This is not neccessarily SOOO different.
Creation often accesses the abilities of non-Creation craftsmen. Depending on our level of ongoing projects we often have as many "non-member" people involved with our projects as we do "members". Look at some of the credits to our maps... for example "Morte Della Luna" was scripted by Merlin who was at one time a Creation member, but has not been for some time. Homelands which is about to be released turned out to be essentially a Creation project, but had it's concept & Project development done by Jack & Units by Cydonian (Cydonian is not a Creation member, though we feel is a leader in the area & would be happy to have him join our forces). Currently both Ares & myself are also involved with helping out some members of Vista with one of their projects. Cross-over & collaboration happens quite a bit if you have shown you have needed & reliable abilities.
Existing map making groups all have some form of Standards that they must live up to based on the projects they have already done. Creation very rarely turns their back on someone who is excited about mapmaking & is capable of being a contributing part of the group. What you do find though is that many people "think" they are capable & end up being more of a disruption to the group than an asset. Unfortunately those people end up being culled from the herd "so-to-speak" in order to keep Creation a pleasant place to be.
We tend to work with people who have shown some form of performance in some area of mapmaking. Most people usually have something to bring to the table if they can manage to control themselves & act like a human.
I find that most of the time people can be intimidated by members of the leading groups & shy away from approaching them about questions, ideas or problems. This should not be the case. Yes, sometimes we are very hard at work & may hesitate to answer in-depth questions, but we are more likely to point you in the correct direction so that you can solve the problem yourself rather than doing it for you. It is much more fullfilling that way & you retain the knowledge better.
Please feel free to approach group members (at least Creation) on bungie.net, via email or if you see us somewhere public like CPHL. You may be surprised by our personalities & ability to help.
In the meantime I have been thinking of opening up a very basic usage account at the Alternative Creation Hotline server called C2 to allow any aspiring mapmakers to log on & get to know other mapmakers who may pop in. Creation members tend to travel back & forth between our primary & secondary servers so you never know who you'll see. Primarily I am at C2 most of the time.
If you would be interested in this type of access please email me... if no response comes, access will stay private as it always has been.
Clem
~ Creation rstuff@thinktivity.com
