What was so great about WoW's maps?
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- Опубликовано: 11 июн 2024
- In 2004, Blizzard published one of the most incredible games of all time: World of Warcraft. Today, people are still flocking to WoW in droves -- when this video is being released, Season of Discovery is blowing up and the Classic and Vanilla World of Warcraft game is once again being played by millions. Azeroth is eternally popping off. People have made a ton of videos about the game of WoW, but has anyone ever really talked about the maps?
Well, in this video, we'll review the history and legacy of the maps of World of Warcraft, and decide whether they are awesome or awful. I'll specifically focus on the maps as they were released in the original vanilla game in 2004, but also touch on the broader role of maps in video games and MMOs. We'll talk about the full zone maps, as well as WoW's minimap, the gameplay and mechanics of the maps, the development of the game and the graphics, and some of the inspirations that played into the development of Azeroth's cartography.
The maps are remarkable in that they feel very simple compared to most games today. There are few, if any, icons, and everything is hand-painted and unique across the zones -- they aren't just screenshots of the terrain. WoW's maps bring you into the game in an immersive way, and though they aren't nearly as convenient as the maps World of Warcraft has in retail WoW today, they are perhaps better for getting players deeply involved in the game.
The maps of Azeroth are distinct, unique, and memorable, and they are a big part of why a game like WoW hooked so many people for so many years. I hope you enjoy the video.
All music and rights belong to Blizzard. Video clips from numerous streamers and in-game footage.
#wow #worldofwarcraft #cartography 
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I dont wanna be the savior of azeroth anymore, I just wanna go back to being an adventurer wandering the world and being a part of it.
Exactly! It felt much more like being a Hobbit going into the vast unknown world than being Aragorn.
It relates also much more to real life, for example Tolkien hiked in Switzerland at places like Lauterbrunnen, Rothorn, Grindelwald and was inspired by those and you can do the same IRL or in WoW.
I think this LotR analogy is a big reason why WoW Vanilla was so successful... around the same time the LotR trilogy was released and Azeroth just felt like that.
I especially loved WoW Vanilla/Classic because of that and the high fantansy genre, the other expansions (except WotLK to some extent) didn't have this anymore.
Classic Hardcore's giving me this feeling. If you haven't yet, I would recommend trying it. :)
just do what i did and start playing SoloCraft.
This
Being a regular dude in a huge world that goes on without you is so much better than being THE CHAMPION AND CHOSEN ONE
I remember leveling as a kid and looking at the zones that were so far away on other continents and I would wonder what they looked like and what was there. Truly spectacular.
@MoosePolo same! I remember clicking through the Outland maps and wondering what sort of wild landscapes were going to be there :D
@@Jediwarlock I remember being 12 and having that exact same experience
I was 30, yes 30, when wow came out in 2004 and I felt that same kid-like wonderment you describe here. Retail just doesn’t have that for me. I even would fly back to these old zones i.e. Westfall, Duskwood, Darkshore, they are all entirely empty in retail even on highly populated servers and that just so sad. I won’t be going back to retail again I’m staying in classic sod.
@@LifeHawkeyeyep. It's not just nostalgia. Retail is fun for a bit but Classic era is fun for longer and way more immersive
I love the hand-drawn maps. Modern MMO maps are so cluttered with all the different bits and bobs everywhere. I get so overwhelmed and, ironically, lost in the forest for the trees. I love the simple WOW classic maps.
Dragonflight kinda went back go the classic style
@@eliashautala7450 The underlay yeah, but they still are so cluttered. Here's a world quest, here's a rare, here's the grand hunt, here's the dreamsurge, here's a treasure, and on and on and on.
Its because vanilla wow was created in times where games were actually a challenge and forced people to think, read quests. Now it's just a mindless clicking in order to get some dopamine rush.
@@ady007plnot really the case with modern wow tbh. Most endgame content on the form of dungeons and raids is way more complex (with more mechanics and shit to keep track of) and difficult than it was on the past. To the point where it's detrimental to the game's growth.
