I've had a map out for around a month now and it's managed to accumulate 6 ratings. It recieved good feedback while in development and it came as a surprise to me that it was doing so poorly ratings-wise. So, what exactly makes a map popular?

Is a spot on the front page the biggest factor? The mentioned map was not featured on the front page, however other maps managed to gather ratings faster than the featured maps.

How much does posting on the development forum help and is it as good as an unannounced publishing?

Make a strategic template on it (unless it is diplomacy), and get it to be like on WGL. Other then that not much, as lots of maps are goodly made.

Most players don't like to leave their comfort zone so it's hard for a new map to get over. I recommend hosting a smaller sized tournament and open seat games with what you think are the best settings for your map. Open games is about the best visibility you can get. If the game doesn't fill then you can remove the open seats and add new open seats to advertise the game some more.

I really like big maps. It doesn't even matter if its well made. Just as long as its got a lot of territories :P

I have no idea why though.

^ That might be the case for strategic maps, but not too much diplo maps.

When World of Tor got released, you didn't see many people saying "Hey, wanna have a interclan scrimmage on Strategic 2v2 World of Tor?" you see people sticking to the "2v2 China, 2v2 ME, 2v2 Guiroma" y'know?

Omega primarily makes diplomacy maps, so this is not really a problem for him.

When a new diplo map gets released, the diplomacy community lose their shit. Orbis was a great example of this. "OMG ORBIS IS OUT! MAKE TEMPLATE GUYYZ!" or "OCCASUS UNIVERSATIS! GOGOGO! MAKE TEMPLATE!"

Omega, for your quality of maps, you shouldn't worry about them getting noticed too much. World of Noliterre and Ocassus Universatis got huge amounts of hype, and, seeing as they are fantastic maps, got lots of popularity because of it.

For what makes a map popular, here are a few key points:

- Well respected map creator (NinjaNic has a reputation, and people get really happy when he releases new maps, as opposed to somebody who just finished his first map)

- Type of map (Strategic maps usually wait a while before they build a universal reputation for being good. The most popular ones are years old)

- Open games. If people are playing them on open games a lot (Scrabble is actually a good example) then everybody will know them. It takes a lot for your map to become a set standard for open games though. Scrabble, World Nations, ME, Imperium Romanum, Westeros Maps, Duel, RoR, and only a few others are so popular to seemingly always have games up of them

Hope I helped... kind of xD

You should link the map in question to this thread and also to your profile.

I assume you mean Occasus 1444.
Probably the issue is that this map barely showed at Community foreword page, because there were several maps released in quick sequence. Which could be the reason why it went unnoticed. I wouldn't know on this map myself, without checking "Newest Maps" in Maps section at the time.

As someone who makes maps myself, I can personally testify that being on the front page for a day or two at least is very important for new maps. In fact, there are only a few chances for a new map to get publicity before basically settling in:

1. When your map is first released, it shows up on the newest maps on the front page of the Community section. If you're lucky, you'll get 2 or 3 days here.

2. After your map gets ten ratings, it will likely be some ridiculously high rating like 4.9, so it pops up to the first page of the maps directory for a day or two and is noticed there before people start playing on it some more and giving it a more reasonable rating.

3. If your map happens to maintain a decent rating, it can get nominated for map of the week for this. This gives you another week of publicity on it.

4. If your map happens to be really awesome/average but with no serious competition, it may be actually voted map of the week for that week. This has only actually happened to me twice personally(i'm not bragging, I've released almost 15 maps :P), and most people it only happens to one of their maps from my observations. If you happen to win, you get crazy publicity from Warlight shoving your map in everyones faces for the next week literally 24/7, and you'll get so many ratings and fan mails and reviews it'll be like so awesome!!!

5. After that, the easy publicity is over. The only publicity you get now is from people, including you, hosting games on your map.

Of course, as you can see all of these basically derive from those crucial first days on the front page, and when you don't get those ten ratings, your map basically dies at the last place on the map directory for 3 months, and it totally sucks and drives you crazy. It actually did happen to me once, and I know the feeling :(

Edited 1/23/2016 00:39:27

it just has to be well made geographically ... for example, I love World Nation 2012 & 2014 .. are great maps. very well constructed
and I would like to see sth simillar to World Nations but with double the amount of territories
its great for diplomacies

Edited 1/23/2016 09:29:20

Thanks for the tips!
I had less luck, I released 6 maps (5 ratings between 3,5-4) and of all those 52 weeks, none of my maps were even nominated.
Nevertheless if you want more ratings and more publicity, make a tournament and invite players.

Its pure luck to make a well known map.