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Poll 41: How do you feel about recently ranked beatmaps?

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51

How do you feel about recently ranked beatmaps? (during 2017)

I love pretty much all of the ones I've played recently!
31
5.39%
I've enjoyed most of what I've played recently.
123
21.39%
I've enjoyed some, but think that a fair few could use some improvement.
207
36.00%
I haven't really noticed any change, for better or worse, in how beatmaps have been lately.
49
8.52%
I've had trouble enjoying most maps, and think that lots could use some serious improvement.
114
19.83%
I really haven't enjoyed practically any of the beatmaps that have been ranked lately.
51
8.87%
Total votes: 575
Topic Starter
Ephemeral
We're interested to know about how you feel about the relative quality of the beatmaps ranked within the past year.

For older players that have been with us for a while, has there been a noticable improvement or decline in the overall "quality" of maps recently? No change at all?

Have you enjoyed all of the maps you've played lately? Most? Not very many? Could they have been better?

Let us know, but please, be civil about it. Understand that all maps are the product of someone's hard work, regardless of how poorly you may think they play. Be respectful and mindful.
ErDeiviSupaHot
Despite lot's of farm maps being made, I think it's been a good year for mapping
- JayFlow -
b-but monstrata ranked one farm map and a few ugly sliders REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
VINXIS
chose enjoyed some but a fair few coukd use improvement but id change the word few to most

2017 is sure better than 2015 and 2016 for mapping but its still as hell barren, dry, desolate, and boring
Pachiru
There is only U N I Q U E maps in the last ranked maps. @Pentori

There is a few maps that are good in my opinion...
Adding the tier system didn't improved the ranked map quality at all
ErunamoJAZZ
Personally, I don't play many new maps because they are very difficult for me (even if I played for 5 years this, maps of 5.5 stars or more keep doing annoying to play if I don't like the song).
For me, many maps are just not funny to play, not because they are bad, but because that feel as the same... atm for me as a player, I found more funny low AR that high AR, by example.

edit: just to be clear, my example with low ar is because Im busy irl so my time for play is very low now.
huu
There were some that enjoyed, but the amount of pp farm stuff that's getting ranked is...draining (in a bad way). I'd love to see more marathon maps ranked but that's just me.
Mir
It's a wide spectrum of enjoyable and unenjoyable maps getting ranked nowadays. But I'd say most could use improvement not only quality-wise, but just by using more concepts other than "sharp angled pp jumps" and stuff.

Oh yeah and CBCC was the highlight of the year so far, so take that as you will.
pkhg
I haven't really noticed any change, for better or worse, in how beatmaps have been lately.

maybe a few mappers managed to make interesting stuff but in general i cant really notice any big change
Lefafel
The amount of good maps seems to be staying about the same from month to month, just more and more uninspired, samey and generally forgettable maps keep getting pushed through the ranking process :/

I really appreciate the taiko maps that are getting ranked, though! I find myself enjoying a large majority of them ^^
Mismagius
current era maps are technically much more well-designed than, let's say, 2013 maps. that doesn't make them more fun, though, and that added to the song choice of most mappers nowadays makes me not attracted to playing recent maps
ErDeiviSupaHot

Mismagius wrote:

current era maps are technically much more well-designed than, let's say, 2013 maps. that doesn't make them more fun, though, and that added to the song choice of most mappers nowadays makes me not attracted to playing recent maps
I'd love you if you mapped songs from TQBF's last album (Nerve's ending)
7ambda
The main problem is that the RC is just a bare bag of bones in terms of rule structure. It doesn't do much in itself to promote unique and interesting mapping. Rather, it allows for anything (i.e. https://osu.ppy.sh/s/468614) that abides by MINIMUM quality standards.

Why do you think so many good and new mappers gravitate towards generic styles and pp mapping? Safe maps are easy to rank; you can rank them much faster than a map with a controversial style (i.e. A-L-I-E-N and HELIX (Edit Ver.)); it's not hard to find mods for a map that everyone knows how to play, versus something that only a small minority can play (i.e. https://osu.ppy.sh/b/1269336 and https://osu.ppy.sh/s/473166). Now I'm not saying there's hardly any interesting, unique, or fun maps that isn't getting pushed towards ranked, but the ranking section is only as good as its weakest link (uninspired mapping).

You would either have to make a major change in the RC, pp algorithm, or both to see any major change in what maps get pushed into the ranking section.
Delis
I've been inactive in 2015 and 2016 hence I don't really have knowledge about the maps made in that time. but when I compare 2017 maps to the maps that are made when I was active (in 2014) the overall quality of pp mapping is visually higher than before. and at the same time, I feel that much less "unique" nor "epic" maps are getting ranked/mapped lately. I mean, pp mapping has gained a lot of improves in comparison, it's nice for players that like playing for their ranking a lot. although now I barely see maps that look/play different from the rest of the maps that are mapped nowadays, which means that the most of maps are really boring to play when you're not focusing on farming pp. I really hope this will become a lot better in the future, and so I'm here to help mappers that actually can map something great (if it even exists).
Shiirn
The quality of maps has not plummeted so much, but rather, there has been little to no variation to most maps that pass "quality standards". The system itself rather efficiently stamps out most forms of self-expression by telling mappers to "do things the right way", instead of coaching them on how to make their vision meet quality standards - the system basically coaches new and old mappers from the wrong direction, I feel.