There still is mindless button clicking with some activities, but that was the case since vanilla wow
@@kaironst2969i kind agree with you, but i wouldn't say its complex its just that if 1 person fucks up the whole raid is fucked which is hard not to do cause there's so much animations and shit you dont know whats what or the color schemes just blend in perfect so you could be standing in some swirly of death and not even know, when it comes down its just poor design and then top of it you got all the try hard sweats that have addons and all that shit cause they've never done anything with their life to gets dads approval. Like I can understand if it's a world 1st achievement your going for, but after its been out for how long its just like dude calm the fuck down it's just a game and if your gonna be competitive about it join a guild or make your own thats why of many reasons why guilds exist
I remember playing this in my 20s. The world was so full of people and wonder, it just filled you with wonder. This was considered a 'casual' MMO back then (Everquest was the Hardcore MMO at the time). Reviews use to say you could log in for an hour and accomplish something. Eventually, the world became less and less populated as they had the Dungeon finder, but part of the fun was getting to the dungeon, and maybe running into the opposing faction waiting for the rest of their group, and you'd have these spontaneous fights organically. Those were good times!
oh god the music... my brain was very young, between 5 and about 12 when I played wow, something sad rises up within me when I hear that music - it's like I used to live on another planet
My brain is also wired for music and WoW has some of the best. It talks right to your soul.
Absolutely, it'll be with me for the rest of my life
I feel the same 😢
I was like 7-8 and had a full blown addiction even though i never progressed much further then the starting zones before i would start a new character. When my brother cancelled his subscription i used to sit and look at the photos in his thick WoW gaming booklet and imagine i was still playing it. Years later when i got access to youtube i used to sit and watch videos of the login screen for the burning crusade, the one with the big glowing gate and the music would warm my heart like a drug addict describing how their drug of choice feels.. i know if i were to play it now it wouldnt feel the same so i see no point, my adult comfort mmo is elder scrolls online lol.
@@tylermunday2146 It's strange how we long for the past...
I started playing classic again yesterday without quest helper. Clues from the quest makes it immersive, suddenly im happy to see a windmill or small hut in the horizon because the quests describe these landmarks you take for granted with questie addon
I will jump in today too. Are you playing EU? If that is the case, what realm?
@kasper8509 all servers are linked. So you have to question yourself if you want to play pvp or pve :) (those are not linked together)
I play horde pvp which has 40% and alliance 60%. It's a gamble playing outnumbered faction
Like you, I’m playing without quest helper and know exactly what you mean in having to decipher the quest log with more scrutiny lol. I’m not using any add ons not out of desire to do so, but because I have an iMac and for the life of me cannot figure out how to make add ons work for me lol. I’m an old dog that can’t seem to learn some new tricks I guess. But the result is having to play the game very organically and that’s not all bad. If I’m really in a rut I consult wowhead which is fantastic and gives me all the info I need when necessary.
@@LifeHawkeyeyes agreed. I played with 0 addons like you, but i like some addons though :) like automatically sell grey items or selling single items at auction house faster.
What I noticed was that I move in cities more like a mouse in a maze, checking every room to see if a quest is available. With questie I just ignore 90% of the map
I tried that when classic servers originally launched and by the time I was 60lvl everyone else had full T2 , I wish there was a specific slow paced PvE server that had a bigger community , of course you can play solo but it sucks.
I think We all took map design for granted when the game originally launched in 2004. The way the maps worked was terrific and certainly gave you a sense of exploration and discovery.
Gothic 1 and 2 had similar maps. They are in this hand drawn style.
What made it even more immersive is that you had to buy, steal or get maps some other way. There were even partial maps.
And an item named "map"... but.. it wasn't really a map... not of the world at least xD
@@nikitatsybryk9146 Well in Gothic 1 your character really didn't need a map of the world, since he was stuck inside of the colony. No way out until the end of the game. Similarly in Gothic 2 you were stuck on the island.
@@Nik930714 i was referring to a woman painting that you can find 1st Gothic :p
@@nikitatsybryk9146 I cant remember that one. Where was she? Only women i remember were "maids" in high places that served people like Y'Berion and Gomez.
