I think it is a good idea. And if you are afraid that someone would steal it and put their name on it, release it under GNU GPL license and sue them afterwards if they don’t comply with the license.
The reason why I think it is a good idea is quite simple. The mapping process takes a lot of skills and effort. You need to be:
- A good architect (layout knowledge/design)
- A good artist (textures art, sound art)
- A good hacker (to make scripts and figure out how things work)
- A good player (you need to understand the gameplay and how it works.)
Making maps isn’t easy (it shouldn’t be) but there should be enough resources available to atleast make it easier. Getting past the first room and finding tutorials for ET wasn’t easy, atleast a few months ago when I started making maps for ET, if people start releasing the .map source code, then maybe this transition would become easier and more people would find this work to be interresting.
Ofcourse there is always the chance that a lot of new maps will be badly designed, but it goes without saying that even though you have figured out 3), it doesn’t mean that you have mastered 1), 2) and 4). And even if you are good at 1) 2) and 4), not being a good hacker may be the obstacle that prevents you from making maps.