Editing 1214: Geoguessr

{{comic
| number    = 1214
| date      = May 20, 2013
| title     = Geoguessr
| image     = geoguessr.png
| titletext = I'm not sure if you can get Epcot, but my friend just got LegoLand. He guessed California but it was the one in Denmark. Meanwhile, I'm rapidly becoming a connoisseur of unmarked dirt roads over flat, barren landscapes.
}}

==Explanation==
[//Geoguessr.com Geoguessr] is a game{{citation needed}} in which the player is given a location in {{w|Google Street View}} and asked to guess precisely where in the world they are, by clicking on a map of the world, based only on the 360-degree view in the Street View display.

Cueball is upset because he keeps making his guesses based on landmarks and his guesses end up being wrong. After all, the landmark he based his guess off of was a replica of the real one (the {{Wikipedia|Parthenon (Nashville)|Parthenon in Nashville}}, which is more than 9000 kilometers or 5600 miles away from the {{Wikipedia|Parthenon|Greek original}}).

Of course, from a statistical perspective, this makes sense. For every famous object, there are countless replicas; however, most people will be familiar with the specific location of the original object, and the vast majority of famous objects (except a few notable works of art) exist in only one place in the world. Take the {{w|Statue of Liberty}}, for instance — although the original is based in New York (well, actually, the original maquette is in {{w|Paris}}...), it has {{w|Replicas of the Statue of Liberty|hundreds of replicas all over the planet}}.

{{w|Epcot}} is a {{w|Disney}} theme park in {{w|Florida}} which among other attractions includes pavilions of various countries, including {{w|Germany}}, which are built to resemble the typical style (architecture, vegetation, etc.) of the countries. Therefore, similarly to the replicas of landmarks, in this specific case, recognizing classic German architecture would put you on the wrong continent.

However, as the title text alludes to, you're far more likely to find a dirt road than to find anything recognizable, since Google Street View maps roads more than anything else (hence its name). Becoming a connoisseur of such a mundane thing bears similarity to [[915: Connoisseur]].

Anyone who's ever played with Geoguessr knows, also, that seemingly helpful clues can sometimes be useless. For instance, if you recognize the {{w|Cyrillic script}} on a sign, the countries using the Cyrillic script such as Bulgaria, Mongolia, Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia encompasses an enormous area, so unless you can recognize a specific region, there's no obvious place to guess where you can hope to get high points. Unlike somewhere like England, where guessing London is guaranteed to put you within a reasonable distance from a global perspective. {{w|Legoland}} is a good example of this: If you can't tell if you're in Denmark or California (or any of the {{w|Legoland#Parks|other locations}}), it's not like you can just guess halfway between and do well.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is using a laptop, playing a game.]
:Cueball: This one's easy; There's the Parthenon. Athens.
: *click*
:Cueball: What!? Why the hell is there a Parthenon in ''Nashville''?
: *click*
:Cueball: OK, I'm ''clearly'' in Germany.
: *click*
:Cueball: Dammit, Germany Pavilion at Epcot.
:[Caption below the panel:]
:My scores in Geoguessr would be higher if people quit building replicas of everything.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Geography]]
[[Category:Google Maps]]