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[Guideline Proposal] Aesthetics and Visuals

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Topic Starter
Alheak
Hello, this is quite a controversial topic, but I believe it is necessary to clear up this grey zone of the rankability of a map.

Some people seem to argue that visuals do not matter as long as the intent or concept is well executed, but I would make the point that a good concept is way better conveyed with an effective design, and clean visuals make a map easier to read.
Moreover, they show that the mapper cares about their creation (not that they don't, note the use of the verb "show"), and when your map becomes an official part of the game (=ranked), it should look the part.

Of course everybody can't be literal Michael Angelos but aesthetics are still something that can be learned to some extent, just like flow, rhythm, consistency, and anything else that makes up a good map. There is no excusing obvious defects like unintentional overlaps, bad blankets, or clash in styles.

I'm also aware that this is quite subjective as well, so I don't want to get into total aesthetics nazism (although I wouldn't mind it tbh), but since there are literally zero (0) rules or guidelines about this subject, I think we should at least clear this up in the guidelines for Standard:

Appropriate, consistent and clean visuals should be used throughout the map.
Unless the song suggests it, avoid clashing slider shapes and patterns (e.g. "industrial", straight shapes when the others are "natural" and curved). Be also mindful of close objects unintentionally overlapping each other, non-centered blankets, and inconsistencies in angles or spacing in similar parts of the song.


Hopefully, having this kind of guideline should make any poor design choice unrankable unless the mapper can justify it.

I really believe this is an important aspect of mapping, so I hope we can have a productive discussion about it, thanks!

tl;dr: visuals are as important as any other aspect of a map for a lot of reasons explained above and should be heavily considered for rank
Mun
i can understand consistent, but "appropriate" is unenforcable and "clean" is damaging to mapping diversity.
anna apple
A lot of maps that have been spited by the community for their lack of aesthetics I thought they were really visually nice/pretty, they were clean in their own regard in such a way that the map looked like that map and not a jumble of notes or anything. Its pretty clear that between numbers of people that a majority isn't inherently correct in any regard. That being said should be noted this kind of thing is really ambiguous and subjective. It reminds me of middle school and highschool when kids would get bullied for being ugly to the popular kids. How is this any different?

Also there is no grey zone in this area, it should be really clear when a full QAT team comes and backs a map and says "aesthetics don't matter" on that map then you really shouldn't think it undermines the rankability of a map lol wtf
Topic Starter
Alheak
"Clean" refers to unintentional defects like overlaps and bad blankets in this case.

But yeah, my intent for "appropriate" was to have some kind of justification from the mapper, which is the purpose of a guideline anyway, but I guess it could be formulated in a better way.
Mun
Then this doesn't really seem helpful to me. Maps that are visually inconsistent are usually otherwise inconsistent as well (which is frowned upon and can lead to a veto or DQ to fix), and "the removal of unintended defects" is one of the major intentions of the whole modding process.

I do agree that mappers should be able to justify their positions instead of bullshitting their way out of it. However, we have very little way to enforce that without limiting the headroom we have as mappers.

The ranking criteria and QAT are very non-interventionist as they are now, because this structure of community trusts its constituents to be smart, thoughtful, and tactful about their decisions on what to map and what to rank. Some people will violate this, certainly, but encroaching upon that freedom in response to a few bad apples can only impede the ability of the community at large to dictate its own direction. If you see a map you consider bad getting ranked, respond to it by mapping and ranking one of your own. You can have the effect you want on the future of mapping by influencing others with your work, rather than telling them how to do theirs.
Linada

Mun wrote:

Then this doesn't really seem helpful to me. Maps that are visually inconsistent are usually otherwise inconsistent as well (which is frowned upon and can lead to a veto or DQ to fix), and "the removal of unintended defects" is one of the major intentions of the whole modding process.

I do agree that mappers should be able to justify their positions instead of bullshitting their way out of it. However, we have very little way to enforce that without limiting the headroom we have as mappers.
This would be quite the ideal but recent events *cough squartatrice* show that even with common sense this is not possible, going full "i prefer my way" every reply and still getting away with it.

We live in a world where everything is subjective and if you can big talk you can bullshit your way out of it without any problem.

Not talking only about aesthetics here but it's still part of it
anna apple

Linada wrote:

This would be quite the ideal but recent events *cough squartatrice* show that even with common sense this is not possible, going full "i prefer my way" every reply and still getting away with it.

We live in a world where everything is subjective and if you can big talk you can bullshit your way out of it without any problem.

