Map of the Fortnight: Main thread

[Turquoise Blue]

Originally Posted by Krall

@Emmett: What Kaiphranos said.

@Blomma: Generally I won't put up the new voting thread until I have a topic for the new round of MotF, but as of yet there is no strong support for any one challenge suggestion.

Would you guys mind if I exercised my own judgement and chose a topic for MotF 52 some time in the next few hours, rather than waiting for a day or two for clear, strong support for one challenge suggestion to materialise?

Wait a bit. The chosing of the challenge is important.

[Martin23230]

Gaah! Someone's changed their username. Confusion!

Originally Posted by Krall

Would you guys mind if I exercised my own judgement and chose a topic for MotF 52 some time in the next few hours, rather than waiting for a day or two for clear, strong support for one challenge suggestion to materialise?

Go ahead, if whatever wasn't chosen was popular it'll run next time.
As for the utopia/dystopia one I quite like the name Yin and Yang, or The Yin and the Yang.

[Krall]

Okay, it's Monday now, so I'm just going to choose a challenge from amongst those that received some sort of support in the past few days. Feel free to still state which challenge suggestions you like, as I will check the thread before I make my decision.

[Blomma]

Originally Posted by Krall

Okay, it's Tuesday now,

So you finally perfected the time machine, eh?

[Ares96]

I'm not changing mine; it's still for "The Benevolent Co-Prosperity Sphere".

[Krall]

Originally Posted by Blomma

So you finally perfected the time machine, eh?

Well, I wouldn't say "perfected"... suffice it to say that Theodore Roosevelt is pretty good at Cretaceous Safari.


Anyway, I've decided on "The Benevolent Co-Prosperity Sphere" as the challenge. I think it's open enough to allow maps from a variety of time periods showing a variety of different things. The new threads should be up in a few hours - I have to play some video games first.

[Ares96]

Originally Posted by Krall

Well, I wouldn't say "perfected"... suffice it to say that Theodore Roosevelt is pretty good at Cretaceous Safari.

Oh yes, I can just imagine how that'd go. "How bully, you took out that stegosaurus in one shot." "Be very still, there is a seventy-centimeter dragonfly on your shoulder." "Look out, your pterodactyl is heading into a giant tree fern!"

Originally Posted by Krall

Anyway, I've decided on "The Benevolent Co-Prosperity Sphere" as the challenge. I think it's open enough to allow maps from a variety of time periods showing a variety of different things. The new threads should be up in a few hours - I have to play some video games first.

I shall hopefully be able to enter this time; I was planning to do so last time round, but I remembered that the French Revolutionary Punk world has a pre-1815 PoD.

[EmmettMcFly55]

Okay, I didn't see any voting thread and I have uploaded my map. I think - or at least, I'd like to believe - it's in the nick of time.

[Krall]

MotF 53: The Benevolent Co-Prosperity Sphere

MotF 52: Weird World War I - Voting thread

[Kaiphranos]

So, it's been 10 rounds now since we had an ASB contest.

Anybody got some zany ideas percolating?

[Martin23230]

Originally Posted by Kaiphranos

So, it's been 10 rounds now since we had an ASB contest.

Anybody got some zany ideas percolating?

Well if you put it like that, but on the other hand we have only had 3 out of 53 challenges that were specific ASB.
And you could include 43 (PUNK'S NOT DEAD) as having ASB elements so that's two in a row (42 & 43). I think we could do another one in the late 50s (in fact I would like that) but you can't complain they're under represented.

And as for The Benevolent Co-Prosperity Sphere as I said I think having a challenge specifically about ethnic cleansing and destruction of occupied culture to be in pretty bad taste personally. I mean are we realy going to have a challenge to create an alternate Holocaust?

[Kaiphranos]

Originally Posted by Martin23230

Well if you put it like that, but on the other hand we have only had 3 out of 53 challenges that were specific ASB.
And you could include 43 (PUNK'S NOT DEAD) as having ASB elements so that's two in a row (42 & 43). I think we could do another one in the late 50s (in fact I would like that) but you can't complain they're under represented.

Hmm. I guess I have a looser definition, since I count about 7. (Though that includes some where it was permitted rather than required: 1,4, ~15, ~18, 36, 42, 43) Also, the low 40's were when I started participating semi-regularly, so that may have skewed my views...