@@nikitatsybryk9146 The only women in Gothic were the "maids" that worked for Gomez and other high ranks. You got the map from the guy who draws them in the old camp. He tries to rip you off with taking money for it even though Diego already payed him for it, so you have to press him a bit for it if you don't want to waste your currency.
1:09 That's Yakuza like a dragon. 1:13 That's Far Cry 3.
I fr had to double take at the caption 💀💀💀
Fuck. and I just commented on it now. HUH. I was like wtf?
Great video! WoW's hand-drawn maps are one of the best to this day, even the rougher older versions of Vanilla. Just imagine how much work the artists put into painting out each and every zone, and then breaking it down for explorable bits to discover.
What I can't get over with is how you did Guild Wars 2 dirty here :D Yes, its map is a birds eye view render akin to WoW's minimap when you discover everything, but if not discovered, or even simply zoomed out, it's this beautiful stylized handpaint with wide brushes and watercolor and whatnot (I suck in artsy terms I admit) which made GW2's art style so unique. And all the markers that are there are built in more subtly, which does make a pretty picture after all.
:) Sorry about being a little over critical! I guess the key point was the different between that really hand-drawn inaccurate kind of "adventure map" feeling and the high accuracy of other game maps. I don't think they are that bad at all, they are pretty, just a different approach!
I guess technically WOWs map style was taken from the campaign loading screens of WC3. I at least felt very familiar to the style when I started playing coming from WC3
The campaign maps from WC3 were meant to look like medieval maps, where the map was a rough estimation of distance with some major landmarks as a reference.
WoW maps were like that, but with more detail.
Like, the Human campaign had only the major towns going from Brill to Andorhal to Hearthglen to Stratholme with some gnoll and ogre camps and a rough lay of the land on them. WoW maps detailed caves, farmfields, etc.
On the other hand, it was said by Metzen that WoW is the theme park version of Azeroth. Distances in lore are meant to be much bigger.
As someone who never dipped into WoW or MMOs in general (I have far too an addictive personality to let myself do that), this is a fascinating look at an aspect of the game I had no idea about. It's amazing to think that the maps of WoW weren't 1:1 representations of the actual world, but more artistic than that. It's something so commonplace in games today that I wouldn't even think of it as an option, but it would be insanely immersive, kind of like the flat grey box you get in upper left hand corner of the original Legend of Zelda. It tells you where you are, but not what where you are is exactly like. You have to learn it.
Probably inspired by Tolkien's map of Middle Earth.
Nice video, I think the weakness of low information is only a problem when you play through the map instead of the world.
Small correction: at 1:09 it's showing Yakuza: Like a Dragon rather than Watchdogs.
1:13 it's Farcry 3 and not Crysis
*smaller correction: no.
They were like actual hand drawn maps with major locations marked but not a complete reprint every possible location/quest, etc. lead to a lot of natural exploration…don’t have that anymore 😢
I think WoW maps may have been influenced by Lord of Rings maps. The way the hills are set, this artistic feeling, it looks like Tolkien's to me.
I find the classic WoW maps so awesome, so awesome. It was one of the things that hooked me into this game. I remember my friends using coordination add-ons to it. I didn't. I tried (with my poor English) to understand and read every quest and guess from there where to go. Sometimes, it took me a very significant amount of time to find the correct place. After a while, in certain areas, before getting into quests, I actually made recc of the whole region so I could have a better idea of how to deal with different tasks. Thanks to the maps, the game had this raw clay feel, like placing your bare hands on the ground, on the earth, and building stuff up. Getting yourself virtually dirty. It wasn't simply an action RPG. It had many exploration and other things together other than quests to do, like the world PVP, which was another element within this looseness of the maps. The maps actually had fog of war.
Another thing important to mention is WoW's fidelity to Warcraft 3. You could visit the places from WC 3. They were all there. They were also somewhat in line with maps represented in the story, in which you could have a glimpse in the loading screens. Along with that, the 3d artwork of the buildings and environment felt very connected, almost as of a third-person extension of the game. I think Blizzard was very lucky and wise up to the first expansion. Then they added so many features that the gameplay went from a Tolkien based MMORPG to an action MMO, more set for performance other than storytelling, in my opinion.
