They have reused the mountain textures and background from WoW's Arathi Highlands map. There's been a little bit of tweaking, but it's pretty clear that they overlaid the countries on the Highlands. Apparently Stromgarde got split between Turkey and Iraq, and Baghdad sits right near the Circle of Inner Binding, while Refuge Pointe (and the Alliance entrance to the Arathi Basin) is right on the Iraq-Iran border. Who knew there was so much oil guarded by Fozruk and those ogres?
What I'd like to know is how this connection was made in the first place. It's probably too good to be true, but I'd like to think that the graphic designer for this documentary was trying to figure out how to make this graphic, played a little WoW, and recognized some familiar shapes when he pulled up the map on his level 35 alt.
[Via GSW]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
1-22-2008 @ 4:50PM
prudychick said...
So the other night when I was looking for Forzuk I was apparently on the wrong world altogether. Can I get an Add-On for the Chinese version map of Arathi? Come to think of it maybe the Bodyguards for the Hints of A New Pague quest were really Taliban. Just as rude.
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1-22-2008 @ 4:51PM
prudychick said...
*Plague
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1-22-2008 @ 4:52PM
wowdouble said...
haha.the news come here now.suprised!
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1-22-2008 @ 4:55PM
ninjasuperspy said...
Maybe they were making the documentary and thought "Hey, more people would be able to envision the location of these countries if I superimpose them on map they've all seen before!" I can only hope. Or this is a case of Google Images gone awry.
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1-22-2008 @ 5:00PM
Charles said...
Too bad the chinese user who made the connection is probably going to be put to death now. Stand up against communism!
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1-22-2008 @ 5:12PM
Louisa said...
lol. China has no regard for copyrights or anything like that. I was watching CCTV on satellite and they had a game show at this amusement park. ALL of their rides were Disney rip offs, with like, a blonde little mermaid, and a Bug's Life characters colored differently painted on the Teacups ride.
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1-23-2008 @ 7:46PM
Verses said...
Like me economy teacher said once: "In China, Copyright is actualy, right to copy."
Good times, good times...
1-22-2008 @ 5:17PM
Whitburn said...
Hmm, by my calculations that means Bin Laden must be hiding out somewhere in the Wetlands. Maybe the army should check out Grim Batol, It's obviously where he's hiding. Naturally, I'd take plenty of well-geared tanks - I hear he does quite alot of dps.
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1-22-2008 @ 5:28PM
bulgur said...
No, Duskwood, not Wetlands for Usama.
Surely someone else sees the connection between Mor'Ladim and Bin'Ladin? I'd say a dedicated air strike on Raven Hill Cemetary would do the trick.
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1-22-2008 @ 6:16PM
energyvortex said...
I hope Blizzard sues thier asses :)
And if they don't pay for the copywrite violation, theaten to cut off the Chinese servers... Blizz could just sit back and watch the CHinese play base go beserk until the government finally gave in and paid up :)
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1-22-2008 @ 6:21PM
Rich said...
So that is how you cause a revolution to overthrow the Chinese goverment, cut off there WoW.... I love it. lol
1-22-2008 @ 6:25PM
Brandon Tilley said...
If you look closely, you can actually see some unique patterns in the WoW map that made it into the Chinese map. Most specifically, in the top-center of the map, where the mountains come down into a point (north of the Alliance FP) there are a couple mountains that look *IDENTICAL* in both maps.
That **IS** the Arathi Highlands map!!
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1-22-2008 @ 6:52PM
Meira said...
By the looks, China's military channel took some inspiration from WoW Insider (remember the "Ghostlanded" Iberic Penynsula?)
But the thing, beside the "Arathi'd Asia" thing going on, is the inaccuracy of the geography on the map. Siria, if it would be shown, would be a stripe-like country, wish is not, and the borders that Turkey have with Caucasian countries is missing... is this "Arathi for Chinese noobs" or "Geography for WoW noobs"?
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1-22-2008 @ 6:54PM
Meira said...
"borders that Turkey have with Caucasian countries is missing"
I meant Iran XD
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1-22-2008 @ 6:57PM
Fletch said...
Just when you think China can't get any lamer...
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1-22-2008 @ 7:29PM
Gen said...
Only problem is Turkey is surrounded by sea from three sides. Meditterranean on south, Aegean on west, Marmara on northwest and Black Sea up north. No mountains whatsoever on southwest, it's all sea.
This is creative but it has taken lots of, shall we say, liberties.
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1-22-2008 @ 10:02PM
Ugkul said...
Must have graduated from the South Carolina school of Geography.
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1-23-2008 @ 1:03AM
Luis said...
@ 9
... except you misspelled nearly every name in that paragraph...
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1-23-2008 @ 1:20AM
vildand said...
This troubles me, it's a good laugh but it's so obviously fake that the fact it ever got posted here frankly gives China so little credit it borders racism.
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1-23-2008 @ 8:02AM
StoNe said...
Ok...
Either 'Chinese educational system' is an oxymoron or the Chinese military intelligence is on holiday.
Since when does Turkey have a southern mountain range??? Surely they can just show some real pictures...and since copy write is irrelevant to them, they can google the more 'accurate' maps O.o
I don't get this country, they're so anti-MMORPG's and now they do this?
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