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Explore the Great Depression in photos with this interactive map
Imagine today's government backing a program to document the plight of modern day farmers. Many might malign such use of resources, or the value of the endeavor. But, that's exactly what the Farm Security Administration did between 1935 and 1944 (i.e. the great depression). Photographers were distributed across the land, and negatives sent back to Washington. Of the estimated 170,000 shots taken, around 88,000 were developed and manually classified (remember that next time you moan about corrupt EXIF data). The collection has since been digitized, along with the manually-taken data for each picture, which a team at Yale has now used to create an interactive map. The wonder of modern technology means you can see where, and by whom, every picture was taken right from the comfort of your den. A sober reminder of what different times we live in. Probably a few years later than planned, but the Internet finally provides the perfect way to complete the FSA's original goal of "introducing America to Americans."
The Elder Scrolls Online's interactive map nabs a Craglorn update
ZeniMax has updated the spiffy official Elder Scrolls Online interactive map with details on Craglorn, the high-end area arriving in the game's first major content patch. If you're clicking around aimlessly, here's a tip: It's the big grey area between blue Bangkorai and green Cyrodiil. Clickable hotspots on the map reveal screenshots, lore excerpts, and even a poem, and hey, it's worth a visit just because it's pretty... even if it is Elder Scrolls' favorite color, brown.
Tamriel Infinium: Elder Scrolls Online stories inside Elder Scrolls Online stories
I admit it: I've spent hours in Skyrim and Oblivion doing nothing but reading the dusty books on the shelves of some dank dungeon. A lot of those stories repeat themselves, but I'm still amazed at the amount of time the writers put into the legends and lore of the series of games. For instance, if you'd like to know how Tamriel came to be, you can pick up The Annotated Anuad, the genesis story of Nirn, in Skyrim, Oblivion, or Morrowind. The book has little to do with any of those games, and the absolute truth of that book is suspect considering it's a "children's book." But it's a testament to how much time the writers put into developing the lore surrounding the Elder Scrolls. We know that The Elder Scrolls Online will also contain its own share of books and lore-packed tomes. Maybe you even spent time reading some while you were in beta this past weekend. Unfortunately, we can't gab about that, but we did get a taste of some of the stories thanks to the interactive map on the official website. Over the last couple of days, I've read each piece in this map, and surprisingly, I found some completely new stuff. Let me tell you about my top six.
ZeniMax publishes Elder Scrolls Online interactive map
MMO maps are pretty cool, no? Heck, maps in general tickle my fancy, and there's a new interactive one on The Elder Scrolls Online website that's worth checking out. ZeniMax says that users can "see new screenshots and concept art and read journals, excerpts from books [...] and more from the world of ESO" by using the map.
Explore The Old Republic's galaxy (far, far away) in 3-D
While Star Wars: The Old Republic has long since displayed its many, many planets on its Holonet page, BioWare's just released a brand-new map that lets you explore the entirety of the galaxy in three dimensions. The Galaxy Map serves to give players a good feel for how enormous the Star Wars setting is as well as where all of these planets stand in relation to each other. While there are billions of star systems, only a handful support life and will be featured in the game proper. The map is divided up into five major sectors: Coreward Worlds, Unknown Regions, Seat of the Empire, Hutt Space, and Distant Outer Rim. Players can check out the 17 revealed planets within those sectors as well as an up close and personal view of each of the six player starships. It's important to note that the use of the 3-D galaxy map requires the installation of the Unity web player onto your computer.
