I'm afraid that for me, Atlas just doesn't provide enough scaffolding. It essentially lays out a set of rules for collaborative map-building, but the rules essentially boil down to: (1) discuss what kind of map you want, and (2) take turns adding to the map. The guidelines are open-ended and friendly, but lack any tools to help facilitate discussion and decision-making, or useful guidelines for implementing these tools. In my experience, if a group were able to collaborate at that level of teamwork, they wouldn't need these guidelines to begin with.

It's a generous, warm, and creative effort -- it just doesn't offer what my groups, and in my estimation, many other groups, need to facilitate a fun and productive session. I would recommend buying The Quiet Year; Beak, Bone + Feather; or a similar title to see what a (somewhat) more scaffolded structure looks like, and then decide if your group wants more freedom and very simple rules -- in which case, Atlas might just be for you.

If you like games such as The Quiet Year and Microscope, you'd like this game. At its core, this is a map drawing game about designing a place. As a group you determine the scope and scale of what you're doing.

I had the opportunity to play Atlas a while ago. It came highly recommended to me from a friend who was playtesting it with the designer. This was a 3 player game and we played online using Roll20.net.

The playlist can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJ0snHDJGuC2C-eDNvjIAB6tvpFxuIieg

I always thought that Atlas would make a fantastic collaborative game for worldbuilding prep. Build a world using Atlas and then explore it in the game system of your choice.