cartography
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New York Public Library now lets you use 20,000 historical maps for free
Ever wanted to see what New York City's maps looked like before skyscrapers took over... or before Americans took over, for that matter? It's now easy as pie. The New York Public Library has published more than 20,000 of its historical maps under a Creative Commons public domain license. You can freely download, manipulate and publish cartography created between 1660 and 1922, a large chunk of which explores New York City's neighborhoods in detail. You'll also see thousands of maps covering the mid-Atlantic US and the Austro-Hungarian empire (yes, really). We can't imagine too many people wanting to remix Gangs of New York-era property charts, but it's hard to object to getting more geographic knowledge at no charge.
National Geographic brings its custom cartography to Google Maps
National Geographic has long contributed photos and article links to Google Maps, but it's now deepening that commitment by introducing its own cartography. The magazine is using Google Maps Engine to share over 500 of its historical and reference maps with the public, including interactive overlays. You can see what Medieval England looked like, for example, or find tourist hotspots in South America. All of these maps are free to use through Google's platform; National Geographic is only charging for high-resolution and printed copies to help fund its non-profit efforts.
The Daily Grind: When's the last time you got lost in an MMO?
Yesterday's reveal of The Elder Scrolls Online's interactive map got me to thinking about MMO cartography and how necessary it is outside of flavor or lore considerations. Sadly, I think the answer is that it's not necessary at all except in a few archaic sandbox games that eschew quest chains and the like. That said, you can still turn off your map and just explore even in a linear, themepark-style game, and so today I'd like to know how many Massively readers have ever done that. More specifically, when's the last time you got lost in an MMO, if ever? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Subway map artist and Naughty Dog settle The Last of Us complaint
Naughty Dog has apologized for the unauthorized use of an unofficial Boston subway in The Last of Us. The map, examined intently by protagonist Joel above, wasn't made by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority or Naughty Dog. It's the work of a Portland-based artist named Cameron Booth, who posted earlier this week that it was used "without permission or payment." e attacked Naughty Dog for stealing the work, and wrote (in a since-deleted post version) that he believed it unacceptable "to casually appropriate someone else's work and incorporate it into their game without any discussion." Since Booth revealed his complaint, Naughty Dog has reached out to him and Booth has now deleted his initial post, replacing it with the news that an agreement has been made. "It seems as if matters will be resolved to everyone's satisfaction shortly," Booth now says. Booth also apologized for his "initial vitriolic post," adding that both sides share "a lot of mutual respect for each other's creative work."
Tamriel Infinium: Fictional loyalty in Elder Scrolls Online
On many occasions, my guild members have talked about different aspects of MMOs, MMO culture, and of course, what makes our guild work as well as it does. The simple answer to the last question boils down to common bonds and shared interests, just as with any group of friends, I'd imagine. And when we seriously decided to take this guild we made beyond the borders of just one game, we discovered new hurdles to overcome. Although the roots of my guild extend far beyond one MMO, it kicked off seriously only in Star Wars: The Old Republic and has since extended to Guild Wars 2 and Neverwinter. Many of my friends have expressed more than a fleeting interest in The Elder Scrolls Online, but faction selection could pose a problem for us. I always liked Imperials in the other Elder Scrolls games. One member wants to relive his Skyrim adventures and play a Nord. And of course, we have that hold-out who will play nothing but elves (or the closest approximation) in whatever game she's playing. Although I very much want these players to play whichever race they will have the most fun playing, it places the guild as a whole in an interesting position: With so many conflicting loyalties, which direction does the guild head? The Elder Scrolls Online created a solution within its guilding system. Does the ESO system encourage loyalty to a faction or is factional loyalty just fictional loyalty?