Not talking only about aesthetics here but it's still part of it
can you keep on topic of the thread instead of flaming other maps please
Linada
not flaming but just giving a mere example
coco
pls stop
Topic Starter
Alheak
I think the biggest point of this guideline would be to enforce the minimum aesthetic requirements that mappers can currently flat out ignore because there's literally nothing about it in the RC, and the backlash and stepping in of the QAT in some extreme cases show that there needs to be a clarification there.

A guideline is a good idea because it prevents most of those issues to get to qualification, preventing DQ and drama, while still leaving room for creativity if the mapper can justify it and if the community agrees with it, just like any other guideline has done so far.

If things are "frowned upon", why not make a guideline? I believe it's a necessity to write some points down so that everyone is on the same page and to prevent debating again over the same things.
anna apple
Hey I have some reservations with how you posted this that are explained in red, please fix these before we move forward

Alheak wrote:

Hello, this is quite a controversial topic, but I believe it is necessary to clear up this grey zone of the rankability of a map.

Some people seem to argue that visuals do not matter as long as the intent or concept is well executed, but I would make the point that a good concept is way better conveyed with an effective design, and clean visuals make a map easier to read.
Moreover, they show that the mapper cares about their creation (not that they don't, note the use of the verb "show"), and when your map becomes an official part of the game (=ranked), it should look the part.
the equal sign looks ugly next to the parenthesis here
Of course everybody can't be literal Michael Angelos but aesthetics are still something that can be learned to some extent, just like flow, rhythm, consistency, and anything else that makes up a good map. There is no excusing obvious defects like unintentional overlaps, bad blankets, or clash in styles.
the way you wrote this list hides it in this paragraph and makes it harder to read
I'm also aware that this is quite subjective as well, so I don't want to get into total aesthetics nazism (although I wouldn't mind it tbh), but since there are literally zero (0) rules or guidelines about this subject, I think we should at least clear this up in the guidelines for Standard:
putting the number 0 in the parenthesis has bad blanket because you need to move it down a few pixels
Appropriate, consistent and clean visuals should be used throughout the map.
Unless the song suggests it, avoid clashing slider shapes and patterns (e.g. "industrial", straight shapes when the others are "natural" and curved). Be also mindful of close objects unintentionally overlapping each other, non-centered blankets, and inconsistencies in angles or spacing in similar parts of the song.
having a quote above adds an extra line below this paragraph so to make it even you should make an extra line of space before it
Hopefully, having this kind of guideline should make any poor design choice unrankable unless the mapper can justify it.
the italics in "should" put the letter d much closer to the word "make" which is inconsistent to how much space is between the letter s in "should" and the letter n in "in" before it
I really believe this is an important aspect of mapping, so I hope we can have a productive discussion about it, thanks!

tl;dr: visuals are as important as any other aspect of a map for a lot of reasons explained above and should be heavily considered for rank
having a bold at the bottom of your post makes it feel really cluttered because of how the forums work
Swell
You could've not named squartatrice and people would've still understood your point lol. Well either way, I don't think that restriction the ability of a lot of mappers just because of 1 or 2 people isnt exactly fair either. And the terms that this post brings on are already present in how mods function on a basic level. While it might be frustrating for modders for the mapper to say "No i like it better like this". It can be just as frustrating to give the modder more power over the mapper just so they can just say "No your idea is wrong".

I would rather get redwalled in a mod rather than making no progress in a map just because my slider didnt align with how a modder thinks a sound should look.
Mun

bor wrote:

things
Please stop, you're embarrassing and discrediting everyone who disagrees with this guideline proposal.

Anyway, I think that there is some rift in the understanding of what each side is saying.
On one side, we have people saying "mappers have to be able to justify their aesthetic choices!" while the other side is saying "any suggestion based around aesthetics misses the point of whatever map."

What is needed here is better communication, not for people to jump to conclusions. Personally, Alheak, I think you should hold off and maybe think about what you really intend for a visuals guideline to be about, or whether that can and should be generalized to something more commonly considered and regarded than visuals and aesthetics, i.e. consistency.

And on the opposing side, I think people should take more time to understand what is being said, rather than jump to conclusions, ironically miss the point, and act frustratingly toxic in some strange attempt to shut down conversation about the topic.

I hope I don't sound too mean in saying this, but the longer this goes on, the less each side seems to understand the other. It's only been a bit over half an hour and there's already shit being spewed everywhere over it.
anna apple

Mun wrote:

bor wrote:

things
Please stop, you're embarrassing and discrediting everyone who disagrees with this guideline proposal.

