Probably not the best way to word the title of the thread, but I couldn't think of a better way to summarize it. Anyways...
I tend to go on multiple sites regarding game design (although I'm only really active on this one). I kind of noticed that different communities tend to have different ideals when it comes to designing their game, and what qualifies for good design. For example, let's compare RPG Maker and Zelda Classic.
Taking the most popular overworld screens and maps on this site, they seem to focus on the large landmasses. The idea seems to be to build something that looks somewhat natural with the mountain shapes before using a minimal amount of smaller objects to add the more detailed structures. Decoration is mainly variation on visual patterns, such as multiple grass tiles and other decorations that don't affect walkability.
Now, looking at some random screens from the screenshot thread from an RPG Maker site (rpgmakerweb), they tend to make large sprawling areas with random rocks and trees scattered around to fill in empty-looking areas. Visual appeal for its own sake is restricted to either parallax mapping (using a massive photoshopped picture as a background, with invisible walkability laid on top), overlays for lighting, and just general hand-adjustments to the mountain tiles to erase mistakes that the auto-tile tool makes when putting them together.
Why is there such a huge difference between the two? Yes, I know that the top-quality RPG Maker games look really beautiful, but a huge majority of them appear to be a general lower quality than the majority of screenshots and maps that I've seen on this site. Is it just a difference in quality standards between the two communities, or could the engine itself have something to do with it?
The game window is much larger in an RPG Maker game, and in the editor, you're shown the entire map at once instead of one screen's worth of content at a time. Is the issue that they're given too much space to mentally wrap their mind around at once? That their minimal map size is still too large to work with for things like house interiors, because a majority of them are spaced out enough to look ridiculous.
Keep in mind, this isn't me trying to put down the RPG Maker community or the engine or anything. I actually have several versions on Steam that I fiddle with on a somewhat regular basis. However, the differences in standards seem a bit odd for such similar types of games. Also, a common request for new versions of ZC is screen-scrolling. If we ever get that as a new feature, will we have the same problem, having to suddenly design for a new standard type of viewpoint, and having to learn new design techniques to compensate?