MotF 103: Sunshine and Lollipops - Voting thread

Krall · Sep 7, 2014

I'm gonna be honest, I wasn't expecting utopias to be so... plausible.

Entries thread:
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=325602
Main thread:
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=170373

Klisz · Sep 7, 2014

Reagent said:
Voted for Martin23230.

Is there a rule (either a personal rule of yours or an official-albeit-unenforceable rule of the contest) that you shouldn't vote for yourself, or did you just prefer his map to your own?

Bavarian Princeling · Sep 7, 2014

Agh! More South African maps! It burns!

Alvar_13 · Sep 7, 2014

Krall said:
I'm gonna be honest, I wasn't expecting utopias to be so... plausible.

People are afraid of making implausible maps

anyway my vote went to Martin

Orko · Sep 8, 2014

Both Reagent's and Islander's maps are really good (though I don't really like Islander's concept), but I gotta give it to Martin because his map is just overall better (but only marginally).

Dr. No · Sep 8, 2014

Glad to see I got a vote that's not from me because I refrained from that blasphemy today... and voted for Martin's Departments Of Britain!

Kaiphranos · Sep 8, 2014

I'm torn--Kalan's scenario seems the most utopian to me, but as always, Martin23230 has put together an excellent map with tons of heraldry! The other entries are none too shabby, either...

Dr. No · Sep 8, 2014

Krall said:
I'm gonna be honest, I wasn't expecting utopias to be so... plausible.

What else did you expect?

Krall · Sep 8, 2014

Dr. Nodelescu said:
What else did you expect?

Unrealistic, idealistic, completely perfect utopias - like H.G. Wells' The Shape of Things to Come. It's not that the entries were bad; I was just expecting something more than "a country is moderately better off in an entirely plausible way".

Dr. No · Sep 8, 2014

At MotF 94 about a nascent world state, you complained about all the world maps. Now you complain that contestants wouldn't invent full-fleshed utopias.

Nanwe · Sep 8, 2014

Dr. Nodelescu said:
At MotF 94 about a nascent world state, you complained about all the world maps. Now you complain that contestants wouldn't invent full-fleshed utopias.

He isn't complaining, he's just saying that he didn't expect this. Basically I suppose that when Krall thinks of an utopia, he thinks something along the lines of some kind of shiny, white and glass duper modern world and such, which could be something of a pipe dream, and he was surprised by how down to earth these utopias were.

Krall · Sep 8, 2014

Dr. Nodelescu said:
At MotF 94 about a nascent world state, you complained about all the world maps. Now you complain that contestants wouldn't invent full-fleshed utopias.

Nanwe said:
He isn't complaining, he's just saying that he didn't expect this. Basically I suppose that when Krall thinks of an utopia, he thinks something along the lines of some kind of shiny, white and glass duper modern world and such, which could be something of a pipe dream, and he was surprised by how down to earth these utopias were.

Yeah, I'm not complaining - as I said it's not a bad thing - I was just honestly not expecting all the utopias to be plausible. I was expecting extreme utopias; things on the complete opposite end of the scale from dystopias like 1984.

Jonathan Edelstein · Sep 8, 2014

Krall said:
Yeah, I'm not complaining - as I said it's not a bad thing - I was just honestly not expecting all the utopias to be plausible. I was expecting extreme utopias; things on the complete opposite end of the scale from dystopias like 1984.

We're living in a cynical time, though, and most people approach the concept of utopia with at least a grain of salt. I was actually expecting more ironic utopias (i.e., dystopias except in the eyes of a few select beholders).

Krall · Sep 8, 2014

Jonathan Edelstein said:
We're living in a cynical time, though, and most people approach the concept of utopia with at least a grain of salt. I was actually expecting more ironic utopias (i.e., dystopias except in the eyes of a few select beholders).

I was expecting a few "Hitler's Utopia"-type entries too.

Dr. No · Sep 8, 2014

Jonathan Edelstein said:
We're living in a cynical time, though, and most people approach the concept of utopia with at least a grain of salt. I was actually expecting more ironic utopias (i.e., dystopias except in the eyes of a few select beholders).

Another sign that silly rabbit idealism is for kids.

Krall said:
I was expecting a few "Hitler's Utopia"-type entries too.

Pischinovski's MotF 83 is well known. On a lighter note, my MotF 90 entry also shows kind of a (positive) utopia.

Alex Richards · Sep 9, 2014

Got to say, I'm a little disappointed with Islander's corrections to the city names. Unfortunately it's quite clear that he only bothered with the ones that were specifically pointed out rather than taking that as a cue to look more widely at what issues might be present. It really quite spoils the map.

Martin23230 · Sep 9, 2014

Thanks to everyone who's voting for me, I was somewhat hesitant towards entering again and it's very gratifying to see that I've still got, as they say, it.

Alex Richards said:
Got to say, I'm a little disappointed with Islander's corrections to the city names. Unfortunately it's quite clear that he only bothered with the ones that were specifically pointed out rather than taking that as a cue to look more widely at what issues might be present. It really quite spoils the map.

That and the rather random borders, rivers, railways and so on. Not that I want to criticise my fellow competitor of course, it's a pretty map with an interesting nice idea behind it. It's just a shame that I can't keep a straight face when I look at that Thames Valley area.

Goldstein · Sep 9, 2014

Krall said:
Yeah, I'm not complaining - as I said it's not a bad thing - I was just honestly not expecting all the utopias to be plausible. I was expecting extreme utopias; things on the complete opposite end of the scale from dystopias like 1984.

I was about to play the utopia card straight with a WWII PoD, basically an inverted FaT scenario. A tranhumanist world government with anarchist enclaves, a Libertarian league of micronations, vast geo-engineering projects and a Panarchist seasteading society. But I was busy with RL. I might eventually do it anyway.

Islander · Sep 9, 2014

I had to rush the map because of IRL issues, it was a pity because it had a lot of potential.

Krall · Sep 9, 2014

Martin23230 said:
Thanks to everyone who's voting for me, I was somewhat hesitant towards entering again and it's very gratifying to see that I've still got, as they say, it.

I did like your map the most out of all the entries (mainly because of the shiny effect on the flags in the upper-left - sometimes I'm easy to please), but I wasn't expecting you to blow everyone else out of the park like this!

Martin23230 said:
That and the rather random borders, rivers, railways and so on. Not that I want to criticise my fellow competitor of course, it's a pretty map with an interesting nice idea behind it. It's just a shame that I can't keep a straight face when I look at that Thames Valley area.

Despite living quite near the Thames Valley I don't really know anything about it - what makes the borders, railways, etc. on islander's map random/bad?

Goldstein said:
I was about to play the utopia card straight with a WWII PoD, basically an inverted FaT scenario. A tranhumanist world government with anarchist enclaves, a Libertarian league of micronations, vast geo-engineering projects and a Panarchist seasteading society. But I was busy with RL. I might eventually do it anyway.

It's too bad you didn't have time to do it, that would've been amazing!

MotF 103: Sunshine and Lollipops - Voting thread

Whose map was best?

Dr. Nodelescu

islander

Reagent

Martin23230

Kalan