Great video! I liked it a lot. A subject people often ignored when talking about video games!
Kind regards!
Now, just an add-on, I would like to point out the things I think Blizzard failed with classic WoW.
I think one of the most important things they failed was in giving the game and the map a more recycling feature. I mean, you went to each area, got yourself the level necessary, and then left, with no reason to go back. They made this enormous, gigantic map but didn't give it enough things for the players to do and use it more, especially after reaching the top level. So, the game felt a little bit tracked despite all the broadness of it, with not that much replayability, at least in terms of exploring and being around each unique region. So, when players runned out of things to do and got bored, Blizz had to keep expanding the map, creating DLCs for people to buy and leave entire continents and worlds empty behind so people could level in other different places.
Had they made the world more smart, allowing for more recycling features and replayability, the game would have been much better. They could have explored the PVP element of it, this two factions dispute and add some sort of territory conquer element to the game, other than controlling some tower here and there. I understand that the game came long ago, without many resources to creating cool stuff, but still, though, I think it could have been done.
In that aspect I think WoW distances itself a little bit from Warcraft 3 in the sense of creating a base, a history, and using an area more broadly instead of making people go somewhere else and pursue an entire different story.
Thanks for the great comment and for watching! I think you're right it's inspired by LOTR, and curiously enough you don't find that kind of hand-drawn feel in many other games!
@@learnwithmapster WoW's map was one of the best made. Really well thought and worked quite fine. I have seen two examples so far of video game maps similar. One is the own LoTR online game. As far as I'm aware (long time since I don't play it) the game map had WoW's looks. Another example and completely unrelated to RPG games is the first Shogun Total War. It also looked hand draw. Great table top strategic map that old one.
And not just WC3, but WC2 and even WC1! I was confused why there are so many ballistas in Lordaeron and Stormwind for example, then I realised humans DID use ballistas in the First and Second War. The most brilliant is how classic Warcraft RTS units are made into npcs in WoW, like the Huntresses who patrol Telsrassil, or the Stormwind Guards who are basically Footmen, the Mountaineers who are Riflemen from WC3, the Dragonhawk Riders in Quel'Danas, the Grunts and Raiders all over the two continents, and the Warcraft 3 siege veapons that became setpieces in WoW.
@@Nothraxius yep, they emulated very well the atmosphere. WoW felt quite Warcraft 3 like.
F$&k not the Barrens music making me tear up again 😢
You gotta love it :)
I really like maps and I think that WoW's maps are awesome! I love how there are maps for every zone in WoW and how these zones are connected and fill up multiple worlds. I hate how in most other video games, they only have maps for small areas where things happen and that only a tiny fraction of their worlds are accessible.
Growing up playing warcraft 1. I'm still blown away walking around the buildings.
pre-cata version was the jewel of WoW
nostalgia bro
Yup sounds like nostalgia for sure
Nostalgia❤
Your intro made me feel things I didn't know I had forgotten
Classic wow was amazing in that regard. The quests were rarer, took longer to complete making them more rewarding, needed you to find the right mob even.
Modern MMOs is "Get 3 thungamajigs by killing, pick up 5 more thingamajogs off the ground conventiently placed next to a mob group, then go to the spire thing and activate the lever, then return and do it again, as fast as possible, with markers everywhere"
I recently tried to play wotlk again, because back in the days i really enjoyed it. But holy shit questing back in the days fkng sucked, i cant imagine how bad it was in classic. Its not rewarding its just annoying.
They weren't more rewarding. Just because they took longer didn't make them more fun. Which is why everyone dungeon grinded/boosted in classic
"Amazing"... yeah, "Amazing" Having to spend an hour looking for that one thing that was poorly described in the quest log (if at all), and then killing x mob for another hour because of it's insanely low drop rate. Then after you're done having to spend another 10 minutes walking back to the quest turn in only for it to sending you to another zone which required a 5 day long trip on a flight path... "Amazing". Nostalgia is a powerful Loa.
