Hi all,
I would just like to remind everyone that they are to only submit maps that they themselves have assembled. Sometimes it takes a lot of time and effort to make video game maps, whether it's by taking hundreds (or thousands) of screenshots manually, or by hacking some automated process to do it. Either way, if you were not involved in the creation process, it's not fair to submit them as your own.
But, you say, a map is a map, and if it's of the same area, it's bound to look the same. That is true, especially in the case of screenshot maps. But I'm not obligated to put up every image I receive, so if I even suspect that a map isn't yours, I don't have to put it up. If I happen to ask you to confirm if you made a map, don't take it personally, as if it was a question of your ability or integrity. However, if you continue to claim a map is yours, and I find valid evidence that it isn't, don't expect me to accept your submissions again, and/or maybe you'll your find forum privileges revoked.
There is plenty of evidence to figure out the creator of a map especially if the maps exist elsewhere on the Internet. I do know how to use Google. If I find similar maps, I could check for matching palette choices, the amount of PNG optimization, and more. So don't think you can get away with it.
Which brings us to two more points:
If you were planning on submitting maps that aren't yours, it could be seen as saying that you like someone else's maps enough and that you like my site enough that you think my site should host their maps. Which is flattering. However, to avoid confusion and unnecessary effort, the appropriate way to go about this is to make the mapper aware of VGMaps.com and if they so choose, they can submit the maps themselves. There's no reason why someone capable of hosting their maps would need someone else to submit them on their behalf. If you do submit them on their behalf, even if you say the creators are aware and gave you permisssion, I'm still going to have to email the creators anyway to be satisfied that I can have them up on VGMaps.com. It doesn't help to be a go-between, so don't bother.
If you are a mapper, and you are particularly concerned about someone taking your work, putting your name on it somewhere is a simple solution. If you feel that a name or watermark would be intrusive, or that it could easily be edited out, you could write your name somewhere on the map, using a colour that's only one point off of the background's RGB value, so it's almost invisible, but can be revealed in the case of a dispute. Technically that could also be edited out easily, but that would have to be found first. Don't insert metadata, as that will get scrubbed out when I use PNGGauntlet/PNGOut to optimize the image, as I do for all submissions. If you are the type who likes to label your maps, you may find that doing so helps to make a unique map. Even if you want to use the in-game fonts to label things (always looks nice that way), the particular placement of labels, the arrangement of words, etc. can make a map unique enough that if I find this map elsewhere on the 'Net and see the exact same labels in the exact same places then I know whose map it is. But that's only if you plan to host this on your own site and not VGMaps.com. I would encourage everyone to submit any of their own screenshot maps to VGMaps.com, but it doesn't hurt to take precautions to prevent misusage of maps after other people see them here.
Okay, I got wordy there.
Bottom line is: if it's not yours, don't send it in.
Thanks.
