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11/12/00 - Peej / QMap Interview:
Introduction:
Peej designed and maintained QMap (now Func_Msgboard), the user-driven custom mapping news site / forum / community centre. He is an experienced mapper, famous for the Strafin series for Quake and Quake 3: Addiction for Q3A, (available at review and FTP sites), and has a site in stasis at Peej.co.uk.
Shambler: So....Headshot created the QBoard, a mapping forum, and after that closes, you create QMap, a mapping forum. Are you just a Headshot clone?? Are you made out of A-frame teleporters and metal trim??
Peej: QMap was the natural progression of the web side of the community. Frib and myself had run PnF for a fair while and we were both starting to get fed up of the constant attention the site required, so when the QBoard was taken offline, I created QMap as a replacement for both. Before the headshot closed the QBoard, there was talk of the 3rd version of the board, which was to incorporate PnF, along with a number of other mapping related stuff. That never happened, QMap did.
Shambler: QMap is an unusual site in that users can submit any news they want on the forum, and then moderators make anything worthwhile into news. Where did you get the idea of a user-driven site from??
Peej: [if you don't like the word/phrase "community", you'll love the next answer]
It's hard to say for sure, it just seemed like a good idea at the time. There were three real reasons for doing this. Firstly as I mentioned above, myself and Frib were tired of the way PnF worked, so I didn't just want to add a QBoard style msgboard to PnF, it needed a new style of content delivery which didn't eat up a big chunk of our free time. Secondly, as is always a good reason, it was different. There is nothing else on the web like QMap, and the reason for this is the unique way it empowers the community that uses it, I wanted to experiment, to see if sure an open system would work and work effectively. Finally, the mapping community has always been an active community, so what is the point of speaking for a community when the community can speak for itself, thus the QMap content delivery system was born.
Shambler: Do you feel that users take full advantage of what they can post for news at QMap??
Peej: It's hard to say, some users are particularly active at posting news, others aren't. I'm not sure if it's because people are scared of posting or don't know how to or what, but it does seem to be the same few regulars that post most news. This is another issue I hope to correct in the future.
Shambler: What about the moderators?? Are they remotely useful or just a bunch of power-abusing morons??
Peej: The only way to run a democracy is to have a few people in charge who represent the overall interests of the community; this is where the moderators come in. Overall the moderator system has worked very well with fairly little abuse. I try not to do the whole "overlord" thing on moderators and allow them to sort out indifferences in opinion between themselves and the rest of the community. Without the moderators, QMap could not function, some may see them as a necessary evil, but when it comes down to it, they freely give a little of their time everyday to help things run smoothly.
Shambler: What's your favourite and least favourite aspects of QMap's site design??
Peej: Hmmm, difficult. Favourite has to be the simple fact that it's very easy on the eye and leans the balance of form and function heavily towards the function end of the scale while still having a half decent form.
Least favourite, apart from the slowness of the page requests at the moment, errm, don't think there is anything, funny that, I could have sworn there would have been something.
Shambler: What's your favourite and least favourite aspects of the QMap's content and the way it's used by the community??
Peej: I'm very pleased with the way the community have taken to QMap and it's "non-standard" way of working, it's good to see new news item on the site everyday without having to lift a finger ;) I would however like to see more abstract stuff in the news, it is starting to get a little repetitive, another LVL update, another MPQ update, etc. A lot seems to be site pimpage, which is a shame, but then I guess site pimpage is the bulk of the mapping news.
Shambler: You take very much a back seat at QMap, with only the occasional post. Since it's your baby, how do you feel about not using it very much??
Peej: I don't mean to take a back seat, I mean I read the site everyday. I guess that with my life being as hectic as it is and all the other stuff going on around me, I don't get as much time to interact with the community as I'd like.
Shambler: Do you regret having to slow down on your mapping and not having your maps as part of the current thriving scene??
Peej: I didn't have to slow down, I chose to. Mapping was starting to become too much of a chore and too little of an enjoyment for me. I found that I was no longer really playing Quake, and as such was mapping for mappings sake.