It's an incredibly narrow-minded mistake to equate "enjoyment" and "quality".

This poll will do absolutely nothing except create a padded statistic to throw around. It's slanted in a rather disturbing way to focus on a "fake problem" and then try to solve that problem. It's just another round of showboating.

Most of the "quality" issues people have is that all "quality" maps look and play almost exactly the same - there's little to no variety anymore. And most maps that don't meet this modern "quality" requirement are lacking in many other ways, not just in structure or aesthetics.

Please don't lose sight of what this game's potential is, Ephemeral. This game was not designed to be a competitive game. It was designed to be fun. And fun requires variety and the encouragement of content creators to express themselves in productive and inspirational ways - not to turn them into little more than sentient translation machines.
Painketsu
100% agree with shiirn here, I can't count over 5-6 maps ranked this year that felt actually inspiring to me.
UndeadCapulet
i think i noticed a decline in quality around early april
Nozhomi

UndeadCapulet wrote:

i think i noticed a decline in quality around early april
I saw it since middle of 2015
Seni
I noticed a decline in quality around Aug 15, 2017
Nao Tomori
maps have been "declining in quality" since 2013 or whatever lmao

doesnt mean they actually are

edit: since apparently qats didn't realize it

MAP QUALITY DID NOT IMPROVE WITH THE TIER SYSTEM

MAP QUALITY WILL NOT IMPROVE WITH THE TIER SYSTEM



the only difference is the number of maps being qualified, they still range from god fucking awful to amazing
Natsu
maps are better than before and they did improve qualty, it's just that there are many mappers nowadays that's hard to see something different to the rest, also players giving more attention to certain maps leads to mappers to map in a similar way, the real problem is the pp/ranking system, but a game without a ranking system is also bored.
pkhg
^ agree except that i dont think pp has relevance on this topic

quality maps are like gourmet food. only chefs can appreciate gourmet food while for normal people without that knowledge, flavours are mainly the only factor that they cosider for deciding what is good and bad and theyre unable to comprehend certain flavours and the impact of some ingredients that they dont think are relevant at all

we already have seen players enjoying loved maps while most of them arent good maps for most of the experienced mappers and viceversa

ye

i noticed a decline since the first harumachi clover got ranked haha xd
Monstrata
Recently ranked beatmaps are largely still good. But mapping is stagnating due to the modding environment. Cue rant about the bn test system:

There's a dearth of modders who know how to improve a mapper's concepts and visions for that specific map, a dearth of modders with differing opinions on flows, hitsounding, visual appeal, etc... and an abundance of modders who know how to improve the map according to the current meta's standard of quality. This results in modders pressuring mappers to "make high quality stuff" which mappers translate as "map using meta-driven concepts and patterns that are high quality".

Ranking maps isn't easy. The tier system has made it more difficult than before. New mappers and even some intermediate mappers don't bother experimenting or making more unique maps because the motivation for creating a "high quality meta-following" map leads to much easier qualifications. With new mappers especially, think of the logic this way: "Why map something experimental or innovative, and potentially have to completely remap, or never see the light of day, or map using the principles of the 2017 meta-mapping and produce something that can potentially become ranked?" Remember that especially for new mappers and intermediate mappers, even trying to map in the current meta-mapping isn't easy. "If I map like everyone else who gets their stuff ranked, I'll get my stuff ranked. And if I don't, I can easily find modders who can tell me how to map like everyone else so I can eventually get my map ranked." <--- thought process for many new mappers.

Modding is how a map goes from pending to ranked. So for me, modding is the root of the problem. The BN Tests were partly responsible for creating this because they only awarded people who modded a certain way and pointed out certain subjective issues. Modders quickly learned to mod this way in an effort to become BN's. We see a lot more focus on emphasis control, spacing, producing "good" flows, etc... Don't get me wrong though, stuff like this is worth pointing out in mods. I don't think the BN test failed in this aspect at all. Teaching modders to look for these things is good. The problem is the test only promoted these kinds of modders to BN, and removed BN's who didn't consider these aspects as thoroughly, even if they specialized in other areas or held different visions on flow choice / aesthetics etc...

Modders who specialized in hitsounding often were left out, as well as modders with different opinions on flow. There is no "good" or "bad" flow, only good and bad usage of movements (and even then, poor movement can complement the song too if the song is jarring). People who modded maps based on the mapper, ie "you usually do X in your maps, this is a good opportunity to do something like that instead of the usual jump spam" or people who try to mod with the mapper's vision in mind also suffered. When a map is purposefully created to be bad, you don't get many opportunities to "improve" the map as opposed to "fixing" it, and some modders are exceptionally good at improving good maps to become even better, but rarely deal with maps made by new mappers. I could go on about how the bn test system ended up stifling different mapping genres, and regions (knowing English for example, is essential to doing well in the Tests, and some modders who knew very little English suffered as a result). But you get the point now. A lack of modding diversity, and a lack of diversity in what BN's consider "high quality" is causing mapping to streamline.