Google Maps Engine Lite beta lets amateurs craft their own location sets
Pros have long had access to Google Maps Engine if they need to highlight anything from local stores to natural resources. Today, Google is catering to the rest of us would-be cartographers with a beta for Google Maps Engine Lite. The web service lets everyday users draw objects and import locations for their own reference, whether it's plotting favorite hiking trails or pinpointing worthwhile places on an upcoming vacation. Map makers can stylize the maps and share them with others, if they like -- the Lite label mostly limits users to "small" spreadsheet imports and a maximum of three data sets for comparisons. As long as you can live within those prescribed boundaries, you can try the slimmed down engine right now.
Google Earth, Maps get new high-res aerial and satellite imagery
3D City View for iOS isn't the only update from the Google Maps and Earth team this week, they've also spruced up their services with new imagery. Fresh high-resolution aerial and satellite photos have been added for a roster of 25 cities and 72 countries or regions, ranging from Antelope Wells, New Mexico to Zimbabwe. In addition, seven international locales and 21 US cities received the 45-degree view treatment, letting you gaze at skylines from a different perspective. The maps are already available, so you can peruse new satellite images of London's Olympic Park and Village just in time for the festivities. For the full list of areas with crisper cartographic visuals, check out the source below.
WoW gets the Google Maps treatment
Being a fantasy world set in a vaguely medieval technology level (the odd gnome or goblin invention or steam tank aside), one does not generally expect all the perks of modern life to invade the World of Warcraft. Today, that's changed a little as Google Maps comes to Azeroth. World of Mapcraft features all of the current lands of WoW (minus Pandaria) from a bird's-eye view using Google technology. You can zoom in and try to find your favorite landmark or city (I looked for the twin pillars of Feralas and the Ruins of Southshore) or finally figure just how Dun Morogh's snow transitions into the green of Wetlands. You can even take a look at your favorite raid, dungeon, or Battleground. Alas, there's no street view, but who knows? Maybe someone out there's just crazy enough to take that task on. It's definitely a fun new way to look at the world. Check it out.
Aion adds map-drawing functionality, smiley-faces ensue
Much has been written about Aion's humongous 3.0 patch (and there's much more to come courtesy of Massively's Wings Over Atreia column). One thing that hasn't gotten a lot of attention, though, is the game's new cartography feature. In a nutshell, NCsoft's new update lets players draw on Aion's in-game map in four different colors, the better to plan out PvP attacks, strategize for PvE, or even show a newb exactly where to go. What's that? This isn't some ground-breaking new MMO feature, you say? Well, you're right. It's pretty cool, though, and we'll also point out that unlike the similar functionality in Guild Wars and third-party World of Warcraft mods, your Atreian cartographic masterworks may be saved, loaded, and passed around amongst members of your group, legion (which is Aion-speak for guild), or alliance.
The Daily Grind: What's the most iconic MMO city?
If you've ever tried to draw a map of the Earth from memory, you know that it's a difficult task, and yet I suspect that most of us could easily sketch out a map of the landmasses and cities of our favorite MMOs. While most MMOs scale significantly smaller than our real-world capitals, they're no less memorable. In fact, some cities practically serve as symbols of the game, from City of Heroes' Paragon City to Guild Wars' Lion's Arch to World of Warcraft's Stormwind. Be they hubs of commerce, zones for party-forming, or home to all your phat loots, we could probably navigate them blindfolded. Today we ask: What's the most iconic MMO city (and could you map it from memory)? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
GTA's Liberty City recreated in Google Street View, reveals your nearest Ammu-Nation
Type "Liberty City" into Google Maps and it whisks you to some place east of Wichita, Kansas. Yup, Wichita, for Pete's sake. No self-respecting Grand Theft Auto fan can stand for an omission like that, and thankfully now they don't have to. Those hardcore Niko-lovers at gta4.net have not only recreated the real fictional Liberty City using the Google Maps API, they've even cobbled together 80,000 screenshots to provide full-blown Street View too. Man, we haven't seen this much Gay Tony passion since the Trashmaster. Oh, wait a minute -- apparently this so-called Street View leaves out a couple of ramps that gta4.net considered to be "not very interesting." Hush, and you call yourselves fans?