Back in original wow (I started in Dec 04', a month after release) we just didn't know any better, for many of us this game was our first introduction in to MMORPG's or even just RPG's, everything was oooh, aaah, but I would never ever want to go back to that version of the game (which is why classic never interested me). The game has improved in so many countless ways, it's such a better game now than it was then. The style never changing means the maps were as good looking then as they are now.
Back at mop when i was a broke teen, i played some starter edition. I reached so many places with just the 40% riding. It was amazing. I spent ages time just exploring and trying to reach unreachable places.
You’ve mentioned something essential, we were kids at that time, with no expectations, just being kids enjoying video games. Now when we grown up we started to have expectations that will gives a bit of joy and forget about how life could be hard sometimes. People are stressed and social media does not help while constantly telling you that you need to self develop not to waste time by just entertaining yourself with a decent video game . I would say if you remember how it was being a kid and start acting more easy going on daily basis you could actually relax. Tl:dr
Blizz should have forgotten about upgrading WoW long ago and let life develop naturally in it as it happens in real life.
I remember when I first started to play WoW, I started off as a night elf, and I would spend my days looking over the great sea wondering what was out there beyond them map. I've always imagined it to be a giant arathi empire, hidden behind a wall of storms.
Love this. So much wonder in that world!
Nostalgia. It's all about desperately trying to revive those early memories from the very first days. Everything was new. Everything was magical.
Map style IMO was inspired by the original Ultima series for the Apple ][ that came with printed/cloth maps in the box (which I still have).
And while Ultima was inspired by by D&D, its maps paid homage to Tolkien’s map of Middle Earth.
I've still got the maps (and manuals) from Ultima 3 and 5, they are among my favorite classic gaming possessions 🙂
I hate to nit pick, but that wasn't Watch Dogs, that was Yakuza: Like A Dragon
I like that Commodore Pet in the intro. Good job. I'ma sub.
I've seen maps of Azertoth made by artist who is an expert in creating standard looking modern maps. It looks soo cool and realistic.
The agree filling in the map makes sense to me. It did make the map very interactive and memorable. I think part of it too though, was that I was sort of instantly Nostalgic. It made me think of the Warcraft 3 campaign maps, even though they don't agree exactly. It was fun finding that one location I did a campaign mission at in Warcraft 3.
back then, exploreing the maps are one of my favorite things to do in wow.
Great video there! Keep up this amazing work! 🙂
classic WoW: *actual travelling*
retail WoW: *uber flight master on speed dial*
Nice video! And explanation! Educational!
btw idea- add to the game diary like from Rdr2. if you see some unique rare mob, place, hidden something add it to your journal. so you have something to go back
This video has combined two of my favorite things: WoW and maps. Just discovered your channel from it. Earned yourself a follow my friend. Love this niche. 👑🙏🤙
Thanks for watching :)
The thing is that by Cataclysm the quest descriptions were wonderful and descriptive, so if you turn off the map quest helpers you will see how nice the questing is since Cata, although it's numerically easy until the last 10-20 levels. This way you remember what you did, you look and remember where you went and the places themselves.
One of the few things I would change about the vanilla map would be fog of war is removed account-wide upon exploration if you toggle that option in user settings
They made a similar change to the maps in LOTRO. They went from more abstract and evocative with fitting stylization to what is basically satellite images of the actual in-game world. The maps ended up feeling completely different as a result.
The only complaint I have with the old maps is that it should have more hover over labels or have house/cave markers pop up in some areas. Mainly for the immersion of "noting" a place you discovered.
A game that did great with imprecise maps, although another genre, was "Thief: The Dark Project". As one of the first "First Person Stealth Games" you played a Thief entering heavily secured mansions, abandoned ruins and mysterious places. So it was just coherent that your maps were pretty imprecise, sometimes as vague as "left wing of the building, main hall, right wing of the building". And it was awesome, because it created immersion and tension. Trying to navigate in an uncharted environment while dodging guards and fiends was hard and sometimes frustrating, but fit perfectly in this game world.