[Martin23230]

Originally Posted by Kaiphranos

Hmm. I guess I have a looser definition, since I count about 7. (Though that includes some where it was permitted rather than required: 1,4, ~15, ~18, 36, 42, 43) Also, the low 40's were when I started participating semi-regularly, so that may have skewed my views...

OK, fair enough. I'll concede that I Am Become Death and Long After The End… both allowed ASB and were better for it, I just didn't count them as "ASB challenges". And I forgot MotF 1 and 43 were basically the same...
The thing about 15 and 18 was that they weren't exactly ASB challenges, they just allowed them. In the same vein, Weird World War I or For the Game, For the World could have both involved small ASB elements if Krall had allowed them. Of cource it comes down to your definition of ASB in the end, some are stricter than others. Some would say Germany winning WW2 is ASB, some would contest that as long as the laws of physics remain the same it isn't ASB, however unlikely...
Anyway, I do think that there could be another ASB contest at some point. To pick one of my favourite topics:

There once was a man from Nantucket...
Make a map showing the result of an area of Earth, anything from a small island to a continent*, being ISOTed. The map can either be of the ISOTed region in it's new world or the world it left behind.

*The idea being it's not a person** or a book or anything.
** The long ago proposed idea The Yankee's Legacy from B_Munro being this.

[B_Munro]

"The conquering nation/former underdog in your map must have been a relatively weak or unstable nation compared to its neighbours at one point in the past for a significant amount of time,"

You know, the nation for which this contest was named, wasn't a weak or unstable nation compared to its neighbors, for the last several hundred years. Sure, it was a lightweight compared to one neighbor, the biggest nation on Earth, but otherwise no. Perhaps we should rename it something more like "The 98-pound weakling strikes back."

Bruce

[Krall]

Originally Posted by B_Munro

"The conquering nation/former underdog in your map must have been a relatively weak or unstable nation compared to its neighbours at one point in the past for a significant amount of time,"

You know, the nation for which this contest was named, wasn't a weak or unstable nation compared to its neighbors, for the last several hundred years. Sure, it was a lightweight compared to one neighbor, the biggest nation on Earth, but otherwise no. Perhaps we should rename it something more like "The 98-pound weakling strikes back."

Bruce

Well Japan's neighbours/rivals in its region included China, Russia, the USA, Britain, France and the Netherlands, and they were all much, much more powerful than Japan ever was prior to the Meiji restoration. The fact that the homelands of each of these countries didn't actually directly border Japan doesn't really matter too much.

[B_Munro]

Originally Posted by Krall

Well Japan's neighbours/rivals in its region included China, Russia, the USA, Britain, France and the Netherlands, and they were all much, much more powerful than Japan ever was prior to the Meiji restoration. .

These weren't just any neighbors: these were THE GREATEST POWERS ON EARTH [1] at the time, with global power projection and super-tech nobody outside the european sphere had duplicated yet. If not the title, then perhaps the description could be modified:

"The conquering nation/former underdog in your map must have been a relatively weak or unstable nation - at least from the POV of the world's dominant powers, if not its historical neighbors - at one point in the past for a significant amount of time"

Bruce



[1] I am somewhat dubious about 1868 Dutch power projection at the time. (Give me a believable TL where the Dutch take over Japan ).

[Krall]

Originally Posted by B_Munro

These weren't just any neighbors: these were THE GREATEST POWERS ON EARTH [1] at the time, with global power projection and super-tech nobody outside the european sphere had duplicated yet. If not the title, then perhaps the description could be modified:

"The conquering nation/former underdog in your map must have been a relatively weak or unstable nation - at least from the POV of the world's dominant powers, if not its historical neighbors - at one point in the past for a significant amount of time"

Bruce



[1] I am somewhat dubious about 1868 Dutch power projection at the time. (Give me a believable TL where the Dutch take over Japan ).

I already allow for very wide interpretations of any given map challenge - we don't need to endlessly fiddle with the wording to make sure they exactly and perfectly represent everything I'd allow.

[mowque]

Yeah the judgement isn't on how fulfills the challenge best but who makes the nicest map.

[Ares96]

Would maps of actual campaigns of conquest be OK for the current challenge?

[Krall]

Originally Posted by Ares96

Would maps of actual campaigns of conquest be OK for the current challenge?

Generally the idea of the challenge is not to show the conquest itself, but the discriminatory system present after the conquest. I might allow your idea, though, if I knew more about it. PM me with the details and I'll see.