An interesting discussion topic...

[Mouse]

Duly edited the 'hes' to 'shes' in my comment above, ChickPea

My enjoyment of the article stopped dead at this comment:

"...his [Tolkien's] map is the bad fantasy map that launched a thousand bad fantasy maps—many of which lack even his mythological fig leaf to explain the really eyebrow-raising geography. "

Agreed - without this metaphorical slap in the face, it would have been an enjoyable read.

[Voolf]

Someone would kindly invite the authors of those articles here to read our thoughts about their paragraphs. That would be interesting.

I agree with the one thing from previous article. Most people tends to judge maps as art, not actual "map". I don't see anything wrong with it, it is natural. Letting our imagination run free or even wild makes us create very interesting worlds. I am not saying that making a map adhering to every single rule we know, can't result in a perfect map, it can, but why should we restrain ourselfs? It is an art after all, even maps of Earth are the art.

There are so many small river islands and river bifurcation on Earth, yet most people tends to repeat "no no, river do not split". Would be nice to map a part of earth as fantasy map, but don't name it and let the "scholars" judge them. Would like to see their face telling them it's Earth after reading their negative "unreal map" review .

Edit:

"...his [Tolkien's] map is the bad fantasy map that launched a thousand bad fantasy maps—many of which lack even his mythological fig leaf to explain the really eyebrow-raising geography. "

This also proofs how narrow-minded is the author. Why so many puts Tokien as the "father of maps"? He is just one of many who builded his world and made a map. Not everyone was inspired by HIS map only.

[Falconius]

OMG we should make a challenge out of this! Something like, "make a map with Tolkien as the inspiration." Ahgh I can't think of a good specific idea, but I know one is here. I need to think on it a little.

[Mouse]

How about...

Map anything BUT Middle Earth in the style of Tolkien?

[Falconius]

Or, make a map that would annoy the hell out of the author Alex Acks?

[ChickPea]

Or, make a map that would annoy the hell out of the author Alex Acks?

Haha, I think we did that with the 'Map it Wrong' challenge (where, coincidentally, I did something about Mordor....)

[Falconius]

Maybe I'm just pining because I missed that challenge

[Straf]

Haha, I think we did that with the 'Map it Wrong' challenge (where, coincidentally, I did something about Mordor....)

I remember that challenge. That was the one where I fooled a Community Leader by pretending to enter the previous challenge that had recently finished wasn't it? Who was that again?

[ChickPea]

How about...

Map anything BUT Middle Earth in the style of Tolkien?

I forgot to respond to this earlier, but there's a guy who posted on r/Scotland who's made some nice maps in Tolkien style. He started off with Scotland, but did some others too. I tweeted them a month or two back. I tried to encourage him to join the Guild, but sadly he hasn't. Anyway, he did some sweet maps and you can see them here.

Maybe I'm just pining because I missed that challenge

Well, I'm sure we can come up with some sort of variation on it if we think about it...

[Mouse]

Thanks ChickPea. They really are lovely aren't they

Maybe we can do something similar with our own "Not-the-Middle-Earth Map" Challenge?