Anyway, I think that there is some rift in the understanding of what each side is saying.
I really believe visuals matter if we are going to push this to an official state, and I don't get why you are personally attacking me on an official thread
Nao Tomori

Alheak wrote:

I think the biggest point of this guideline would be to enforce the minimum aesthetic requirements that mappers can currently flat out ignore because there's literally nothing about it in the RC, and the backlash and stepping in of the QAT in some extreme cases show that there needs to be a clarification there.
- there is already, in 99.99999% of cases, a fairly intersubjective level of aesthetics in a map. so much so that people complain, and have been complaining for a while now, that a lot of maps look the exact same. defining a minimum level of "aesthetic", aside from being hilariously impractical, is not something that can be codified since it's so subjective. for example: i am a bn. i think that so-called russian style mapping looks terrible. should i veto a map for using that type of aesthetic? very few people would agree with that, but this guideline would provide support for it.
A guideline is a good idea because it prevents most of those issues to get to qualification, preventing DQ and drama, while still leaving room for creativity if the mapper can justify it and if the community agrees with it, just like any other guideline has done so far.
- the community agreeing with a guideline being broken has nothing to do with whether or not it's justified. aside from that, the community at large is laughably inconsistent with what is accepted and what isn't so it shouldn't be used as a judge for what is rankable or not. note that this applies to both the BNG and mappers in general. guidelines, as a whole, are either entirely ignored (slider tick + slide being muted) or treated like rules (break times in muzu diffs, density guidelines, etc.) this, i am 100% certain, would be under the first category, making it useless.
If things are "frowned upon", why not make a guideline? I believe it's a necessity to write some points down so that everyone is on the same page and to prevent debating again over the same things.
- a lot of things are frowned upon that are not guidelines. for example, extreme overmapping is not unrankable, yet you will not see a lot of support for it. ranking the same song 15 times remains rankable despite lots of complaints. none of these have been made guidelines, because the point of the ranking system is to self control and not rank these types of things organically. yes, it happens once in a blue moon, that doesn't mean the solution is to overreact and make a huge change to the system to make sure it never happens again.
that aside, this proposal wouldn't even do anything about the maps you're knee jerk reacting to because the justification for the awful aesthetics in them is very simple - the gameplay value of the placement is worth more than making the map look nice to other people. this is just unnecessary.
Topic Starter
Alheak
Again, and thanks to Mun for precising it, this is not about forcing a certain style or the modder's views or whatever, but to make sure a minimum amount of care and thought for visuals is respected when mapping a song.

Of course some points that have been brought up will make me rethink about some elements of my proposal, but im gonna sleep for now, and hopefully the thread will not have burned down when I wake up.
lazygirl
Appropriate, consistent and clean visuals should be used throughout the map.
Unless the song suggests it, avoid clashing slider shapes and patterns (e.g. "industrial", straight shapes when the others are "natural" and curved). Be also mindful of close objects unintentionally overlapping each other, non-centered blankets, and inconsistencies in angles or spacing in similar parts of the song.

I agree with most of it except the part about being clean. I personally think a map can look really good and have fitting aesthetics even if its visiuals are unclean as hell.

Concerning the rest of the discussion, I think enforcing this as a guideline is important, because while yes, the nomination groups have been enforcing that rule unofficially, this just adds a lever on which to act for these cases. Just because most mappers don’t break this guideline as it is right now doesn’t mean this guideline has no need to be. And I also do not see how this would be damaging to anyone in the mapping scene who does put care in their aesthetics. I for one am a mapper who sometimes likes to make my stuff ugly, but this guideline definitely doesn’t hurt my mapping ideas.
Monstrata
This is far too subjective to be considered even a guideline. You can't define appropriateness without specific context, and specific context differs not even in different maps but even in different sections of the same map.

Also, "Industrial" vs "natural" slider shapes already shows subjectiveness. Not everyone considers these adjectives descriptors of sliders. I always imagined linears as natural lol.

Really seems like this was just made because of fear that maps like squaratrice will become ranked in the future. They won't. This is the same mentality as people who were against ALIEN. Just go and dq mod squartatrice again, it's not hard. If you're not bringing up concerns because you don't want to hurt the mapper's feelings then you shouldn't care about maping quality as much as you do anyways.
Izzywing
I agree with Monstrata
Xinnoh
I somewhat agree with your mindset, but making this a guideline really doesnt help since some mappers get off on breaking guidelines. I can't see this being helpful unless it's enforced as a rule, and making something subjective as a rule doesn't work.
pw384
Can we just allow some basic freedom for mappers? What a map requires fundamentally is the mapper's own logic, instead of aesthetics or other's view on the map. Such ambigious and subjective lines shall never become even guidelines, as such tendentiousness guides nothing but a certain or fixed mindset, which would be a terrible thing in the field of composing.
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