Tom Davies has become a beloved icon of GeoGuessr
newyorker.com
newyorker.com
Part of what I think makes him so entertaining is that he's expanded beyond just playing the GeoGuessr game.
For the uninitiated he's currently planning to dribble a soccer ball across the UK from coast to coast and then later this summer he's going to attempt to hitchhike the length of the US east coast while completing various fan submitted challenges (part of his "how not to travel" series).
Probably because he's English I think of his missions like Bilbo marching off to the Lonely Mountain. No idea what's he's in for, but he'll make it fun in the telling of it.
Writers such as Iain Sinclair and similar who do performative walks actually build the detours round obstacles into the report of the walk as a kind of comment on land use. Entertaining and prudent.
As others have said, medical bills not an issue for UK people. Civil cases of the kind mentioned in this sub-thread don't seem to occur.
If some number of kids watch his videos and get hurt mimicking them, he'll accrue a bunch of lawsuits to cover their medical bills.
Putting the disclaimer implies nothing but a well-founded fear of frivolous lawsuits.
Now he did put a disclaimer on one of his videos. But in many other videos he’s been talking about this kind of mission as if it might be something that the viewer might wanna do herself. “If you’re planning a straight-line mission…” Stuff like that. So he might not have been encouraging it, but he has been talking as if his videos might inspire the viewer to do them themselves.
Perhaps not in 18th century Asia, but this was a very commonly noted feature of the Pax Mongolica in 13th- and 14th-century Asia. People remarked at the time that even women traveling alone would remain unmolested.
The legal situation varied, but regardless of the legalities there was no structure in place to enforce this.
> England overcame this with the demise of feudal systems.
Note that at around this time, England started passing laws that prohibited serfs from leaving their ancestral lands, and the reason the laws were suddenly passed is that the serfs had suddenly begun to leave. The laws had no effect on whether the serfs could leave, though; feudalism fell apart because the general population structure stopped supporting it.
I don't understand this reference; wandering samurai ("ronin") are bandits, the problem to be suppressed.
But his other contents are even better. Great writing and narrative style.
The 5-video series "How not to Travel Europe" [1] is the best content that I've ever seen on YouTube. Highly recommended.
Surprisingly I have to give some credit to YouTube algorithm since I got recommended other entertaining videos from big creators, that I don't usually follow. For example this one where Ludwig plays with GeoRainBolt. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqwSQzlJozw
The ‘meta’ includes everything from the tape on the camera mount bars, the reflective patterns on bollards, to the quality of the image encoding.
That, plus a subconscious ‘feel’ you start to develop goes a very very long way in a relatively short amount of time. I sometimes feel like I could tell I was in Singapore or not even if I was only allowed to look at my feet.
I got very good at it, but I lost my appetite for the game when Ukraine was invaded. Before that, I’d be joking about stuff like how the wooden window frames in Russia were much fancier and that’s how you could tell them apart.
Then again, some places are so far off into the bush that it takes some routine just to figure out which continent you’re on.
This is only partly true. It's true of ADW, the most popular community map, though it has over 50k locations. But the top players have played this map so much that some people do have some locations memorized (which is insane). Then there are a few countries or territories where the Street View coverage is so limited that you can basically memorize it, like Madagascar and Greenland.
There are enough locations & maps out there that the game isn't really about memorizing exact locations, though. But if you play a lot you do get good at "vibes" which is essentially pattern matching against other times you've played.
This is the kind of stuff that Geoguessr players call "meta" (or "metas").
I personally feel like it's more sporting to learn things like bollards, roadway markings, utility pole styles, and so on, which feel like they're about geography (observable differences in infrastructure or culture that persistently exist in different places), compared to things about Google Maps cars, imagery generations, glitches, redaction patterns, and so on, which feel more like they're about Google Maps itself (historical accidents of how and when the company mapped particular regions).
But if you play a lot or watch streamers talking about this stuff, there will be some kinds of metas that you can't unsee because they may just become obvious to you with time! I felt kind of bad about winning a Geoguessr duel earlier this week because I remembered a glitch meta that I had seen someone talking about on a stream... (you can see it instantly on Geotips if you click on Montenegro!).
Though it is hard to avoid accidentally learning some meta like the Kenya or Ghana cars.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCofJu853kJKpkg4y5a-9YXg
Guy in a van with a pressure cooker, scaling mountains solo. Doesn't succeed because he's the best looking, best videographer, best presenter, but because he gets out there and films it.
I assumed people filming themselves (mostly) playing video games was the DUMBEST idea for a business but now I tune in all the time for a bit to watch the top players of the games I love do their thing.
Not really. He is a good player, but not in the same league as the top players, which is something he readily admits. He isn’t interested in learning the minutiae (bollard styles in different countries etc.) necessary to get to that level.
People watch him because of his personality and sense of humour. His most popular videos aren’t even GeoGuessr related at all!
But he does dominate Geoguessr social media content (along with rainbolt who has really blown up on TikTok). And I think Tom is pretty widely liked in the community. He's honest about his skills, his videos are fun, and he brought a bunch of today's top players into the game in the first place.
If you havent watched his "How to not travel through Europe" series, its what all travel shows should aspire to be. Truly unique
I'd recommend watching them! It's really fun to follow along and join in the detective work. I didn't have any success, but it gave me a good excuse to explore some new places with Google Maps that I never would've thought to look at.
I kept coming back to his channel because it feels fresh, authentic and he is very good at talking though how he’s thinking. Meaning you go on a little detective journey with him.
It helps that he’s also quite genial, so it feels extremely wholesome.
He’s very deserving of his popularity, but he still feels like a bloke you could drink with.
Mr Davies' straight line walks remind me of 1970s art projects brought up to date and made more accessible perhaps. I'll have to watch some of his 'tubes. I like the idea of a documented walk.
It's always a fun ride to see him work out his thought process, examining architecture, flora, and the smallest detail. He scours the map tirelessly and Googles dozens of relevant phrases, looking for any possible leads. You never know know which direction the search will go. Who knew 19th century Welsh steeple design could ever be interesting?
Even when he fails, the journey is fun and memorable.
I've learned so much about different countries from him.