Atlas Awards discussion/suggestions/feedback

[Falconius]

It's been so long I don't really remember what problems I noticed at the time. I do remember there was issues with the categorizations, some things just really didn't belong together. Perhaps part of the issue is the categories are split according to scale, and then more categories spiting according to genre, and then categories with no true specific definition.

Perhaps it's better to just edit things down and split the categories into Best Large Scale Map (City, Town, dungeon), and Best Small Scale Map (world, regional). And perhaps Best Medium Scale? Nah... Anyways, that would solve Azelor's issue as both Regional and World would be in the small scale category. And then maybe Best Building Scale Map.

I think another way to split the categories instead of genre is maybe by styles. Like hand drawn style, versus graphical vector style, versus computer generated/clip art. Maybe, not sure what to call the them, but I know the looks and could give examples. I'm not sure, the point being that the goal of categorization really is to compare like to like, and that hasn't been happening. And obviously fantasy maps are highly dominant here, so it's going to lead to very lopsided voting if the categories are split "Fantasy", and "Everything Else".

for instance as it currently stands you could have a beautiful hand drawn style fantasy city dominate 4 categories fairly easily. Multi piece maps that include different scales with insets excreta could perhaps do even more. If I think of art competitions they either split them up according to subject (like portrait paintings, landscapes, abstract nonsense painting, etc.) or by materials (pastel, oil paint, watercolour, ink, sculpture and so on). Maybe we can find some cues from that sort of thing to help guide us?

[Naima]

It's been so long I don't really remember what problems I noticed at the time. I do remember there was issues with the categorizations, some things just really didn't belong together. Perhaps part of the issue is the categories are split according to scale, and then more categories spiting according to genre, and then categories with no true specific definition.

Perhaps it's better to just edit things down and split the categories into Best Large Scale Map (City, Town, dungeon), and Best Small Scale Map (world, regional). And perhaps Best Medium Scale? Nah... Anyways, that would solve Azelor's issue as both Regional and World would be in the small scale category. And then maybe Best Building Scale Map.

I think another way to split the categories instead of genre is maybe by styles. Like hand drawn style, versus graphical vector style, versus computer generated/clip art. Maybe, not sure what to call the them, but I know the looks and could give examples. I'm not sure, the point being that the goal of categorization really is to compare like to like, and that hasn't been happening. And obviously fantasy maps are highly dominant here, so it's going to lead to very lopsided voting if the categories are split "Fantasy", and "Everything Else".

for instance as it currently stands you could have a beautiful hand drawn style fantasy city dominate 4 categories fairly easily. Multi piece maps that include different scales with insets excreta could perhaps do even more. If I think of art competitions they either split them up according to subject (like portrait paintings, landscapes, abstract nonsense painting, etc.) or by materials (pastel, oil paint, watercolour, ink, sculpture and so on). Maybe we can find some cues from that sort of thing to help guide us?

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