Thief II had way more detailed maps. It was also great because the game was balanced around it (in my memories at least), but sometimes I missed these vague maps from part one and the love-hate relationsship with them. :)
Sergeant Major Eslam Spotted at 7:12 WOOO. AGUANTE TEMPLARIOS *se vuela la cabeza*
@learnwithmapster If you are looking for a clear inspiration to the art style, just look at the predecesors! Even Warcraft 2 had a drawn region map of the current mission, so you could vaguely place it on the bame map (from the manual). Warcraft 3 has evolved from this; now not every mission has its unique map, but the region map is shared with subsequent missions, showing the progress and current location with a red X. The expressive coloring seen in WoW also starts here: The Broken Isles are a verdant green like Feralas, Ashenvale are a wild dark green, the Barrens are grayish-brown like the rocks there, Northrend is snow white and the plaguelands share a sick coloring too. Not to mention the city and camp icons on the drawn map.
Here is the map! Where do you wish to go?
What is this edited map on 2:04?? Is this some private server's Vanila+?
that's turtle wow
I remember when i first started playing the game, and I had one of those poster maps. It was such a magical and wonderful experience exploring the world for the first time And constantly checking that map while playing. Its hard to recapture that with later expansions to the same degree. Convenience is both a huge plus and a huge negative. Its really hard to find the right balance and that balance changes over time too. I think Wow did an incredible job with their maps. I still remember the feeling of constantly wondering what was beyond certain walls, and used to love watching those exploration videos people would do by wall jumping or other stuff. No other game that I can think of made me care about a map like this game did.
Man great video! You can really tell Blizzards team put in a lot of love with the maps. Specifically love how you said about as your exploring the maps get drawn out and discovered as your adventuring. Very unique feel you don't get with other modern MMOs.
in vanilla it was 5-700 hours to max level and then the grind began... god i miss it!
I REALLY HAVE A BIG NEED! of a world map addon where i can hide all the icons of citys, event, rares etc... i want a raw map without any icon
When I first hit WoW's maps, they strongly reminded me of the maps from the Thief series by Looking Glass studios. The same, hand written, in-world, vague but helpful style.
9:32 i remember playing BattleEngine on mIRC, a text-based "rpg" where you basicslly just fought monsters and leveled up your character, and got loot. You could also duel other players. I believe it was written in perl
Wait, I didn't know, but now I really want a game without maps.
I can’t remember if UO had a map in the game, it’s been so long, but I do remember getting a cloth map of the world when I purchased it. It was really cool and done in the fantasy/cartoony style.
10:00 OH GOODNESS me yes! I remember have a whole ring book filled up with printed out maps for EQ 1 lol! Ahh the good old days XD
I do sort of miss the days when games didnt hold your hand, to me, maps are a feature that should be put behind a wall of gameplay in order to be discovered, hollow knights this very well, you could buy half completed maps, and finish them by your own exploration. And they were finished when YOU were finished.
I missed huge areas that are not glutters when so many stuff on them. It gives you the feeling of how vast the world was. The last time I had this feeling in WoW areas was in WoD with the original Draenor that later became Outland.
still remember aroud tbc showing ppl the dragon portal in ashenvale. or blue dragon in azshara. good old times
Cool video. Would be cool to see you explore Kingdom Come: Deliverance's map as it really stands out in a similar way.
Noted! thanks for the tip!
I loved in Vanilla and TBC that there were no maps in dungeons and raids. It gave you a feeling of being in a dangerous and uncharted territory that you had to search and explore on your own.
Classic maps were all a mystery waiting for the player to uncover, retail maps on the other hand weave and scream to you "HEY YOU, YES YOU, COME HERE AND GET YOUR DOPAMINE SPIKE, NOOOOOOW!"
It's what it feels like to me (I pref the old way)
West/East plaguelands , Hinterlands ,Feralas are probably some of my vanilla favorites.
maaan what are y'all on about putting mods on to find basic shit. If I could find my way with no addons at like 11 years old, anyone could, and that was half the fun.
11:54 playing kcd on hc was amazing, you didnt even see your position on the map :)
also, no compass, you better use the sun to navigate :)
I think there is a high likelihood that blizz took inspiration from SWG world maps; reimagined with the literal Tolkien LOTR style of map
There should be one huge server-world for the game with 100x scaled maps. Modern hardware can allow it.
