Original "Risk" Map

[vodean]

different territory names, but on the same, but differently colored map that we draw up ourselves?

[Tupence]

I like how Washington D.C. is apparently not a major city.

I'd guess that every player on this site would've come up with a different list of 42 cities had they chosen them themselves. For example, where is Paris? And where are Prague, Austin and San Diego? There are countless cities that players would argue should be there, but aren't for whatever reason. I haven't followed the production of the map closely enough to tell you for sure, but my guess is that some of the more obvious choices weren't picked because of the layout of the map; Washington D.C. is too close to New York, and there isn't room for a "Paris" between London, Madrid and Berlin, etc.

I doubt the cartographer is at the stage where he would be happy to change any of the cities, but if you have any questions about why certain cities were included over others, then head over to the map thread: viewtopic.php?f=468&t=81704

Sully's a nice guy, I'm sure he'll answer any queries

[sully800]

I like how Washington D.C. is apparently not a major city.

I'd guess that every player on this site would've come up with a different list of 42 cities had they chosen them themselves. For example, where is Paris? And where are Prague, Austin and San Diego? There are countless cities that players would argue should be there, but aren't for whatever reason. I haven't followed the production of the map closely enough to tell you for sure, but my guess is that some of the more obvious choices weren't picked because of the layout of the map; Washington D.C. is too close to New York, and there isn't room for a "Paris" between London, Madrid and Berlin, etc.

I doubt the cartographer is at the stage where he would be happy to change any of the cities, but if you have any questions about why certain cities were included over others, then head over to the map thread: viewtopic.php?f=468&t=81704

Sully's a nice guy, I'm sure he'll answer any queries

That is an excellent summary of the problem with cities Tupence.

Washington DC might seem pretty far from the major population centers of the eastern seaboard, but on a global scale it is very close to Baltimore/Philadelphia/NY/Boston. All of these cities could be chosen as world cities, but if I had to rank them I would choose New York first, D.C. second, then Boston, then Philadelphia, then Baltimore. Since the map IS on a global scale we cannot include tightly grouped cities, and thus we are forced to make choices. As you can see, even New York and Atlanta appear quite close to each other once you account for a 22pixel army shadow and corresponding label.

There are many other examples around the map: LA vs San Francisco, Seattle vs. Vancouver, Seoul vs. Tokyo, Paris vs. all the major cities around it... you get the idea. In all cases I have tried to select cities that are high in population and also globally important (politically or economically) while trying to select cities from a variety of countries and spacing them apart geographically.

All told, there are many considerations that need to go into city selection, and I will always listen to the arguments for or against certain cities. The current layout went through a lot of debate, but if you are unhappy with the current cities pleas stay tuned. There will be a clean slate of city selection coming shortly, and that would be the best time to make a case for the inclusion or exclusion of any city.