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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
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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
Shiirn
Which is why most reasonable opinions are objecting to the very nature of this poll to begin with.
Topic Starter
Ephemeral
Considering that a significant majority of the overall opinion expressed thus far is ambivalent approval, I'd say that there's not that much to worry about regarding the poll's results not reflecting reality.
Shiirn
Because it's a loaded question.
Nao Tomori
can we have a poll to see if people think most recent maps are identical? cuz that's the actual issue, not how "good" or "bad" they are =P
Yuutai

Naotoshi wrote:

can we have a poll to see if people think most recent maps are identical? cuz that's the actual issue, not how "good" or "bad" they are =P
But you actually wouldn't need a poll for that. You can just determine it by comparing the beatmaps.

Fun minigame: Go to the ranked category, sort by Genre:Anime and then go find the 1-2 spam. Extra points if the map has lots of plays, is post 2014 and has at least one diff that goes 5-7.5* when DTed.
LwL
It feels like there's been a higher amount of super low effort pp mapsets such as chocolate cookie, but not enough to really be noticeable in a bad way. There are still many maps getting ranked which I enjoy, though some maps which I would like to see ranked seem to take forever to do so (though I can't really judge how much the mapper is trying to get at BNs, but their availability has always be a problem and it's not an easy one to solve), especially sitting at being bubbled seemingly forever. Overall I've always leant towards ranking more maps rather than less, I'd rather have a 45s pp map and a really unique creative map ranked than neither of those if both are technically well executed, and in general it feels like that is the case nowadays (mostly goes back to the change to the DQ system though).

I also don't really mind generic mapsets that all feel similar, because they still allow me to enjoy the song and potentially pose a challenge, even if I usually enjoy a creative map more, and I don't think ranking should really ever be restricted based on that, though making it easier to rank more creative maps, especially as long as there's a limit to the amount of maps that can get ranked every day (though I don't think it's really the limiting factor generally, otherwise qualified would have tons of maps by now), would be a really nice change. Not that I have any idea how to accomplish that.
Luvdic
I havent really played this a long time, but I can say the following.

Quality from what point of view? As in the new maps looks cleaner and polished? Yes sure!

But, the very few maps I have seen in the last couple of years, they all felt very similar although they were made by different mappers, it is like as if there is an unwritten guide where everyone is abiding to, and to be honest, this just lowers the quality of osu! gaming experience. One of the main reasons I used to play osu! is because it gave me a chance to enjoy the music in a different way, it is like as if it helps scratching that little spot that is barely scratched and feels very good, but with so many new maps feeling basically the same, then it feels like it is scratching the same spot over and over again.

I remember that in the past, I would seek maps with very different styles, say for example, the dreaded bad apple!! is a good example, each mapset offered something different and a different experience, and I enjoyed that, but nowadays, you look into any mapset with zillions of guest diffs, and they all feel very similar, and plays very similar.

Also, what the hell with so many maps having those stupid circle jumps separated by 1/2 ticks everywhere? Sure, they follow the music, but they don't follow the essence of the music, it is just a metronome that repeats over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over- oh wait what have I done?

And also so sad, so many BNs declined my mod request because my map feels old ;(
Seijiro
I would personally go back to the good old "ranking is a privilege, not a right" since nowadays it has become really (and I mean REALLY) easy to meet some "decent" standards of aesthetics, emphasis, etc...
I bet currently many just go with the "well, it doesn't seem bad, why not promoting it" while a different mentality imposed by the BNG could actually change how the ranked section looks like and how mappers in general react to this. Since they encounter no hard resistance to their efforts they are not induced to do more, to try more, to go beyond of what has been deemed "acceptable" already.

People complains about the BNG and the tiering system, while the actual faults reside within the community itself imo. There is no mapping education and mappers just assume low effort is fine as long as it looks and plays nice (hi, pp mappers). Yes, I think the people approving such things are also partly at fault here, as mentioned above, but let's not brush off the fact that it doesn't require any superior intelligence to realize that everyone can actually submit something unique and not generic if they tried doing so from the beginning.
I could make a few names who even posted on this thread about this "I complain about the situation but I rank stuff I complain about in the hope someone else does something about the situation" but that doesn't sound like something someone of my roles should be doing, right?

You are many complaining, you have the chance to change things: map and rank stuff that is "new" or "not generic". It just means throwing out of the window the rules when mapping, then just ensuring the final result respects them to some extent. We have the RC, but the RC can change based on the needs when the time comes, so I don't see a reason to feel strangled by this invisible wall.
I can go about this all day, but the thread is not meant for rants and I feel like I went past the allowed already...


