Pheonix_singing found Outland... and it's in South Carolina. Doing a little searching, I also found Durotan, Nagrand, Crossroads (oh man watch out for all the Chuck Norris jokes there), and Lakeshire. Unfortunately, Azeroth doesn't appear on Google Maps anywhere-- at least until they start mapping other planets. Until then, of course, MapWoW's got the monopoly.I have to give it to Blizzard for their place names-- they're really, really good at coming up with names that sound real, but aren't. Stranglethorn Vale is a perfect name for the southern tip of the Eastern Kingdom, and Feralas and Desolace are perfect for their ambient locations as well, but none of those names directly refer to anything on a real map. And even Azeroth is a pretty epic sounding name that Blizzard (Metzen, probably) pulled out of thin air. Well, not completely thin air-- they did kind of nab it fromone of their first games, which was based in "Androth." But still.
And my favorite name from Warcraft isn't on any real map either-- it's Thousand Needles (or 1K Needles, as I like to call it). I don't know how a designer looked at the hundreds of plateaus south of the Barrens and decided to call it that, but I'm glad they did.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-16-2007 @ 2:00PM
Amnesia said...
Wow, the Crossroads location even kind of resembles the location in Kalimdor.
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8-16-2007 @ 2:08PM
SeiferTim said...
Wow. I live 12 miles from Lakeshire... I had no idea. Guess I need to start watching out for gnolls...
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8-16-2007 @ 2:21PM
vlad said...
wikipedia shows blizzard had 4 other games in the 3 years before Blackthorne.
The Lord of the Rings 1991
Battle Chess II: Chinese Chess 1991
The Lost Vikings 1992
Rock N' Roll Racing 1993
Blackthorne 1994
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8-16-2007 @ 2:38PM
Dacool561 said...
sweet! i live just a few miles away from outland! ub3r epics and xp for me
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8-16-2007 @ 2:55PM
ApolloIV said...
Wow...i live really close to outlands and I didn't even know it! Loris FTW
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8-16-2007 @ 3:13PM
CSCIGuy said...
1k Needles, makes me think of Final Fantasy....awww
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8-16-2007 @ 6:41PM
chris.babin said...
@6 Oh god no... the Cactaur... :)
And hehe... I always thought that the orcs, draneii, and burning legion were from the same place as Opus the Penguin, Bill the Cat, Portnoy the Hedgehog, Milquetoast the Cockroach, and Milo Bloom after they moved to "Outland" in 1989. :)
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8-17-2007 @ 2:38AM
anachronista said...
The Outlands is also one of the Kingdoms of the *SCA. Which is not a videogame, but a rather large organization of recreational medievalists...of which I am one. We even have a yearly event called Crossroads.
You would be surprised how many SCAers also play WoW. I hear things like "For the Horde" called out during battles!
-A
*Society for Creative Anachronism
P.S. The Kingdom of the Outlands includes New Mexico, most of Colorado, parts of Nebraska; Cheyenne, Wyoming, and El Paso & Hudspeth counties in Texas.
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