(note: this is not a rant just a question)

It has been a over a week since I have published my map https://www.warlight.net/Map/22413-Late-Medieval-India-Diplomacy and it has still only received 2 ratings. At this rate, it would be March by the time it got 10 ratings for it to get an actual score. By that point, it would probably be off the front page of the new maps list and possibly never achieve the 10 ratings.

The question is, how do you publicize a map best?

With this particular map, it is largely to blame on the almost identical map released just a couple days before. However, it isn't unique in having trouble reaching 10 reviews. I noticed https://www.warlight.net/Map/21504-Occasus-Universitas-1444-AD reached the last row in new maps without 10 ratings despite being a well made map with lots of possibility (and not almost identical to another map). Note how it is still at only 10 reviews. This map also had a fairly active forum thread on the development of it and test games. Why didn't it get ratings quicker? Is it because of the actual content of the map, the advertising or pure chance?

What is your view?

Main problem ~ too many maps.

Your only solution to get those ratings is promoting your map, host games, tourneys etc. perhaps even asking people to try the new map in the game title. Note that you only need to host, not play those games.

My advice: make an interesting tournament on your new map. If you do this, hundred of player will play several games on your map :)
No offence but I like my India map more XD
https://www.warlight.net/Map/17568-India-Huge
althought your map is good for small games
I agree with TBest, you need to host more games on your map :)

The only real thought I have is that maybe for some reason certain maps just don't really interest people.

There are some obvious examples. For one, Occasus Universitas; This is basically a medium-sized europe map, and I can see people saying something along the lines of "ugh another europe map" without checking it out and seeing how wonderful it actually is.

Your India map is kind of a no-brainer; People may have thought "hey wait a minute didn't he just release this map a few days ago?". I actually had this thought myself before examining it a little bit.

The only example I have of one of my own maps is... my Game of Thrones map. Sure, it may be awesome to me, but lets face it, We already have a ton of game of thrones maps, and why even bother checking out the new one?

All three maps are at least in my opinion pretty great, but just don't really interest people enough for them to bother taking the time to play a game on them.

Main problem ~ too many maps

I don't think that there is anyone who is really requesting that the map-making community makes less maps. My maps normally have no problem getting 30-100 ratings, and IMO that's because I go out of my way to make maps of unique and interesting subjects. As I said I think the only reason some maps don't get played very much is because for one reason or another people just aren't interested.

I don't have any answer for why maps are slow to get ratings and reviews in general, but I agree that a good way to promote your map would be to start a tourney on it. You could include a request to rate/review the map in your tournament description, too. And mention it in the tourney chat, just for coverage. Then post a forum thread about the tourney, for more coverage.

Another idea is to set up a half-decent strategic RT template for it and propose the template to the WGL hosts who are on the lookout for new templates to try each week.