My wife and I just spent the last hour looking at every map in detail and discussing what we like and didn't like about each one. It was an interesting process because looking at it through her non-cartographic eyes made me see them all again like it was the first time. Interestingly, we reached consensus fairly easily, without much disagreement.
Our first vote went to mogul76 with his Chinese market. We both loved the little details everywhere and the obvious meticulous, loving detail that went into crafting it. I didn't agree with all of the choices he made and we spotted some shadow problems (yes, I'm a shadow cop now), but they were minor and didn't detract from the overall enchantment of the map. The theme was strong in this one, and it got our vote. Well my vote. My wife doesn't have an account and she can't have one because she'll just log on once a month to vote for me and that's cheating.
Our second vote went to Steel General and his Black Hills of South Takota (okay they aren't black, but they look a bit like hills). We both really liked the velvety feel of the grass and trees and the dynamism of the animal icons. I wish I'd spent half the time criticizing SG's map that he spent on mine. He is a warrior when it comes to helping others and deserved my vote for that alone, but I didn't have to peddle my influence with my wife as we both agreed that the overall appeal was excellent.
Our third and final vote went to nolgroth's Parangael sector. I'm not a space map guy and I've never been a Traveler player, but the balance on this map was so strong between textual and visual information, between science and art, darkness and light, real and artificial. It just worked very well and we both believed it. The font was even perfect for the map. What IS that?
All of the maps had redeeming qualities. Ascension's is gorgeous, but at some point he left me behind on his color voyage. My wife, who is an amateur stained-glass artist and would kill to do some of the stuff Ascension has done is a fan of his too, but didn't like this map as well as she liked the last one and couldn't get past that. CoyoteMax's second in his series was as playfully delightful as the last. Jug's was very visually appealing, while RobA's we didn't really understand at all but both liked it.
Roger did a fine job of packing a lot of info into a pencil map and did more with words than a lot of people do with lines. Juggernaut's map was at once soothing and promising of excitement to come. A very treasure-mappy feel. ffxfiend did a great job, but needed more more more! More stuff, more size. Very pleasing style. Gilgamech's was visually engaging and looked like it was computer-generated by some kind of mapping software: very convincing. Ravell's was the first good application I've seen of Alfar's world builder software. I look forward to seeing more as it progresses now. Blacklemon's maps was surprisingly powerful in spite of or perhaps because of its simplicity. Shantedracule's space map had a very realistic computer display feel to it and tons of information that he put a lot of time and effort into.
I could easily have voted for a eight or ten maps and they all were worth entries. Every month the challenges get tougher.
Later I will rep everyone who participated. My rep stick isn't yet big enough that I've become afraid to use it, and nobody in the challenge was a slouch.
My apologies for anyone who slogged through all that looking for great wisdom or answers to life's questions. That's just how I roll. Now you know better
Oh good Lord, I almost forgot Sapiento's map. It would look perfectly at home on a glossy pamphlet sold for $5 in front of a major theme park. That is high praise from me, living in theme park central as I do. It was perhaps the most professional "graphic art" looking piece in the contest. I think you have something marketable there.
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