Criticism ​

Johnny is making his first map. Johnny is having fun making his map because he is excited about the experience he is creating for himself and his friends. He envisions himself as a ‘cultivator of fun’ and the time he is investing into creating his map will be rewarded by his friends enjoying what he creates. Along comes Max – Max is an experienced map designer and holds himself and his creations with high regard and standard although Max isn’t a distinctly skilled halo competitor. Max joins Johnny's lobby and begins to provide feedback. Max says “this map looks like swiss cheese”, “it will be difficult for people to understand”, “it’s too big and there will be too much running”, and “it even lacks a theme”.

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Potential PROs:



· Johnny may realize more fundamental opportunities that could drastically overhaul his forging abilities and overall increase his curiosity about how to design and forge maps.

· Johnny may become more curious about the feedback and analyze the opportunity behind them deeper – allowing Max to become a tutor or a teacher which fosters a great experience for both players.​ Potential CONs



· Johnny may become overwhelmed with the steep learning curve of these more advanced concepts and give up forging completely.

· Johnny could become defensive and argue that ‘he is only making the map for him and his friends’, that ‘it’s not that serious.’ This experience may make Johnny realize that his creations aren't very good and could discourage him from investing the time to forge in the future.

· Johnny may become aggravated that Max isn’t seeing the map as he is envisioning it.​

Eugene is an advanced map designer. He has experience in 3D applications such as Maya, 3DS Max, and Cinema 4D. Eugene uses his vast experience of FPS gaming to develop philosophies in his map designs such as line of sight control and player navigation diversity to build a higher skill-gap and improve the replay value of his maps. Eugene is very thoughtful about his designs and he genuinely enjoys spending time creating them. Eugene is nearing completion of one of this most prideful map designs. Again joins Max. Max begins to navigate Eugene’s map and after a few moments Max fails one of the designed skill-jumps and complains “I already fell off. It is too hard to get around this map.” Eugene brushes it off and says “you’ll get better with time, just use the pathways instead of trying the hard jumps until you learn to do them better.” Max respawns and finds himself outside of the map and says “you don’t even have all the spawn points inside the map.” The choice of words Max uses irks Eugene and Eugene becomes defensive and reinforces the fact that the map isn’t complete, even though Eugene wasn’t aware of that particular issue.​

Potential PROs:



· Eugene did not know of the fundamental spawning issue, and can now fix that and may become less defensive and open up to his ideas, even though Max makes his statements in a blunt and derogatory manner.

· Eugene does not like Max's opinions and may become less effected by his negativity and he may begin to dismiss them.

· Max, being harsh and direct, may uncover further exploits that Eugene had yet to test and could benefit the playability of the map.​ Potential CONs



· Eugene's attitude toward his design may change to cater to less-skilled players who may have the same bad experience failing the skill-jump immediately, just like Max.

· Eugene may dismiss Max’s ideas because of being frustrated at how undiplomatic or self-idolized Max conveys his opinions even though the opinions themselves don’t go without merit.​

Critique ​

Eugene joins Johnny’s lobby and begins to critique his work. Eugene observes “The sniper rifle is in a very high location, and it overlooks a large portion of the map.” Johnny agrees and mentions “It will be awesome when someone gets it.” Eugene adds “It would be cool to put something to balance it a little bit – maybe place a small building or a rock structure away from it that would give some cover to anyone who has to fight against that sniper”.​

Potential PROs



· Johnny likes and learns from how Eugene analyzed the situation where he placed the Sniper and it helps Johnny build fundamental skills towards map balance and cultivating a positive player experience.

· Johnny makes said changes. Eugene and Johnny begin to work together on other areas where balance could be added and the map as a whole becomes significantly improved and the experience both players have is mutual, cooperative, and fun.​ Potential CONs



· Johnny may not like Eugene to intervene on his map and may be less inclined to listen to Eugene’s ideas or even keep him in the lobby.

· Johnny may see that he has built the map without considering something that Eugene picked up in just a few moments of looking at the map. Johnny may become discouraged about forging because of how quickly Eugene is able to improve it.​

Eugene is working on his prideful design as Kyle joins his lobby. Kyle is a very skilled Halo player but doesn’t forge. Kyle starts to free-roam around the map while Eugene is hard at work. Kyle easily navigates the skill jumps, and is able to do them without falling off the map. Kyle notices an opportunity and says “It would be awesome if there were 2 plasma grenades here.” Eugene, curious about the suggestion, asks why. Kyle explains, “It will give the opportunity for people to obtain the ‘combat evolved’ medal if they throw this grenade and make this jump here and the Sniper comes right to them!”​

Potential PROs



· Eugene learns about an aspect of the game he wasn’t aware of – throwing a grenade and knocking a weapon to you which also improves the experience players can have on his map.

· Eugene uses this new knowledge in other aspects of this map and future map designs to give a more competitive edge and a more catered experience to players who know about this aspect of the Halo sandbox.​ Potential CONs



· Kyles’ suggestion may offset balance of the map and break a fundamental objective in Eugenes map design.

· Eugene may not like Kyle intervening with his map.





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Summary ​