As a result, we have a new generation of modders who define high quality as things that check the boxes of emphasis/spacing/flow that they received points in when taking the BN Test.

Mappers are mapping the 2017-meta style because it's currently the best definition of "high quality" whereas we previously had different and equally respected definitions, resulting in more diverse map pools.
Vivyanne
I mean I've had no trouble finding "good" maps in ranked. However as a player I feel like lately most of the fun out of playing most maps has been fading away. Seeing what kind of maps have gotten through lately, the varietry still seems to be really not there, most people just mapping safe and not doing really much interesting within a map itself that is actually interesting. Guess all the blame is sort of on the ranking process though.

Unluckily quality and enjoyment can't be linked together mostly. Maps that I sometimes enjoy as a player have no redeeming qualities as a map when I look it at as a mapper. It can go the other way around too. It's really hard to decide what kind of maps should actually get ranked, especially when everyone else major taste differences as for what kind of maps they like to play and thus enjoy. There's no going around that most likely at leats 50% of the playerbase will dislike your map for whatever reason possible.

Maps have improved. There's no denying that. Fun on the other hand hasn't changed at all as maps in their core haven't gone through major changes in concepts in maps. The feeling generally of maps has not changed. I don't know if that really matters but it has made me stop playing actively.

All that I need is maps to be interesting again while playing. I've already farmed enough stupid PP maps
Genjuro
I think modders need to help mappers of all sorts to improve their maps and push towards rank. Currently most of the maps that get ranked feel the same. Even more interesting songs like camellia songs for example have their "meta" where every map uses the same ideas and has the same standards. Take for example dsco, he ranked 3 maps and all 3 felt unique in their own way.

Another issue that might not be a problem for everyone but bothers me a bit is that there is little diversity in the songs that get ranked. Here, I can't really blame modders since they are doing a voluntary "job" so they should atleast like the songs that they mod, but I think BN's should promote maps of various genres to ranked so players don't get bored of the music.

One of the biggest reasons why i like playing old maps is because there are alot of different music genres and most maps are unique in some way and even though these maps are not challenging because they are usually up to insane difficulties, they are more enjoyable than typical modern maps for sure.

These are my issues, hopefully we will see more diversity in mapping in the future!
Xinnoh
I don't like tiers (does anyone) for a couple reasons

T1 BNs which are usually new/less experienced can only bubble stuff, they are the ones required to take the first step. If it's something experimental or different, they have to put their views on the line to say "this is a rankable map", and it's only backed by their opinion.
On the other hand, if an experienced or respected bn bubbled an experimental map then fewer would judge his decision because he's more reliable/well known whatever.
Eg. If I passed the taiko bn test by fluke in a mode I'm unfamiliar with, I would probably prefer to qualify bubbled sets. Checking a bubbled set is safer as another bn has already said it was rankable, whereas modding non-bubbled it's harder for an unexperienced bn to judge rankability. This would lead to only putting bubbles on maps that are really safe/easy.
hey that sounds like the tier system situation

my two cents on why I think there's not as much interesting stuff ranked these days.

edit: order wrong sentence is in the
Caput Mortuum
I've seen zero change in the beatmap library so far. Most of them are generic but some are distinguishable.
timemon
I think mapping becoming more popular and song choice play a big role in here as well.

I'm a new mapper myself (im only 4 months old as a mapper).
When new mappers try to make something a little bit controversial, they are met with much more experienced modders suggesting them otherwise. Due to being new and lacking experience, most new mappers will just follow what ppl suggest (myself included).

Song choice is important as well. Anime opening can only be interesting for so long. with how many anime openings there are, some of them are bound to be very similar. which means they are also similarly mapped. Some people play beatmaps just for the song, they don't care how good or bad the map is.

I believe beatmaps have become more polished overall.
Noctalove
Since about a year in the beatmaps recently ranked, they are not at the top either in the cartography or sometimes compared to the sound there could be better
After one of the possible reason that I have noticed those who make the mods, do not totally agree between them despite that they all have quite a lot of experience in the field

A recent example in a beatmap (in std mode) with quite a few priority stars, in the last difficulty that still needed a little work, a dit that had to revisit a passage and another mod said that the same Passage almost needed to be redone

Here if examples such as these two cited above still happens on experienced beatmaps of mappers, there is a slight inconvenience; Imagined the same thing that could have happened to a beginner mapper, it will then be a little lost
Cherry Blossom
Mapping today is a majority of skystar/hw/hanzer/rlc etc. wannabe's. Or "free jumps" for pps.
Maps are decent, but that's just boring to play the same generic things, which lack of soul.
And it has become boring since 2015 imo.
Litharrale
Whoevers making ANY conclusion from this survey please keep in mind that people tend to be more vocal about negative experiences rather than positive ones.

That and also people have been saying "mapping is worse than it used to be" since the games creation
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