I've had this problem for years with Map (currently using Map 2008), with both simple and complex polygons. I make closed polygons (property boundaries) with LWPOLYLINES, populate them with object data, then use MapPolylineToPolygon to convert them to mpolys. Map randomly creates mpolys with negative areas; doesn't matter if the original lwpolyline was drafted clockwise or counterclockwise, has internal islands or not. The only workaround I've found is to open the negative-area mpolys with MPedit and rebalance. It's a real pain if I have several hundred mpolys in a file; I've had more than half of them with negative areas, and had to do the MPedit thing with every individual mpoly to get positive areas. About to switch to Map 2010 and hoping this problem is solved.