Maps are generally of quality, but they lack inspiration of any sort (I'm generalizing, but there are some rare exceptions). Emulating the visual aspects of a clean map is easy, actually understanding and manipulating the principles is not, don't expect to become the next elite mapper without proper effort...
Aurele
I do enjoy most ranked maps as I love older maps.

The thing is that everyone has their opinion on what makes a map good in quality, so I can't stand anywhere.
nya10
Well this is one of thing why I stopped playing osu! (standard) to be honest.

Undoubtedly the maps are getting better and better, but little to no variety of maps are given. Even in a mapset I can't really determine which map is it (maybe I'm not paying attention) unless I look at the mapper name. Back in 2016, I played some maps, and I have many difficulties to pick the top 10 of 2016 beatmaps, mostly because nearly every single map I play doesn't give any huge impression. Well other points are already stated above I think.

I haven't looked at 2017 maps that much though, so idk.
Natsu
tbh maps being similar isn't a problem of the BNs/ranking system, is more about the community, like the mentorship program, youtube tutorials etc leads mappers in the same way-, like mapping has become super strict with its concepts that basically no one wants to try anything new.

Old mappers still keep their style, but this don't happen with new mappers who take concepts as emphasis like a religion that never can be broken.

Every time a map get qualified with a different concept gets heavily attacked by the community or mappers get ridiculed in public, which is the case of certain map in qualified that uses a basic symmetry concept right now.

MrSergio wrote:

People complains about the BNG and the tiering system, while the actual faults reside within the community itself imo. There is no mapping education and mappers just assume low effort is fine as long as it looks and plays nice
^
Shiirn
Our ranking system is one that discourages experimentation and communication by constantly resetting the entire ranking process the moment any discourse comes up does nothing but stress out mappers and modders and make them actively avoid doing anything perceived as "risky". I could go into a long lecture on my views of how the qualification process is well-meaning, but flawed, and how it directly or indirectly lead to most of our current community's problems with the ranking process, but I'm long since tired of that.

Don't blame only people. This isn't a simple problem, and it's not as simple as going "well clearly we're not teaching new mappers right". That failure happened years ago - the break between new mappers and experienced mappers occurred around the time the qualification system sprang up and the QAT became a thing, because it became more of an impersonal link between players and mapper.

It's a combination of an awkward, punishing ranking system and a lack of official support for our community-driven peer review process that has been left to stagnate with only clumsy changes for the past four and a half years. Every single change since the official start of qualification can be looked at now as being "well-intentioned, but poorly thought out", and all that's been done are bandage fixes because the new website and lazer are supposed to fix everything, like they should have, well, four and a half years ago.

(I totally get that the code monkey side doesn't want to waste time writing up official support for things that will be overhauled 'in the near future anyway', but that's been going on for well over three years now and it's a bit too late for a reboot to really save the system automatically.)
ErunamoJAZZ
Maps come to Ranked because mappers are making maps with one goal in mind: to be ranked.

You can ask to any mapper (new or old) if want to see their last map ranked, and you will get a high % of "yes".
After many time mapping, they will perceive how difficult is to get a map ranked, so finally many mappers take a path: use the generic and sure style for ranking, or just don't try to rank their maps.

I agree with Xananda's comment. At this point of the game, we are thousands of mappers doing maps with the hope of get their maps in ranked, but it is usually a wasted of time because only like a 4~5% of set are ranked. But new mappers are not aware of this fact!


Following sergio's position ("ranking is a privilege, not a right"), then the ranking system must not go in the way of "anyone who make a map have the same rights, all persons are equals for the system", because this message is not true?
I mean, of course people are equal, It's for anyone that upload a map, but not for people that want to rank.

Here I think in two examples of "privileged people":
1) people that join to a Prestigious College or so, doing their best (or being a genius? xD).
2) people that know to the "correct person".


My point is, if people is worry to make their maps ranked, they will (and do) any thing to accomplish it!, of course they will get ranked maps, these generic and bored but high quality maps :3
But hey, it is not only about maps. It is about music too.

Some sets come to ranked not because the map or the mapper, but because the song is amazing, even if map is mediocre.

Are mediocre maps bad?
This question is... idk, I think that if the song is nice, not many players will complain about, but if the song is bad... xD
At end, high quality or mediocrity are stuffs that are not relevant if compare it with how fun is <insert a song here>.


