Atlas Awards discussion/suggestions/feedback

[ChickPea]

Most of the maps are made by hand in the end even the cgi ones... but I think the most important division should be according to area portrayed, like :

World
Continent
Region
City
field
Space
Structural
Creative



then distinguish among medium like :

Black and white
Colored

and traditional vs digital

I'm sorry, but I'm not keen on the idea of World, Continent and Region. We're repeating the problem we have currently. In fact, we're making it worse. If people can't be clear on whether something is a world map, or a regional map, they're going to have an even harder time deciding between regions, continents and worlds. I want to simplify things. I like B&W vs coloured though.

The scale thing, that's a somewhat bad area to get into. I read that the complete opposite.
To me, small scale means a small area, and large scale means a large area.
We need more clarity per category, not less.

As to the whole hand drawn, traditional, etc....
I start some maps traditionally, and "hand drawn" and then move into digital.
How's that going to be categorized?
This is one of the inherent problems with categorizing arty things.

I also feel like we need to focus on the medium, or the kind of map, but not try to do both.
Because we could have any given kind of map done in a variety of mediums.

If we want to include something that doesn't fit a category well, then maybe we just make that a category.
Though even then we are hitting problems, such as Best Hand drawn or traditional.
CP is right about color usually beating black and white.
So, not sure how we would handle BnW, or linework maps, or maybe non color maps... idk.

I know we also don't want to create a ton of categories either.
And also, if we have categories that are exclusive, should the maps that fall in the exclusive category be limited from other categories?
I mean, a traditional regional map can be in a variety of categories, but a similar map done digitally can be in at least one less category.
It basically says we believe traditional to be better or more than the others by giving it a special category.
Or are we saying that it can't compete with digital and needs special treatment?
Just something to think about, from someone who does both.

I think the terminology on small vs large scale is just a matter of wording. If the idea is sound, we can work on the wording to ensure it's clear what people should be nominating.

About the hand-drawing vs computer mapping, I suppose I would judge on the final product. Even if something was started with pen & paper, if it's taken into PS for anything more than labelling, I would judge it a 'computer' map, rather than hand-drawn. I agree in principle with your point though, that it's difficult to categorise some maps, as so many cross styles/genres etc.

About the B&W style, I was thinking probably monochrome would be a better description. Basically, 95% of one colour and perhaps a small amount of leeway for labelling etc. It gets tricky where someone might stick a B&W map on a parchment background. It's only one colour of lineart, but it's not exactly monochrome either. I'd be inclined to include something like this, so long as the lineart was a single colour, but others may disagree.

So let me counter suggest:
Tiny Scale (from world to space to planar etc.)
Small Scale (continental, regional, to country)
Large scale (city-ish)
Structural scale (basically when you are drawing the insides of something, so dungeons to ship[s to buildings to encounter maps)
and Overall Favourite

And I guess leave out style all together. Few problems: Very unlikely that B+W or monochrome maps would win. Very unlikely that a non fantasy map would win. Very unlike that a non hand drawn style map would win.

I think we might still run into issues with the Tiny scale, where people will be nominating regional maps thinking they're world maps. As mentioned above, I would change the wording to avoid confusion over 'scale'.

Or since Fantsy is such a dominant player over here, split that up in best larg scale fantasy map, best small scale fantsy map.

So something like this:
Best Small Scale Fantasy Map
Best Large Scale Fantasy Map
Best Sci-fi/modern Map
Best Structural Map (Again when you are drawing the inside of something like a building, dungeon, ship, or encounter map)
Favorite Map Overall

I'm not super keen on the sci-fi modern map category, to be honest. Do space maps go in sci-fi? Or do they fit somewhere else? Also, we don't get that many modern maps. There are a few of course, which is why this category was bolted on last year, to separate this style out somewhat from the homogenous 'regional map'.

A possible list for consideration (and I'm going to use 'area' rather than scale, so we're clear what I mean)

Large area map (space, world, regional)
Local area map (city, town, village)
Small area/structural map (dungeon, ship, single building)
Best Black & White or Hand-drawn
Best colour
Best/Favourite overall

This drops the 'Most Creative' category, and I have to admit to a soft spot for that category. It acted as a 'catch all' type of thing, where you could nominate anything, especially something slightly out the ordinary. We still have the issue where the same map could win in multiple categories (a regional map would win Large area, Best colour, and Best overall). I don't see any way around that though. People seem to want to vote for the greatest maps in multiple categories, based on a few years' voting patterns.