khazalid wrote:well if you consider that something near to 90% of the maps in there end up being abandoned or not quenched for whatever reason then i think that point is probably felt quite keenly for good reason
This is a lousy argument for not participating. The foundry has taken some good steps toward making this less of an issue, the most relevant being the three stage process. If you want to ignore the crap that will never be made, stay out of the map ideas subforums, where bad projects die early deaths. 90% of the 90% you write of never make it to the foundry proper.
But if you stay out of the ideas subforum, you also have no right to complain if a map you like never gets out of the subforum. See my point? If you don't participate in the process, the process may not work the way you'd like it to. And it's unproductive to complain about a process, as Kugelblitz so eloquently did when he said "the map foundry sucks," and not present some kind of alternative.
khazalid wrote:summary for this bit: the argument isnt one of tradition standing in the way of progress and new maps arent disliked simply by virtue of being new. great lakes is original, innovative and immensely playable as well as looking the biz.
I teach elementary school. One thing we teach is how to tell a fact from an opinion. What you have presented is your opinion, and while your opinion is not wrong, you should keep in mind that others may not share your opinion. There are many different people with many different opinions in the world, and we tend to gravitate toward people with opinions similar to ours, and to avoid the people with opinions that differ greatly from our own.
I observe that you like a certain kind of map: straightforward game play, no gimmicks. Other people may not agree with you and may want to see different kinds of maps on the site. DiM, or Cairns for example. I suggest you seek out the mapmakers who have opinions similar to your own and support their projects: Japan, for example. That way you will ensure that at least some - though no all - of the future projects will be maps that you will like to play.