Therefore you could just travel and not be afraid to miss anything because the world would be too big to have it all explored, like in reality. No Man's sky scale, or Daggerfall, Arcanum... So there should be no requirement for optimized maps. Only general Tolkien-style maps.
Today people just have no time to play games that you NEED to do everything otherwise you fall back. Virtual reality is the next step in entertainment.
Never really thought about it until watching this, but I really prefer games with more immersive hand drawn style maps.
One of the most jarring things about going from TES4 Oblivion to Skyrim was the UI and map differences, the flat UI and 3d map really took away from that immersive adventurer feel you got from Oblivion.
I'm surprised he didn't mention that it is like the difference between a hiker's map and google earth
The flying in all the zones killed it, it's that simple. When u dont have to think about the way to ur objective by just flying straight to it, u dont get to know the map properly. That's why they dont let u fly right away in the new expansions, so u get to know the map better.
Damn those OG WoW map was spectacular
We all installed quest helper addons, if only we knew what we were losing :(
The great thing about WoW vanilla's focus on immersiveness and intentional obscurity is definitely how it forced you to talk to other players. Where is that quest item? How do I get to that place? Which enemies drop that thing? How do you find your way throught this dungeon? It created a vibrant and alive community, instead of a single player experience.
Great video! Not sure if someone already mentioned this, but Ultimate Online was my first mmorpg experience around 1997 possibly earlier. I played Wow off and on from 2004-2010 then came back in 2023 to play retail for 10 months. This week I decided to play WOW SoD and honestly I don’t see myself going back to retail ever again. For me, I love the way the classic wow feels and even the maps are better in my opinion. Yes retail is beautiful and has some advantages. But for those that played wow long ago and came back because of nostalgia, well it’s easily understood that wow classic and sod have the nostalgia advantage hands down. Retail really is a completely different game and it took me 10 months to realize I didn’t like it…I just missed classic wow. Great video thanks.
I have a big soft spot for the map of the colony in Gothic 1. It isn't quite as pretty as the WoW maps (stylized as more of a lo-fi birdsview) but fits very nicely into the category of "leaves out enough details to make exploration fun" while also being a useful tool.
I prefer the world map in vanilla thru wrath. But the added Dungeon and Raid maps were a really really nice addition. I understand the mystery and discovery of it not having maps and why people like it but for me its a nice quality of life thing. It gets old taking a wrong turn or playing with a new person who hasnt done the dungeon and if we wipe he can find his way without someone having to wait and show him.
Dungeon maps in vanilla WoW would have been awesome, if they were filled out gradually by discovering.
6:22 Our characters minimap's are provided by Gnomish Engineering drones :P
I have seen the sun set.
I have seen the sun rise.
I have seen wars start and end.
I was young but now I’m old.
I’ll stay awhile and listen, for my heroes adventure is never a regret.
Fun to just walk around various maps
1:42 not sure if mentioned before, but occasionally (not sure how to replicate) if you get out of the map screen fast enough, you will see your character putting away a set of scrolls (i.e. the map)
So it isn't just that it is a map that you could see your character making as they go, canonically, it is the map your character is making as they go
that was not there in Vanilla
@@Sartheris oh, maybe it was added in classic. I could have sworn it was there before, maybe retail is rewiring my brain
I can't remember when this was first added, but you're right that there is an animation like that!
Warcraft is highly derivative of Warhammer. That's where the look comes from, especially the chunkiness, which is an artifact of how the minis need to be built to be sturdy enough to be handled at the scale they're at.
I did not realized the importance of maps design for the immersion
I really hope WoW will tend to improve to be more immersive as, for me, it was one of its best strength
The in-game content is important but is was really pleasent to "be" there with one or two objectives rather than have a 4000 objectives
The original is the only one I want.
