Abridged Arena Array: Difference between revisions

== Action Game ==

* This is also seen in ''[[Gunz]]''. A good 70-75% of all fights take place in the "Mansion" Arena.

* The english community in [[Dynasty Warriors|Dynasty Warriors online]] suffers from this. There are (up to 8/12/2011 in the English Version) 30 weapons, roughly 11 maps, 5 vs game modes (excluding showdown, which can be played only at certain times, Campaign, which is Basically 3 of those vs game modes you can normally play but with land at stake, and Defeat commander, which you can only get randomly), and 2 Singleplayer/Co-Op modes. Despite all this, People only play in Confront, use, at most, 6 of those weapons, and only play on plains.

 

** This is due to the fact that people believe a completely flat stage is the most balanced even though it just gives the advantage to the high-tier characters. This misnomer cause all the pro wannabes to pick the stage thinking it's the most balanced and therefore skill-dependent... for some reason.

*** This may be due to the misconception that a stage that completely flat and devoid of obstacles show a true test of skill between players, even though characters with long range attacks like Fox's Blaster and Pit's arrows get the upper hand since there is nothing blocking their shots.

** Before Slayer, it was Chipp, for the same reasons.

* Due to ''[[Tekken]] 4'''s engine allowing for various forms of weirdness and other game-breaking moments, tournament play was very often restricted to a handful of stages (the Arena being the most common). That didn't stop the possibility of potentially broken combos still being executed even on the most fair of stages.

* You are likely to see this plus bonus [[Flame War|arguing matches]] in ''[[Dissidia Final Fantasy]]'' and particularly its sequel, Duodecim. The source of all this is, because of the way the game works, there are potentially real and severe consequences to character/stage matchup--Terra is a holy terror in the Phantom Train, while Firion is practically helpless in the Planet's Core. And when you're playing with the few characters who can handle (and are arguably built with them in mind) the near-universally despised [[Scrappy]] stages...well. In other words, while players have their Arrays that are (usually) dependent on the characters they main, they're often not the same as the Arrays of other players...leading to arguments.

 

 

== First Person Shooter ==

** Not only this, but the demand for this map was so great it lead to the developers adding the 'infantry only' game-mode to the game.

*** The sequel, Battlefield 3, is basically marketing the game on the back of telling everyone that Karkand would be back for it.

** The map for the franchise as a whole is Wake Island. It originally came with Battlefield 1942. It was ported into Battlefield Vietnam, Battlefield 1943, Battlefield 2, Battlefield 2142, Battlefield Heroes and along with Karkand is one of the maps in the Battlefield 3 pre-order bonus. The only major games it isn't in are the two Bad Company [[Gaiden Game]] sequels.

** Caspian Border is the most popular vehicle map. It contains multiple vehicles, is quite open and has a nice map layout that means games don't end in spawn camps most of the time.

** Some unofficial maps, especially ''fy_iceworld'', ''fy_pool_party'', ''aim_awp'' and ''cs_casa'' also enjoy this status, mostly because quite a bit of them are either very small maps that allow for very fast-paced deathmatches, or maps specially designed to use a certain weapon.

** Also, if you play the fan made Jailbreak mode, expect to see ba_electricprison and its variants a ''lot''.

** The ''Movie Battles II'' mod for ''Jedi Academy''. Every single server running it plays mb2_dotf and '''nothing else'''.

* The Anzio map in ''[[Day Of Defeat]]'' has this status.

* ''[[Descent]]'' is based around disorienting full-3D flight. Therefore all multiplayer matches take place on the completely flat "Minerva" and "Ultra-Earthshaker".

* This has happened at least as far back as ''[[Doom]]'', where the first map of the compilation dwango5 (otherwise known as D5M1, a derivative of an older map called SS-MAP1.WAD) overshadowed basically every other level in online play at the time. There's even [http://d5m1.com/ a website dedicated to it].

** Halo 1 and 2 multiplayer seemed to only be played in Capture the Flag mode. Fortunately, added gameplay modes in later games have gotten players out of this.

** In Halo 2, it seemed like online custom games consisted of Lockout 90% of the time and Midship the remaining 10%. Seriously, how often did anyone play on some other level?

*** Mirrored in the sequel where for VS games, people will only play Dead Center and The Parish. No Mercy is now the most played since it was added into the game.

