears (while famous) is very liked anymore.

something that should be noted, is a map doesn't count as "played" unless it is not the creator who starts the map. I agree with the devs on that set-up, even if it may at times cause an imbalance in preferred/played.

Oh, and my two cents on popular maps, Alupa is the one who created the original Scary Pirate Island

Awe, thanks Rich

the reason of the low played amounts is because we need pro to play most of them. it's hard to come up with an origional map without hovers needed.

oh, i don't mean that a map has to be played a ton. just that they need to be played SOME to be a "favorite"

I think it would be great if people could sort maps.  A relatively simple feature at this point would be the ability to search & sort by things that we can easily track (# times played, # times played in the last week/month, by when it was created, by # selected as a "favorite", by creator, by map name, # of players, map size, pro vs. standard, etc.)  If we could do this, it would be a great boost for the map search.

It would even be better if new player rating features could be added.  Possibly the most important would be a balancing statistic (# times won by color).  Even more advanced would be to allow pro players to rate maps 1-10 by various features (good for dual play, for multiplayer play, land, air, sea, etc), and be able to also sort by those.

I've been trying really hard to stay out of this convo (I don't mean to spam, but I can't help it). I'm working on a project called Weemap, for rating, tagging, and commenting on maps. It's still really simple, but I'm in need of testers. See the site or my tangler discussion for more info [/endspam]

[edit] that's this discussion, here on the weewar board

We could have a form like on ebay and amazon which you can fill out, e.g delivery, item as described etc.

well, i am only joking here of course. I dont wanna be filling out a questionair everytime I got my ass kicked. I might not be so ... unbiased

Balancing statistics are an absosmurfly stupendous idea.  +1