I've always loved the maps. There are certain classic, natural aesthetics that will always be pleasing to humans. I hate how modern design, art, architecture, etc. has forgotten the standard of beauty that came from nature and our perception of it. Things that look clearly crafted by humans are warm and welcoming (even if the map is of some barren or inhospitable place), and things that are not feel cold and lifeless. On a psychological level, our modern lives are dull and the future is uncertain; aesthetics that point to our early history and simpler times would likely be appealing. It's the difference between a frozen TV dinner and a home cooked meal.
On top of all of it, the simplicity and slight abstraction is appealing. You don't have to be the best artist or game developer to accomplish this; it only requires passion, creativity, and attention to detail. I believe too many people overthink and overdesign... it's best to keep it simple when you can.
I know modern gamers tend to prefer convenience over immersion, but I really enjoy the way Nier Automata mixed the two
In Nier, the majority of your HUD and misc gameplay features are actually removable parts of your character, these parts can be slotted for the added convenience these features bring, or removed for additional room to add in more combat chips
I have an idea for an MMO to use a similar feature when it comes to mapping
By using a Cartography skill, players could chart out maps themselves by exploring the general area and marking points of interest onto it, said maps can then be copied and shared to other players
Certain premade maps could also be rewards from quest or found as loot
But in general, maps would be something like a commodity rather than something that everyone automatically has and filled out
In original WOW you could use the lines to know if you could get somewhere. The maps were drawn in a way that if there was a tiny gap between the small mountain triangles, you could navigate through there to reach a different area. There was the event that reshaped the zones the maps were re-drawn with less care for these details.
Totally! It really made you pay attention there and search for the tiny gaps you knew had to be possible. But sometimes it WAS misleading, which was... fun? :D
They are beautifully done.
While not having mapa of dungeons was somewhat frustrating, its probably the whole reason why i know most vanila dungeons Maps by heart.
Totally. Amazing how that works
Sometimes less is more, the simpleness of the old map made the world feel more mysterious and unknown. The new maps looks like a GPS with too much detail, taking away from the mysterious
You should check out Thief 1 & 2 's maps.
Often dungeon groups had atleast 1 guy who knew where to go. if not, then there would be atleast 1 person with a addon that shopwed the dungeon maps. yes, that was a thing. since addons were so widespread the lack of dungeon maps usually wasnt a problem.
It's all to often that original content, though rawer, also has a lot more passion crafted into them, and simple but fun mechanics.
But after years of gaining experience or finding new ways to reward players and so on and on, the updates themselves change a game that is far more mechanically precise but lacks the raw passion of the craft. You can see it all over. The best time of warcraft is when the lore itself too reflected the love for epic story telling. and following WC3 with WOW... WOW did continue the story and a lot of changes were made lore wise i guess. Lichking died twice, Ner'zhule got destroyed. the shadow lands, burning legion forever defeated. I guess it's been very challenging of continuing the quest, having to raise the stakes, develop the story lines.
The maps showed everything from walk able roads to mountain you couldn't cross so had to find a way around.
But most important of it all is, it was not full with junk like it is today
I had a WoW map on my wall for the longest time. It was so awesome
I think the lack of dungeon maps was to provide a "dungeon crawl" experience.
With lore in mind, this is a place no one ventures frequently and is a villain or monster's lair and so there wouldn't be maps of these locations.
Perhaps a cool addition to the game would have been to add a out of the way book that you could loot and unlock the dungeon's map.. As if it's the Boss's map to his lair.
this guy is a real mapster, ngl
when wow first came out i played the beta. i had never played a game so big before. i thought that durotar and the barrens was the entire world.
I will say, WoW actually taught me the cardinal directions and how to use compass. Like if you got a quest in say Brill and it said "Go to the North West" it had me look at the compass and understand it. That said, it is all rose colored glasses. Modern maps are far more in depth, far more useful, and the WoW map was useful but often times it was more of a crapshoot. When they said go to North West, it may have been far closet to North, or even maybe North East.
This is quite interesting! I think video game maps and minimaps teaching us how to navigate is quite a common experience. I've got a video that's been in the works for a while about that, stay tuned :) Thanks for watching
I enjoyed this content, it was a fresh perspective on something I really hadn't seen before, so that was a win in my book!
This old style of maps was great and beautiful. 👍