If people played osu with bad maps in the past 10 years, thinking that high quality is the holy grail to save us of boredom, its just not true, imho xDD
Mekki
Nothing else to say, completely agree with Xanandra, Natsu and ErunamoJAZZ and everyone else who said that styles are pretty much generic nowadays. There is no variations anymore (rarely every) and there is even people who are starting to completely kill old mapping styles with symmetry by saying the emphasys is ''not correct'' and stuff like that. Completely bullshit in my opinion.
Cherry Blossom
A lot of map you see today would be really not safe for qualify/rank a few years ago, just because "mapping trends" are still evolving. For example captin1's asymmetry that made community rage on staff members because the diff was DQ'd for a lack of concept, but today you see something like this and it looks normal to everyone.

What you see which looks "generic" and always the same could be qualified as pretty "average" like you can see "average" mapping a few years ago, but with a different "quality level". A lot of maps from today looks more clean and polished than a few years ago, we have to admit it and that's a good point.

Mapping has always tried to evolve with different mappers which tried to create different concepts, especially in 2014 with HW, fanzhen, HanzeR, rrtyui etc.
Now it's more like "i want to be the next <insert creative or very popular mapper here>" instead of "i want to be someone which wants to reach another mapping level", or a simple average mapper that maps song he/she likes and want to make it ranked as fast as possible, and a majority of time adding a lot of unnecessary difficulty to give pps, which literally ruins the whole mapping concept.

Before 2014, you could find some "promising mappers" that have potential to create new concepts, now a majority of "promising mappers" is like mappers which wants to follow experienced ones.

I can say that mapping may have reached its limit for now in terms of concept, as long as nobody tries to create something really new and "pulls the trigger". People can still make and rank more difficult things, but it's just an illusion of something new.
Iceskulls
as a player perspective , i enjoy only few maps
most maps nowdays just feel like repeating the same concept over and over even on a different song style imo. I also think that most maps now put too much priority on the pattern aesthetic or too complex rhythm (which i don't think suit much for the rhythm game like osu!) and sometimes those things make map a bit less enjoyable imo the thing to "always" put as a highest priority is how each individual beat can reflect the beat in the music at that moment and every second of the music at its 100% best

something that done right in unique and different style from the nowadays meta style are considered to be pretty good map for me
SuA-
Most maps are fine. Quality seems high. Though some maps feel less monitized because they are mapped my known mappers though thats only my opinion on it.

Mapping is changing and is evolving i think the main problem with most modern maps is they evolved into farm maps. People hate that but i kinda dont care about them being farm maps. i think its not the mappers fault but more the pp system in general. if it was still being maintained i think people wouldnt be complaining.
FaiVillager
For me I enjoy most ranked maps, either good "shaped" or feels good when playing. And I have to say, some maps made me feel weird. Of course some times the reason is that I don't like the model, but others have some problem imo.
As loved maps appears, some good map came out, but some loved maps are just "hard" with any other specials.
For ranked maps, I suggest considering feedbacks from public when it is qualified. A single choice is enough. If it is possible, the person who vote it better to be experienced mappers. And try to categorize mappers in to different groups considering ranked/unranked, since they may have a little difference on voice.
Another thing to mention is that the problem on ranking rules. I've heard some conflicts between mappers and BNs. Personally I think people do have different feelings on music, so if some of the BNs disagreed, the map is ok to go if more others agreed and it does not have serious problem.
For the rules, I think higher diffs should have less limination on mapping styles. Like, overlapped sliders does make people confused on reading, but it gives interests.(This is better now but there are some other rules that restrict the development of mapping) As for rhythm, everyone has his/her idea. If there is someone agreed, it works for this group of people.(The proportion is improtant tho)
iaport
The only reason I have been literally unable to enjoy any maps is that osu no longer works on my PC. My dad and I need to finish transferring files onto USBs before we can upgrade. Up until then, Osu was in the midst of its "Golden Age". What I'm saying is, most maps are amazing.

Thanks,
Sean (iaport)
Haxwill
The problem i have with many beatmaps that have been ranked in the past 3-5 months is that most of them are mapped in such similar ways, it seems people feel that the only way they can get a map ranked is by doing it a certain way, and so mapstyles seem to always be repetitive in levels. There are some tech maps that are pretty creative and fun, but i feel many mappers are forced to map in a certain way: which is usually to make it useful with DT, which often includes making maps short. Basically, what i'd like to see more often is levels that are more creative, allow more mapstyles, and maybe try to get at least 1 marathon [10 minutes+] a month
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