*** This is mostly due to Death Charges, a technique where a Charger player can charge into a survivor and hurl them to instant death. Dead Center and No Mercy have several spots where survivors can be instantly killed if they are not careful, so infected players pick these maps to get a shot at killing survivors in one shot.

** And at the other end of the spectrum is Hydro. Ironically, one of Hydro's commentary nodes specifically lays out Valve's anticipation of this trope influencing the focus on this map as the big map that would provide enough content and variety to withstand people playing it all the time. [http://steampowered.com/status/tf2/tf2_stats.php Unfortunately, nobody ended up wanting to play it], due to the actual ''gameplay'' on the map resulting in every round ending in Sudden Death.

*** Well, gameplay plus a respawn-time bug that was left unpatched, and possibly even uncaught, until ''2010''. In a catch-22 scenario, the lack of play may have actually ''contributed'' to the bug not being caught.

** Valve also recognized the rise of custom maps over the built-in ones, and struck deals with the creators of several popular and/or (in their opinion) well-made ones to add them to the game officially.

** CTF-Face was so popular, it was included in UT 2004 as Face Classic. After not being included in UT 3, it was later added in the ''[[Expansion Pack|Titan]] [[Downloadable Content|Pack]]''.

** Besides CTF-Face, CTF-Clarion, CTF-CivilWar (and its smaller variant) and CTF-McSwartzly are usually the most-frequently played maps on Siege servers. A few other maps are played regularly, and you're a noob if you vote for anything else.

** In regards to Facing Worlds and Deck16, part of the fun is simply the visual decor. Both maps have impressive art assets in addition to workable gameplay.

** And then to the other extreme, they actually ''added'' a "Nuketown 24/7" mode, which cycles through different modes exclusively on that map. It's only available during double-experience weekends on consoles, though.

*** And WHY is it so popular? Because the map is so small, there's a VERY high chance that chucking a Semtex two seconds after the match starts will get you a cheap grenade kill (or kills) right off the bat! Also, the easy camping spots (on top of a bed, behind a fence, two houses with one open window) and the constantly-embroiled-in-explosions-and-gunfire Point B on Domination Mode made this place VERY popular.

* If you play ''[[Killzone]] 3'' multiplayer, expect to see Bilgarsk Boulevard pop up more than once. Why? It has miniguns on both ends to defend the boulevard, great sniper positions in the buildings, and the routes around the main road are usually stalemated with grenades and turrets, allowing Marksman and Infiltrators to sneak in and cause havoc. Basically, it appeals to everyone.

 

 

** Newest courses Lost Seaway and Ice Spa now hold this role, partly because they're easy to generate pang on, partly because they're the two easiest courses to start getting very low scores (less than, say, -22) on.

** On the other hand, because of the way Season 4 calculates XP gain (giving bonus XP for playing on harder courses), four-player three-hole VS. games on Deep Inferno are now very popular.

** As a result, a surprising number of players start in Galaxy for some peace and quiet.

** As of Issue 21, Galaxy City has been destroyed, and serves only as the tutorial zone for both heroes and villains.

 

== Racing Game ==

** Mario Kart (as well as other games that allow you to pick where you want to play in) also suffered from people who would refuse to play any track other than the ones they keep voting for. Rainbow Road (DS and Wii), Grumble Volcano, Figure-8 Circuit, Sky Garden and GCN DK Mountain are some of the the most voted tracks online due to them either being easy to snake on, have lots of straight roads so bike users can spam their wheelie ability, or is difficult for the general gaming public. If the difficulty is set to Mirror mode, expect nearly everyone to pick Rainbow Road or a similar difficult track just because of how hard it is; basic rule of thumb in stage picking is the harder the level, the more likely it will be picked just to weed out the players that are not good at it.

 

== Real Time Strategy ==

* In ''[[Starcraft]]'', various versions of Fastest Map Possible, hacked maps that place whole stacks of resources mere pixels away from the start points.

** Big Game Hunters (BGH) is a popular 8-player map (likely the only 8-player map you'll find being played, besides Fastest Possible maps).

** There are some people who got Warcraft III just to play the custom maps and have never touched the unmodded game.

* The Space Needle seems at times like the only map played on the ''[[World in Conflict]]'' public servers.

 

 

 

== Other ==

** To recap: Valve noticed this trope in effect and determined there were too many maps, reduced the number of maps to reflect the number that would actually get played, and then got complaints about too few maps. [[Unpleasable Fanbase|Just. Can't. Win.]]