Zephyr Pack - Discussion

[rockdet]

About Zephyr:

Lvl 14 (Cakewalk) - Lost 2 points because of the ice block dodging.

Lvl 24 (Boa Boa Boa) - Basically SOCIALIST ACTION. Boring.

14: Good thing that block is supposed to end in the bomb... that's in the complete opposite direction...

24: Oh yeah you sure played it to be able to do such a grand analysis.

[jblewis]

Lvl 43 (Snowflake) - An ice maze, what fun. [/sarcasm]

Whether you like ice mazes or not, they are a part of the game and deserve to be represented in CCLP1.

[random 8]

By that logic, tedious levels like On the Rocks and Pain are a part of the game and deserve to be represented in CCLP1.

[jblewis]

Not exactly.

With all due respect, I don't believe your logic has the force you believe it to possess. Content and tedium are two qualities that ought to be distinguished. The original point of contention I raised had to do with generalizing ice mazes to the point where any ice maze is voted down. However, you and I both know that not every level is created equal. "Ice maze" is a level categorization we mentally create based on a type of gameplay and the game element on which the level focuses. Tedium is the result of how those game elements and gameplay are strung together to create the playing landscape of a level. And on that note, I do believe that tedium is something to be avoided in CCLP1; the more a level feels like work, the greater the chance we'll lose new players.

My post wasn't written to infer that we had to include ice mazes because the content of CCLP1's levels needed to align itself with that of CC1. In fact, I believe quite the opposite. Rather, I advocated the inclusion of ice mazes because they are a type of level that has been represented throughout much of CCLP1's voting pool with the potential to be fun and interesting. (I emphasize "potential" because I believe that a level based on an idea in which multiple failures are inevitable has less of a chance of being fun and more of a chance of feeling like work.) How that potential is achieved is dependent on how the elements in the level are used. Personally, I don't believe that CC1's ice mazes were the most fun, mainly because they would overstay their welcome and would become tedious. But that tediousness had nothing to do with the fact that they were ice mazes. They had everything to do with how large they were, how long they were, and how they were laid out. I think we as veterans often forget to make this distinction, and as a result, we end up carrying a stigma toward various entire categories of levels and game elements, including ice mazes and blobs, even if we're evaluating a deserving level.

#43 (Snowflake) - A well designed ice maze that's not too taxing.

This quote basically summed up my thoughts on this level as well. But more importantly, it distinguished the level's status as an ice maze apart from whether or not it was taxing.

TL;DR: I don't believe our opinions on levels should be instantly formed by what game elements they include but rather by how they're used. A level's status as an ice maze concerns the former; a level's amount of tedium concerns the latter.

[Flareon350]

By that logic, tedious levels like On the Rocks and Pain are a part of the game and deserve to be represented in CCLP1.

I really wish I could vote down this post.