Atlas Awards discussion/suggestions/feedback

[ChickPea]

This thread is for any comments, suggestions and discussion for the Atlas Awards. If you have thoughts, post 'em here.

But wait...

Before we get into things, there are a couple of things I need to make clear from the start.

We've had several suggestions in the past for new categories. Please understand from the get go that we're not going to radically increase the number of categories from the current level. We will certainly consider changes, and perhaps a small increase in categories if there is good reason to do so, but more categories equals a lot more work for the CLs. Frankly, even nominating will become a chore if there are too many options.

So, with that in mind, if you have an idea for change, please answer the following questions in your suggestion.


1. What problem do you see with the current setup?
2. What changes to the categories, or what new categories, do you suggest?
3. How will this address the problem?

(I'm not asking for essay length answers, just a couple of sentences.)


It's true that some of the current categories may not feel like natural bedfellows, but our problem is that many map styles are relatively niche with not a whole lot of submissions. We’re trying to 1) keep the number of categories at a manageable level, and 2) incorporate as many mapping styles as we can in the Awards. To give an example, take space maps. We get quite a few posted over a year, but not as many as you may think. There simply aren't enough submissions to justify having a Space category on its own. This applies to most of the categories that aren’t Regional or Town/City. We need a significant pool of entries to justify giving something its own category, and we often don’t get that (though it can vary from year to year). Please bear this in mind if you’re going to suggest new categories.

For reference, here are the current categories (as of Aug 2020):

Best World Map
Best Regional Map
Best City, Town, or Village Map
Best Hand-drawn or Traditional Map
Best Space, Sci-fi, or Modern Map
Best Structure, Dungeon, or Gaming Map
Most Creative Map
Best Overall Map

I cannot promise that we'll implement any of the suggestions we receive. I can promise that we will read and carefully consider all serious suggestions.