Both of these statistics spell a pretty clear thing: People aren't terribly interested in Map of the Month and haven't been for a long time. I'm personally confused about it, myself, but I kind of understand. Maps aren't exactly easy to make, especially good-looking ones. They require a lot of time investment--and for a particularly good looking map, probably more than a month's worth of time investment.
However... I still think PureZC ought to have a Map of the Month. For starters, I've always enjoyed looking at maps more than individual screenshots--with screenshots, all you have to worry about is eye candy and screen layout, but with maps, suddenly questions like "does it flow well?" and "how playable does it look?" come to mind. To me, those questions are way more interesting to think about than, say, "Is that patch of grass too closely aligned with that other patch of grass?" Plus, maps are more representative of a quest that's come along healthily--seeing a full map from a quest project has me more assured it's coming along well than just seeing a nice screenshot.
Already, we've decided to make a couple of changes to the contest. First, Robin's hired me aboard to help co-run the contest with him--Linkus has (apparently?) departed as a MotM manager. We wish him well, and I hope I do a good job as his successor in giving this contest the level of attention it deserves. Secondly, I've rewritten the rules and made them more publicly visible. They mostly reiterate rules that've already been laid out in various threads over time, but now they've all collected together and expanded upon for everyone to easily see. (Check 'em out if you're not sure what we allow here, and feel free to give suggestions on how we could alter them here in this thread!)
Obviously, though, that's probably not going to be enough to revive MotM by itself (although it'll certainly help the issue of people breaking submission rules). I think in order for the contest to continue forward, a few questions need to be asked:
- Does every map submitted need to be a huge, twisty overworld map? The bare minimum for a required map size is 2x2, and I've been pretty impressed with some 3x3 or 4x4 maps I've seen in the past, say. Even a little village or chunk of a forest is worth seeing. A dungeon would be super cool.
- Does every map need to be super fancy or an artistic work? I've mentioned that I like looking at a map with nice flow, but... I also like maps that look like they're from a game that I'd like to actually sit down and play, too. Even something pieced together for the sake of functioning well in a quest that isn't necessarily a purely artistic work is, in my opinion, something worth showcasing.
- Are we promoting this contest enough? I'll admit, this is something we've probably dropped the ball on in the past. We've never really sent out reminders outside of the occasional line from Robin in chat, and I don't think it's mentioned in any members' signature right now to my knowledge. We don't have a fancy banner the way the Cool SotW Kids™ have, so something like that might be neat. Perhaps it'd be a good idea to do like SotW does and send out periodical reminders whenever the submission well is running dry, too?
- Finally: Do we need a Map of the Month? I've already mentioned that I think MotM is more of a sign of healthy progress in quests than something like SotW... but it's very well possible that it's having a detrimental effect. It's possible that people are making maps for the express purpose of winning MotM and discarding them. I'd actually rather see MotM become a showcase for peoples' actual work, but... if someone's actually making a cohesive quest that they want to show off, they might prefer to save their content for, say, a demo in the ZC expo coming up in about a month.
Just for the record, the current month's contest is still going, and the rules for submissions haven't been altered: Since it's already been well over a month since the last MotM (January 15), MotM will be posted one week after we get three submissions. However, I'd like to add another deadline that was previously suggested by Robin elsewhere: If we don't get any submissions by April 16, it may be time to consider shutting down the contest.
I'd REALLY rather it not come to that, and if people missed it after it got shut down, of course, we could definitely consider bringing it back, but... as-is, it's taking up precious forum space and collecting dust. So if you care about the contest and want to see it be successful, then by all means, submiiiiiiit! 
