Maps in Games

When is a Croquet Mallet Like a Billy Club?

• Location: Fortress of Doors, Wonderland [fictional]
• Game: American McGee’s Alice [Rogue Entertainment]
• Level: Skool Daze

It is only fitting that the school which is nestled within Wonderland’s Fortress of Doors would host a few globes, but the world depicted by these is a minute and twisted one. We only see a single island, dominated by a large volcano. The globes appear all over the school of insane children, including in the 3rd-grade laboratory and the observatory, above.

At first glance, the landmass doesn’t appear to bear any resemblance to Wonderland, given that the school in particular floats through a mind-bending vortex of stacked books and clockwork, rather than on the crust of a planet. When one consults the in-game map, however, we see a more familiar shape:

(source: Wikipedia)

Ultimately this seems to be our first instance of a map within a game world actually lending it some geographical credibility. Wonderland has clearly been encroached upon by Red Queen’s architecture in the illustration above, and there’s a suspicious lack of actual volcano, but it seems like the island has a definite form, depicted on these globes and on the game’s loading screens.

Of course, the globes also bear an uncanny resemblance to eyeballs, particularly when viewed in marble at the observatory. They could be fantastical maps drawn up simply for this purpose, but I think we’re nerdy enough to consider the alternative as more fun!

Taken using a digital camera facing a TFT monitor, playing on Xbox 360 for the first time.

It’s Not Flu

• Location: The Vannah Hotel (fictional), Savannah, Georgia, USA
• Game: Left 4 Dead 2 [Valve Corporation]
• Mission: Dead Centre

Four more survivors have been stranded, here at this former CEDA evacuation base in the southern U.S. The once-lush Vannah Hotel has been set aflame, leaving Rochelle, Coach, Ellis and Nick to make their way out through media centres and blazing kitchens.

These maps are scene in the media area, which is also decorated with information boards relating to the CEDA initiative. The maps themselves demonstrate evacuation routes and centres across the south Atlantic region, elements of which could also been on a map posted in Fairfield, Pennsylvania. Just like that previous map, someone has made furious markings to show which centres have been overrun. Only a week after the events of the first Left 4 Dead, it appears that Pennsylvania and Jacksonville were truly lost.

The spread here is, I believe, one of the best yet found in a game. We see multiple versions of the same map, accompanied by printouts and the paraphernalia of a planning committee. The whiteboard map even shows a plan to evacuate to sea, while the main map is a high-resolution (and therefore legible) rendering of the United States of America. Unfortunately I did not manage to capture the other map - a city-level street map of Savannah - in great detail. A horde was triggered and blood was spilled, adding an amusing but realistic sort of setback to the survivors’ plight.

Taken while playing through with friends for the first time. A light blue targeting reticule features throughout.

• Location: Hall of Legends, Valley of Strength, Orgrimmar, Durotar, Kalimdor, Azeroth [fictional]
• Game: World of Warcraft: Cataclysm [Blizzard Entertainment]

This is - to my knowledge - the only Horde-friendly example of the World of Warcraft UI maps turning up as in-game objects. They adorn the planning table in Orgrimmar’s Hall of Legends, where players come to purchase PvP armour, and where battle-mages would once summon them to world PvP events, like Wintergrasp.

The table displays topographs of: Azeroth as a whole; the Eastern Kingdoms (with labelled sub-zones); and the Hillsbrad Foothills, which became a Forsaken territory in the aftermath of the Cataclysm. Players who run quests there help Sylvanas’ forces to quash Alliance retaliation after the Horde took Southshore, in a campaign which continues to be fought in a nearby PvP battleground, Alterac Valley.

Followers may notice this is the first new map post for quite a while. Unfortunately our queue ran dry some time ago, so if I may offer a reminder - please do submit your own examples of diegetic maps, through Tumblr and other platforms! See /submit for details.

