Do you agree with the idgames definition of a megawad?

[Memfis]

Really? 15 maps is enough for a megawad? I would expect at least 20 I think, and even that feels incomplete.

[Major Arlene]

I've always felt like megawads should be the same length as an IWAD- 30 maps plus 2 secret maps, no more, no less. 

[Catpho]

I dunno,15 levels seem to be a reasonable definition for me.I guess it seems fair to call it like that considering the effort to get to 15 map for 1 wad.

Also 200th post,yay!

[antares031]

As long as I use the term "Full Megawad" to describe a wad that replaces 32 original levels of Doom 2, I'll be okay.

[Jaws In Space]

No I disagree, my personal definition is at least 24 maps for Doom, or 30 maps for Doom 2

[Deadwing]

I always thought that megawads were 32 maps dor Doom II lol, although I would also call BTSX a megawad for each episode.

[Dragonfly]

I mean, it's great to have definitions but does it matter? 15 maps (assuming they're a normal sort of length) warrants the title of "this will probably take more than a single play session to beat" which is how megawad reads in my mind.

 

[scifista42]

42 minutes ago, Memfis said:

feels incomplete.

Who says a megawad should feel complete?

[seed]

Only 15? Wow.

 

In this case, no, for me a megawad should contain 30 levels (32 if secret levels are present), similar to the Doom 2 IWADs.

[Scorpinax]

I always thought it was at least 32 maps total. 

[Tristan]

9 minutes ago, Dragonfly said:

does it matter?

 

 

Only for categorisation like here and of course the archive itself. So if the archive says it's 15 maps then that's good enough for me. As antares said, there's still "full megawad" for 32+

[General Rainbow Bacon]

I think "megawad" should have more of a time related definition.  There are small 6 to 10 map episodes that have taken longer than full 32 map sets to get through.  Maybe redefining it to mean a megawad is a wad that will take you more than a certain amount of time to complete.  And vice versa, I've played through wads with many maps that were very short levels in comparison.  For example, Mechadon's Vela Pax is not a megawad, but each of those maps takes more than afternoon to complete.  So I would call that a megawad even though it's only a few maps.  And stuff like Khorus's Speedy Shit has a full set of maps, but they're so short that I can pick 5 or 6 and finish them in about 15 - 20 minutes.

[Dexiaz]

LoL, I thought that nobody names "wads" as "megawads" since 2008. That's stupid. Because wads with >32 maps are GIGAwads? Heh.

[Ermin]

What really gets on my tit's is when people claim there wad is a total conversion when all they did was pallete swap recycled assets from other games.

[Misty]

I've never cared that much, because I often read text files to get know how many maps wad will have. I guess, we should call those 15-20 map wads "halfwads", because it only replaces half or a bit more of Doom II iwad. 

[guineu]

I like to think a megawad is 30-32 maps and an episode 8-9 maps, following the structure of the original games. Everything else is simply a set of maps in my opinion. But since there's no official definition I don't care much about people using megawad for whatever length they feel like.

[Not Jabba]

Not that the definition matters a whole lot, but I think 15 is a little small, and requiring a full 32 maps is a bit excessive. The original release of Scythe 2 with 29 maps was a megawad. Mayhem 17, with 28 maps, is also a megawad. When I run the numbers in my head ("something with x maps is a megawad...something with y maps is a megawad..."), the word feels right for anything with about 25 maps and up. Like antares, I sometimes use "full megawad" for something with exactly 32 maps. To me, something with 15-20ish maps like Mutiny is a "large mapset."

[DMPhobos]

i always thought that a megawad was 30 maps long, 15 maps sounds a bit to small to call it a megawad, but then again never cared for much for the correct definition

[Shadow Hog]

Obviously, given we're using SI notation, we need to start using it correctly. Ergo, a WAD can only be called a MegaWAD if it contains 1,000,000 maps. If it contains 1,000,000,000, it is a GigaWAD. 1,000,000,000,000 is a TeraWAD. For map counts that are more likely to be seen in reality, 1,000 is a KiloWAD, 100 is a HectoWAD, and 10 is a DecaWAD, with 32-map WADS being just over three DecaWADs large.

[ReX]

I'd tend to agree that a "megawad" is generally considered a full IWAD replacement.

 

But, on the other hand, it all seems to be semantics. A properly-written text file will clearly state the number of maps present in the mod. Therefore, even if the mod is promoted as a "megawad", the player will know what to expect.