Shambler: QMap, a few flame sessions aside, has been entirely free of abuse such as pr0n and w4r3z links, spam, and other irritants. Is that just luck or is it the community's dedicated focus on mapping??
Peej: I think it is mostly due to the size of the community, the number of visitors QMap gets and the type of people who do visit. Being small, the community easily regulates itself, with nuisance users being quickly shunned and excluded by the rest of the community. If the community grows, which I very much doubt it will, but if it did, then I could see problems in the future.
Shambler: You've chosen your own domain, www.qmap.org, rather than an established gaming network - is this to be in total control of the technical running of the site, or because you wanted to be entirely independent with no content responsibilities to a parent site??
Peej: At the time, I was a tad pissed off with GSN and their terrible web servers (which they seem to have fixed in most cases) and Telefragged already have Rust under their wing as a mapping site. So instead of heading for a lesser known gaming fan site, I decided to move to a professional hosting company for our server setup. The upside of this is that it gives me full control over the site.
Shambler: Do you feel that QMap has gained the acceptance and popularity it deserves given it's the centre of a strong, talented mapping community??
Peej: I feel that is has gained the acceptance and popularity of the mapping community (or the QBoard subset of the community, I feel there are many other mappers out there beside the QMap people) but due to being a separate entity to anything else gaming related, is rather isolated. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. I think it's one of the reasons QMap has such a strong community, but it is also a reason why the community is quite static without much new blood entering. This leads to the old elitism issues that were brought up back on the QBoard and is a shame.
Shambler: What do you feel QMap's status and relation to somewhere like Rust is?? Isn't there a lot of crossover?? Would it be good if such sites were combined??
Peej: I'm not a big reader of Rust, it's not a site I visit regularly, I only really visit for their tutorials. I do think that the two sites deal with very similar topics and do have the ability to crossover. However, Rust is an entirely different (more traditional) news site, so I guess both have a place. To be honest, it's not something I've thought about much.
Shambler: Do you feel proud that some QMap regulars, who clearly get benefits and feedback from it's community, have had huge success with well-received maps in the wider FPS scene??
Peej: Not really, it's nothing to do with me really, QMap just provides a service, that service however is only as good as the people involved in it. It's the QMap community that makes it what it is.
Shambler: Are you worried a community like QMap's encourages a "culture of celebrity" where mappers are more important than their maps?? Or is it a good testing ground for new mappers to break into the scene??
Peej: I am worried it breeds elitism, however anyone who thinks they are "elite" or above anyone else is just kidding themselves. You can't judge people on what they have done or said in the past, only on the strength of their character and positive contribution to the community. I think that we usually find that people who think of themselves as somehow more important than the next guy find their fingers soon burned.
Shambler: Are newcomers to QMap and new mappers treated with the respect they deserve?? Is the sometimes-elitist attitude a good way to ensure a high standard of maps??
Peej: I think unfortunately there is. I want as many people as possible to benefit from QMap and the people within the community, however there always seems to be someone who thinks because they have made positive contributions in the past and like the way things are now, they shouldn't make new people welcome. I am currently working on ways to make this likely to happen through some new (and funky) features.
Shambler: Although QMap is open to any mapping news, it's focused on id's Quake games. Is this a good thing keeping the site focused, or can it be a problem as regulars are reluctant to welcome other mapping factions??
Peej: I don't like the narrowness of the site. However most of our members are from a Quake mapping background and are sticking with the game. You know far more than the next guy that variety is the spice of life, and that playing and mapping for other games is a good thing. I'd like to see more UT, CS, Rune, [your fav FPS here] maps and happenings at QMap.
Shambler: Despite Q3A's arrival and Q2 effectively being ignored by mappers, the mapping scene has held together pretty well. Will this continue or will it splinter under the number of games to map for??
Peej: Quake and Q3 mapping have a lot in common (ie the engine), so I can see them staying pretty much as a single community. I can also see other Quake3 engine games coming into that community. However there are three major mapping communities around at the moment, the aforementioned Quake scene, the Half-Life/Counter-Strike mapping scene, and the Unreal/UT scene. I'd like to see these communities become more integrated; I think each can learn a lot from each other. I hope to enable QMap to support these other two communities better in the future.
