NN Definition:
A ‘Mast Mission’ is to a timed challenge, issued to a traveler, to capture a flag (i.e. have sex with a person from that country). This refers to the native of the country the traveler is visiting. The length of time and the country being visited will determine the difficulty of the mast mission. If you succeed, you raise the flag to the mast, hence the name Mast Mission.
Calculating your Mast Mission Rating
Use this only as a crude measure. They two factors we will consider is difficulty of country and timing. There are other variables we will ignore, such as language barriers and exotic capital, as well as racial and national stereotypes in the country you’re visiting.
Determining country difficulty
What are the sexual attitudes of the country your visiting? Withstanding the language barrier, this is best judged by SOI: Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (see Schmitt’s paper).
See SOI rating at bottom of page for a 48 nation sample of SOI ratings for women only. If your country is not on the list, estimate it using a similar one. A higher mean indicates more liberal sexual attitudes…
Let's simplify....
Less than 12 : Let’s consider this a Conservative country. On this list only Bangladesh falls in this bracket, but you may include nearly all Arab countries and places like Bhutan and N. Korea.
12 – 17: Let’s consider this a Moderate country. Taiwan, Korea, China etc.
17 +: Let’s consider this a Liberal country.
Mast Mission Ratings
Rookie Mission:
- Cat 1: Liberal country with one month. Example: You’re in London for a month.
- Cat: 2 Moderate country with one year. Example: Teaching English for a year in Korea.
Flagger Mission:
- Cat: 1 Liberal country with one week. Example: You’re in Estonia for a week.
- Cat: 2 Moderate country with one month. Example: Visiting China for a month.
00 Mission:
- Cat 1: Moderate country with one week. Example: You’re in Armenia for a week.
- Cat 2: Conservative country with one year. Example: You’re working for a year in Oman.
Mission Impossible:
- Conservative country with a week. Example: You’re visiting Mecca for a week.
My Stats:
I have 42 flags, 21 were caught on mast missions.
6 were rookie missions.
14 were flagger missions (not always easy).
I have completed one ’00’ mission (Timor Leste).
To be honest, I fear mast missions. While rookie missions are ok, flagger missions are often very difficult with high failure rates. I much prefer to mosey about for undefined amount of time and just let things happen. The flag will come. But when you x amount of days in location y, the pressure is on.
When I step off the plane, sometimes it’s feels like I’m the captain of the soccer team, stepping up to take a penalty. My friends, fellow players, and followers are all watching. People are depending on me to score.
My next Flagger mission is in Cyprus…
SOI Ratings
Via Schmitt. Take with a pinch of salt..
Country Mean S.D Argentina 30.10 19.35 Australia 30.73 20.81 Austria 38.66 23.93 Bangladesh 11.80 8.16 Belgium 26.80 16.24 Bolivia 21.92 18.94 Botswana 23.06 24.21 Brazil 27.13 17.32 Canada 27.30 18.18 Congo 25.74 29.55 Croatia 32.15 16.29 Czech Rep. 29.49 15.78 Estonia 31.83 23.53 Ethiopia 18.89 14.59 Fiji 25.26 18.55 Finland 41.60 27.75 France 30.66 21.21 Germany 34.44 20.81 Greece 24.32 13.28 Hong Kong 19.21 11.86 Israel 31.71 21.56 Italy 21.39 14.58 Japan 20.72 13.52 Latvia 41.68 26.68 Lebanon 17.21 15.78 Lithuania 35.25 16.40 Malta 25.17 16.56 Mexico 25.99 11.08 Morocco 20.06 21.32 Netherlands 31.56 14.90 New Zealand 38.79 26.93 Peru 21.23 12.03 Philippines 17.95 10.53 (yeah right!) Poland 26.90 20.75 Portugal 21.32 10.76 Romania 19.48 16.80 Serbia 31.89 21.28 Slovakia 28.52 13.54 Slovenia 36.45 17.99 South Korea 16.22 10.98 Spain 25.17 14.47 Switzerland 34.26 18.20 Taiwan 14.24 7.62 Turkey 21.71 14.58 Ukraine 17.36 8.65 U.K 29.60 21.91 U.S.A 29.24 20.56 Zimbabwe 13.98 12.11
“But when you x amount of days in location y, the pressure is on.”
Sometimes that pressure breeds success. If you’re there for too long, you’re less motivated to push hard.
Good luck even getting to Mecca. Foreigners(Arabs) have to buy special insurance just to get in the country for Haj. How does a Qatar flag in 3 days rank?
Mission impossible my friend. You are among the elite, congrats!
Any advice on Istanbul? My usual PIC’s and I are invading in Mid-November. Not exactly high season, but that raises our exotic capital, right? The glass is always half full amigo.
good article. but some of those sd’s do seem to be a bit off. def wldnt have thought the japanese girls are as low as a 13 from my experience. and from what ive read, brazilians are a little more ‘forthcoming’ than argy girls. i’ll be trying to find out in the next few months :0)
by the way, what was the ‘mean’ referring to?
@roo: Agree. Some are WAY off. Perhaps we come up with a more accurate model…
Great article NN! We added it to our Must Know Flagging Vocab list 😉
This is wicked! 🙂 .
You have introduced graphs, standard deviation, mean Mission definitions., i.e., measurement to to these intangibles. Genius, and fun!
I love it, I am nerd in my heart =), love reading your blog.
what are Mean and S.D cause i cant understand
MEAN: Average
SD: Standard Deviation