I prefer right

Left one for sure. :)

The background gradient, selection of colours and embossing on the right don't look too professional. The left one is much more sleek. The left one might be improved by reducing the border slightly, zooming in on the world slightly, and possibly lightening the blue in the background very slightly.

The one on the right side.

Right, I like the blue, plus, the red dots where the cities are make it sorta look like an impact of a missile rather than an airplane taking off.

I prefer the one on the right. I just like the coloring better :P

right is better imho.

I like left , brings back that game board feeling of risk , as well as stated in previous posts showing what WarLight actually looks like. I don't think the right is right, personally.

right looks far better

Right one, but make the background green :)

Here's a tally (including my vote):

The right one.

I prefer left.

Wow, very polarized :). Thanks for everyone's opinion!

The right one is the one I made based off of the home page design. The left is one I paid a designer to make.

One of the main goals for this icon is to ensure that it's really easy to recognize that it's a map of the world even when viewed very small. I made it small in this thread on purpose.

I agree showing the whole world is better. The reason the right one is zoomed in is because the contrast between the water and land isn't as high, so when it was showing the whole world it wasn't easy to recognize. The left has higher contrast so it's able to show the whole world.

How about a hybrid of the two? What's your vote now between 1, 2, and 3?

Definitely right.

The blueness makes it appear less dull, and it generally looks more sleek, more professional and more interesting.

I agree that it would be a LOT better if it were the entire world, and that a more eurasian view would be more interesting (more land with red connectors!!!).

I think 3 - but maybe make the land a bit darker and the water a bit lighter, like 2, so that it stands out a bit more.

Lol not right middle :D

Like this?

Yeah, like that. 4's definitely the one I think's the best.

1 is really bad. It looks kind of Windows 98-ish. I give an anti-vote to 1.

I agree with bob, the far right one looks pretty good, but the second left would make a good second choice.