I did state in the description that we’d also be looking at wayfinding tools, so in the hopes that you’ll help guide us all along too…

• Location: Welcome Centre, Rapture [fictional], Atlantic Ocean
• Game: Bioshock [2K Games]
• Level: Welcome to Rapture

Examples of graphic design are manyfold in Rapture, and this is expressed in its wayfinding tools. Because Rapture is not just any old city, but one which must be enclosed (at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, no less), wayfinding will have been something of a special priority for its designers. Helpfully, the city is divided into clearly-marked and characterised zones.

These examples from the city’s Welcome Centre show how zones and facilities are characterised by distinctive signs; how neon is used to illuminate icons and art deco typefaces; and how directional signposts appear in the Transit Hub.

The first image is a particularly fun one, given that the Metro logo zone depicts the stations and tracks of a railway. Directional signposts, like those pointing to Neptune’s Bounty and the Medical Pavilion, are much plainer in order that they might fit the various aesthetics within, but they maintain that crisp clarity which futuristic art deco does so well (and which is a part of my favoured raypunk aesthetic too).

Taken while playing through the game for the first time, hopefully to be expanded upon soon. A circular targeting reticule appears on the latter two shots.

• Location 1: Lost Rigger Cove, Tanaris, Kalimdor, Azeroth [fictional]
• Location 2: Doom’s Vigil, Mount Hyjal, Kalimdor, Azeroth [fictional]
• Location 3: The Twilight Citadel, Twilight Highlands, Eastern Kingdoms, Azeroth [fictional]
• Game: World of Warcraft; World of Warcraft: Cataclysm [Blizzard Entertainment]

Back once more to the world of Warcraft, with one of the first maps I’d ever noticed in a game. This one’s an oldie, having been around since the game’s original inception. I believe I first noticed it on the disputed Horde border between The Barrens and Ashenvale; at the time, I assumed it was a caricatured depiction of either the Warsong Gulch battleground or the infamous Crossroads. In truth it doesn’t seem to depict anywhere specific in the world, which makes it a fairly flexible asset for use all over Azeroth.

The map is hastily drawn, and seems to fit orcish battle plans in particular. The land is mountainous, and is crossed by two tributaries which join at a settlement of some sort. Assuming that the compass rose depicts north, as in the game’s regional maps, this places a lake or pond out west from the unnamed settlement. There are also two facilities to be seen at the south-west and south-east; presumably lumber mills or some other sort of production facility.

Taken at various points throughout my playing the game, with shots depicting my Forsaken rogue and Sin’dorei priestess.

• Location 1: Medivh’s Chambers, Karazhan, Deadwind Gorge, Eastern Kingdoms, Azeroth [fictional]
• Location 2: Lost Rigger Cove, Tanaris, Kalimdor, Azeroth (fictional)
• Game: World of Warcraft &World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade [Blizzard Entertainment]

This wooden globe is seen all over Azeroth, but here it is placed in two particularly appropriate locations: the chambers of a former Guardian of Azeroth, and the ground floor of a hut in the Bloodsail Buccaneers’ pirate compound. There are occasions when this globe is rendered backwards, as Azeroth’s more jagged continent includes a distinctive and large bay on the western coast, separating Lordaeron from Khaz Modan. This is evidenced more clearly on the holographic globe in Ulduar, which was featured here back in December.

• Location 1: Dawnstrider Enchanters, Thunder Bluff, Mulgore, Kalimdor, Azeroth (fictional)
• Location 2: Guardian’s Library, Karazhan, Deadwind Gorge, Eastern Kingdoms, Azeroth (fictional)
• Game: World of Warcraft [Blizzard Entertainment]

This more subtle map appears as a crest, in books scattered about Azeroth. This graphic, which is framed inside a shield, depicts four continents on Azeroth, scattered around the Maelstrom in its centre. This in itself is curious, as while the game world has gone through a few changes in its time, the world currently only includes the Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor in the west, and Northrend to the north. This emblem shows a large continent to the south, which may simply be unexplained, or could be a conglomerate of the goblin Lost Isles and Kezan, and the floating island of Pandaria.

These snaps also include my holy/shadow priestess, Diziet.