[SOSU]

For me:
1 Map = Map
2-3,5-7,10-14 Maps = X Maps
4 Maps = Mini Episode

8-9 Maps = Episode
16-18,24-27,32-36 Maps = X Episodes
15+ Maps = Mini Megawad
30-32 Maps = Megawad
32+ Maps = Gigawad

[yakfak]

i'm a fan of the sixteen main maps + two secrets arrangement really, that's the minimum megawad in my mind

 

on the other hand i'm not sure what the virtue of teh term is so it's not like i'd die on this hill lol

[Not Jabba]

1 hour ago, Shadow Hog said:

Obviously, given we're using SI notation, we need to start using it correctly. Ergo, a WAD can only be called a MegaWAD if it contains 1,000,000 maps. If it contains 1,000,000,000, it is a GigaWAD. 1,000,000,000,000 is a TeraWAD. For map counts that are more likely to be seen in reality, 1,000 is a KiloWAD, 100 is a HectoWAD, and 10 is a DecaWAD, with 32-map WADS being just over three DecaWADs large.

Maybe we're using base 2? In that case, 4 maps is a dekawad, 8 maps is a hectowad, 16 maps is a kilowad, 32 is a megawad, and 64 is a gigawad.

 

...nevermind, I guess it would have to be base sixth-root of 32, actually. good luck with the rest of the terms besides "megawad."

[Shadow Hog]

3 minutes ago, Not Jabba said:

Maybe we're using base 2? In that case, 4 maps is a dekawad, 8 maps is a hectowad, 16 maps is a kilowad, 32 is a megawad, and 64 is a gigawad.

 

In which case, we only need to make 77.44 maps in order to reach 1.21 gigawads. Great Scott!

[fraggle]

If you'd asked me to define it I would have said "32 map replacement". But 15 maps doesn't seem too unreasonable.

 

2 hours ago, Shadow Hog said:

10 is a DecaWAD, with 32-map WADS being just over three DecaWADs large.

 

As one of the authors of deca.wad, I endorse this definition.

[Nine Inch Heels]

I don't think calling a WAD with 15 maps in it "mega" is wrong, because I don't think the total number of maps is representative of the effort that went into the entire project.

 

If there was a set of maps where each and every map was roughly the size and quality of Miasma, and it'd contain like 3-4 maps total, it'd still be a megawad for me personally, since there would be a lot of effort involved, and the total play time would be several hours on a normal playthrough. Isn't the amount of time something manages to keep you busy and interested what really matters in the end?

[HAK3180]

Alaska is like the 15th biggest nation in the world, except it's not a nation. I guess the bottom line is they had to draw a line somewhere and it had to be a somewhat simple line. Total number of maps does not tell the whole story, nor does total number of hours or total monster count or total number of square pixels. But analyzing all of that together to determine the proper designation of a given mapset is just too much work. 

 

So I guess we just have to accept the criterion that exists but not attach more meaning to it than warranted. Yes, there are 5-map sets that are bigger, longer, and better than some "full megawads," just as there are cities that are much bigger and more significant in the world than entire sovereign nations.

[Phobus]

Yes, because otherwise I've not made a megaWAD.

[Gez]

3 hours ago, Shadow Hog said:

Obviously, given we're using SI notation, we need to start using it correctly. Ergo, a WAD can only be called a MegaWAD if it contains 1,000,000 maps. If it contains 1,000,000,000, it is a GigaWAD. 1,000,000,000,000 is a TeraWAD. For map counts that are more likely to be seen in reality, 1,000 is a KiloWAD, 100 is a HectoWAD, and 10 is a DecaWAD, with 32-map WADS being just over three DecaWADs large.

This assumes that there is a direct one-to-one correspondence between "wad" and "map"; but that's not the case. As we know, it is possible for a wad to contain zero map, or several hundred thousands.

 

Mega is also simply a prefix signifying "big". How big exactly depends. We're all familiar with the SI meaning of a million, but in Steinhaus–Moser notation, a mega, represented as ②, corresponds approximately to 256 raised to the power of 256 raised to the power of 256 raised to the power of 257. Since this number makes a googolplex looks like chump change, it cannot possibly correspond to a useful measure of wadness either.

 

So since the maths failed to explain, I'm going to fall back to megawads being a homage to a quaint African town.

[xvertigox]

In my mind a megawad always meant 30-32 maps (or replacing episodes 1-3 / 1-4 in Doom) depending on the IWAD.