OpenGeofiction
While I have been mapping Mahikan for a while, I am not sure if I should continue to map it, because I seem to be losing motivation in continuing to develop it.
I am contemplating opening Mahikan to newbies, since I do not think that there is a newbie territory for those wishing to edit in a cold climate, let alone an Asiatic nation that oppresses the indigenous peoples in an apartheid-like system.
Giving newbies a chance to edit in such an environment can help them develop outside the temperate/tropical box.
But I am not sure if I should do this. What do you guys think?
Discussion
Comment from Aces California on 17 February 2017 at 02:04
I’d say don’t give up yet. We all go through stages of losing and gaining motivation. It’s the ebb-and-flow of creativity. Usually you pick up another creative hobby or you change your situation. Personally, I do both. OGF itself is for when I have ebbs in my Graphic Design occupation. When I’m tired of OGF, I like to bury myself in creating fictional statistics and databases. You’ll find your spark for more Mahikan work down the line, and you may find yourself wondering why you ever opened it up to new mappers.
You got a really good idea here. I don’t see many Caste-System nations in OGF. Most nations are either developing economies, or portrayed somewhat as a utopia.
But then this is just my opinion. You make a case for why a cold-climate Blue Country could be useful for new mappers. Just the case against it is larger.
Comment from Luziyca on 17 February 2017 at 02:37
True. But at the same time, what was once the Celesto Republic appeals to me, since part of me wants to turn it into an empire that managed to resist colonization and imperialism, and have it be dominated by not!Malagasy. Another part of me wants it to have been dominated by Alora and Castellán (or at least have spheres of influence), to such a point that there could be de-facto three states: a state dominated by Castellans, a state dominated by Alorans, and a state entirely under the control of the natives.
However, considering it is frowned upon to have more than one country unless the one that you have is mostly developed, and Mahikan doesn’t seem to be developed to the standards that OGF asks for, IMO.
Comment from Luciano on 17 February 2017 at 03:34
Offering up an “alternate climate” or “alternate cultural situation” to newbies doesn’t seem to have much of a point, to me. 99% of newbies have no clue as to the climate or cultural situations of the places they start mapping. Now, if you could provide some kind of extensive collaboration portal and we could successfully “steer” new users to such a portal, then it might make sense. But just opening it up and hoping newbies show up who will do edits that make any sense at all is wishful thinking.
Every time a user gets frustrated with the slow progress of their mapping, they want to create another collaborative country. But in fact most collaborative countries are failures as collaborative efforts. I would say PColumbus73 has made some progress with Drevet, and Gobrassanya, under the watchful eyes of isleño and wangi and others, manages to work out more or less. That’s about it.
If you feel overwhelmed, a better option is to scale back your ambition and focus on something smaller. You could scale back the territory - or put in a rugged terrain and assume most of it is uninhabited, forcing yourself to focus on a single part. This is more or less what I did in working almost exclusively on Tárrases for about a year.
Comment from Luziyca on 17 February 2017 at 03:49
Sounds like a plan, Luciano.
Comment from Luciano on 17 February 2017 at 04:08
@Luziyca - I wanted to add, I am intrigued by Mahikan and think it’s a worthwhile project. At some point, you and I will have to collaborate with how our respective Gohangukian populations ended up where they did. I have a strong desire to map OGF’s “Korea,” (Gohanguk), but I have decided to wait until we have a clear idea where OGF’s “sinosphere” (China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, etc.) is actually located. Some people think it’s in Commonia, but I am strongly opposed to that idea. I would like to see the “sinosphere” in the Western Continents somewhere. But I think that will be a long time in the future, especially since we don’t really have anyone wanting to take on the challenge of creating OGF’s “China.”
Since you’ve got this “apartheid” population of natives, one idea for if you want to zero in on a single small territory would be to create a “Swaziland” or “Lesotho” like enclave country inside Mahikan, which is politically independent and with the natives in complete control. Or vice versa, you could create an autonomous political enclave of the same ethnic mix (Gohangukians and natives) but with a more equitable distribution of power (e.g. Botswana vis-a-vis late apartheid South Africa, but smaller).
Comment from Ūdilugbulgidħū on 17 February 2017 at 08:51
I think its an interesting country, but a country in OGF is more than just an idea. I find if things are coming together and working it inspires me to do more; if not, I do something else. ‘Collaboration’ won’t work if you really take it on, and in fact probably needs more motivation - or motivation from more than one person working to the same objectives - to work. Offering collaboration to newbies almost definitely won’t work, as Luciano says.
I could give you some ideas as to how I think the country itself could work better. But these just apply to the way I work, lots of people work in very different ways (this is one of the interesting things about OGF). Personally, I think you need strong core ideas, built from base up. Natives peoples subjugated by immigrants is interesting, but who are the native people, what is their culture to start with and why does it persist? Check the real world - that situation is a rare case. Don’t make shortcuts in the wiki to ‘Cree’ (and if they are Cree people you should probably work out how this fits in with other first nations language speakers in OGF - or are they Mahicans?). Its not geofiction if you’re linking direct to wikipedia.
Practice your mapping so that you can get to visualise what you map, and check against other maps - OSM etc, (and personally, for terrain especially, I also try map off real aerial and satellite images). I totally agree with Luciano - pick a smaller area to concentrate on, make a smaller population with fewer settlements etc.
Comment from Luziyca on 17 February 2017 at 14:33
In that case, I will focus my efforts on the geography for now.
Thanks for the advice, folks! :D
Comment from Easky30 on 17 February 2017 at 22:04
I would hold on to your country. It’s been a few months since I’ve done any real editing in Orinoco, but I always end up going back to it. If you are losing motivation going to another blue area can help. I think I’ve spent more time working in Gobrassanya than Orinoco overall.