EVE Online's answer to GPS
EVE Online is a vast setting where all players interact in one galaxy. While other MMOs are sharded across different servers, some with different locales, EVE places all of its players together. Its implementation ensures that many servers seem to be just one from the perspective of any pilot flying in New Eden. However, given the daunting size of EVE's explorable environment, there have been some players who took it upon themselves to map the known universe and release their findings as a resource for other pilots. Shayne Smart, aka Serenity Steele, is one such player. He's been getting some media attention in recent months as Vice-Chairman of the Council of Stellar Management (CSM). Beyond his duties on the CSM, Smart is also well-known to many players as the creator of EVE Strategic Maps, a spiral bound collection of star charts which some fans of the game find indispensable. You would think Smart would find mapping out 5000 solar systems (each with its own myriad planets, moons, stations, and other resources) a feat hard to top. But what Smart's done is found a way to use the in-game browser in the EVE client to act as a sort of GPS, tracking your position as you jump from one solar system to the next, and allowing you to better see your relative position in the galaxy as part of your overview. The cartographer's latest 'minimap' effort is presently 2-D only and in beta, though is well worth a look and quite simple to use. Click the gallery below for Shayne Smart's instructions on how to use the free 2D minimap within your in-game browser. Add GPS to your overview >> %Gallery-31177%
The geography of WoW space
World of Warcraft has seen the rise of a massive community of diverse players. Most of us do not simply log into WoW, but visit a number of news sources, fan sites, and web-bases resources to stay on top of new developments in the game. Tim Howgego has created a map of the virtual WoW community. In this image he has categorized some of the most popular spaces that players visit outside of Azeroth. His map is divided into several areas:
Ortelius: map illustration for the Mac, coming soon
I am not a cartographer, but I do enjoy a good map. Ortelius looks like it will be a very nice addition to any map maker's Dock. Ortelius is a program that has been designed from the get go to do one thing, and do it well: draw maps. As the product page points out addons to other drawing programs will allow you to make maps, but those programs weren't designed for it. Ortelius has a number of stock drawing tools that allow you to focus on the important thing: getting that map right.Ortelius will allow you to highlight routes on maps you've created, create PDFs, and print out the maps. Ortelius is still under development but will be available soon for less than $50.[via The Map Room, which is a great blog about all map related things.]
New expansion, new map
In Wrath of the Lich King, we'll get a new continent, new talents, a new class, a new profession, and probably lots of things we don't even know about yet. However, it looks like some of the old is also changing. Inspired by a post over at Casual WoW, the above image shows the WotLK map with outlines from the current live map superimposed in blue. So what's changed? Kalimdor changed in shape significantly. No longer looking quite so much like a penguin, it now has a more crescent-shaped profile. Two new islands off the southwest coast of the Eastern Kingdoms. New bit of land north of Westfall, west of Stormwind on the west coast of EK. Islands Northwest of Tirisfal removed, and two small ones added north of Scarlet Monestary [thanks, Captain Tonga] Why do you think these changes were made? Theorize away. It looks like mostly unreachable areas that were removed, but I can't imagine what they're going to do with that new chunk of land near Stormwind. Of course, this is just artwork, and may not correspond that closely to actual in-game geography, but I bet something is going on there.
Adding to the Azeroth map
Currently our map of Azeroth has two continents, but anyone who's played the original RTS games knows more is out there. Blizzplanet has some interesting information that leads me to hazard a guess that we may be seeing more added to the cartography of Azeroth in the future. They start with the information, lore and such that were added to the World of Warcraft RPG: Lands of Mystery tabletop rulebook. Should you own a copy (I, alas, do not) you will find it contains new info on Northrend and the South Seas. The maps that we saw on the WoW Collector's Edition behind the scenes DVD of Azeroth show that they have been planning such an expansion since 2004. On the map, it shows Northrend at the top of the world, with the Maelstrom and Nazajatar in the middle and the Isle of Kezen/Undermine at the bottom.