Shambler: Don't you the differences in editing maps between Quake games and Unreal games, and differences in gameplay between Quake games and Half-Life games prevent the three scenes converging??
Peej: The gameplay and editing techniques between the three scenes are different, however the basic ideas are still the same. Mappers still have to work out game flow, item placement, and form vs function, underneath the varying engines the ideas of mapping are the same. Whether these more obvious differences can be overcome, I'm not sure, however they should not stop the different scenes from interacting with each other and people from migrating between them.
Shambler: "Community" - discuss.
Peej: Communities are great, and e-communities (emmunities?) are great too. They allow people from all over the World with similar niche interests to gather together and share thoughts, information, and flame wars. We are very lucky to be living in an age where the power of online communities is just being realised.
Shambler: "The future of gaming" - discuss.
Peej: Gaming is getting bigger all the time, very much bigger. In fact with the ability of the next generation console machines being net-enabled, the introduction of web-tv, and the next generation of WAP technology just a few years away, I think we are going to see the online gaming scene move further and further into the mainstream gaming market. This can only be a good thing, introducing more and more people to the e-communities. I think that if a PC game doesn't come with decent multiplayer TCP/IP support these days, it is looked upon by games companies as having missed a big upcoming market sector which helps to increase the longevity of the game and (more importantly to them) sell more copies.
Shambler: "The future of mapping" - discuss.
Peej: I can't see mapping changing much, the technologies will change, the skills technical required will change, but the fundamental ideas and people doing the mapping will remain the same. Mapping will always be a balance of form and function, this will never change, so mappers will always have the same problems to overcome.
Shambler: "The future of Peej's mapping" - discuss.
Peej: Good question. At the moment I have no plans to do any more mapping. This will probably change in the future as the urges come back. The problem with mapping is that it is a very time consuming hobby for very little outcome. I can spend weeks and months in the editor and come up with nothing, on the other hand I can spend a day and have a nearly finished product. At this time, the rewards do not out way the effort, I'm far happier developing web applications to be bothered with maps.
Shambler: What games look like they will inspire Peej to map in the future?? And what do you think will be the next big games for mapping in general??
Peej: I'm looking forward to playing Alice, some of the maps in the demo have thrown up some excellent alternative design ideas which haven't been seen anywhere else before. However I don't see it being "the next big game". I'm also looking to Tribes2, the original was a superb game flawed only by and accidental engine bug, and what I've seen to T2 so far looks very promising. However the scope for mapping in this style of game is very limited, who wants to design terrain and plonk in a few pre-defined buildings? Not me.
As for the next big games as far as mapping goes, I think they have to come from either id, Epic. Which means either Doom3 or Unreal2. I say this because these are still "classic" FPS games, which the mapping community seem to prefer, I could also point out TF2, Halo, Tribes2, etc, etc, as big games, but the mapping potential in the current scene is very small due to most of the scenes interest in the classic SP/DM FPS game style. Ultimately I guess it comes down to the fact that people will map for games that they like to play, which have a pretty good following, and have a good chunk of longevity.
Shambler: How long do you see QMap lasting?? Assuming you have the resources to maintain it indefinitely, will it evolve as new games come out, or will it fade away into a small community of crusty old skoolers "Aaah, Q3A with it's pseudo-curves, them were the days for real mapping..." ??
Peej: As some of you will know, I'm currently working on a new backend codebase for QMap, this will hopefully allow it far more extendibility and functionality to allow it to continue to evolve into the future. It already has functionality to support multiple communities, sort out elitism, deal with troll-like behaviour, and track more user information than ever before. Hopefully the future for QMap is a bright one, of course it all comes down to whether the community want to keep QMap alive, rather than the other way around. I think 2001 is going to be an interesting year for both mapping in general and QMap.
Shambler: Any other comments you wish to add??
Peej: Nope. Other than read my column j00 biatches!
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