His map is divided into several areas:
North-West Fringe- This serves as an entry point and an intersection between WoW and the real world.
Bay of Mods- This are includes download sites for addons and resource databases.
Hidden
L2P Isle- This land includes guids that help people learn to play wow and is plagued by the "Channel of Copyright Woes."
Evil East- This continent is the home of ELUA violators such as gold farmers and glider users. You will never find a more wretched hive of... well, you get the picture.
Keep in mind this map is the concept of a single individual. Some things, like the WoW Official Forums have been left out. The designer says that Blizzard is intentional left out as that agency permeates all of the WoW universe. When referring to WoW Insider the author said, "Only one 'blog is named, WoW Insider - and arguably that's an online newspaper that merely uses blogging software. The position of WoW Insider is slightly wrong: It should be much more towards the center of the map."
The map is organized from east to west by "nice" and "naughty." And from north to south by Mainstream and Specialist content. It's an interesting form of organization. I would consider only the Evil East naughty. What do you believe is missing from the map?
I enjoyed studying this map because it helps to solidify the experiences of WoW players. Though we are distributed around the world, we develop guilds and friendships with people that we may never be able to meet in the physical world. Though it's no where on the map, we are a community.
Our journeys around the internet take us to several websites and locations. I, for one, adore the denizens of
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-25-2008 @ 2:37PM
Tekkub said...
Aw, he could have at least expanded upon XKCD's map:
http://xkcd.com/256/
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6-25-2008 @ 2:45PM
Michael said...
MaNGOS, UDB, Scriptdev2 peninsula, "evil" programmers ftw!
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6-25-2008 @ 2:53PM
Faldrath said...
"Evil East"? Sigh.
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6-25-2008 @ 11:25PM
PimpyMicPimp said...
What? You thought the cold war was over?
6-25-2008 @ 2:53PM
Tagish said...
Reminds me of xkcd's Online Communities poster:
http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/online_communities.png
Side note: I have the poster hanging in my house. :)
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6-25-2008 @ 3:01PM
tomhennessy said...
Isn't this stolen from XKCD?
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6-25-2008 @ 3:04PM
Drotara said...
Funny he would give himself an island in his little world map. Up until this I have never even heard of him before and I read a lot of sites.
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6-25-2008 @ 10:51PM
Balgair said...
I didn't recognise the name at first but having seen him post now I know who he is - El's Extreme Anglin', best (ok, only, but it is good!) fishing website around, great info place for those of us who like fishing :)
6-25-2008 @ 3:05PM
Baluki said...
Pfft. I don't see my blog on there. I'll take that unlabeled island in the Niche Class & Topic Archipelago.
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6-25-2008 @ 3:18PM
ioguola said...
The EJ forums are a must on that map.
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6-25-2008 @ 3:21PM
Eternalpayn said...
What's an ELUA? :P
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6-25-2008 @ 3:28PM
Rovec said...
It's a great map, but after skimming his explanation I didn't see any mention of xkcd. That rubs me the wrong way as this type of map concept is originally Randall Munroe's and it would be common courtesy to give him credit when creating something like this.
Aside from that, I'm shocked wowinsider doesn't have a bigger island =P
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6-25-2008 @ 7:13PM
Juliah said...
Um, I hate to say it, but the sort of map dividing the world into communities for humor's sake has been around in print for years and years -- so long that I can't imagine who did it first. Quite possibly an editorial comic of some sort, predecessor to folks like Mike Luckovich and such.
Anyway, as entertaining as some may find XKCD's map, it was hardly the first of its kind.
6-26-2008 @ 9:02AM
Rovec said...
I might be misinformed then. Though xkcd's is the first I've ever heard of. Do you happen to have any links to these other maps? I'd be interested in seein' them.
6-25-2008 @ 3:45PM
el said...
xkcd *is* referenced in the first line of the article. It was very much an inspiration.
I couldn't resist "The Evil East". It's humor, but there is a little truth in how at least some people perceive those communities.
I guess vanity dictates "I" appear on the map... but then it is in the Niche Arcepelago, so by definition many people won't have heard of it. It is a pretty popular site among a certain group of people.
The EJ forums are in the Hidden Isles. The article describes why.
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6-25-2008 @ 4:47PM
Badger said...
'xkcd *is* referenced in the first line of the article. It was very much an inspiration.'
Good to know! Ignore the comment I made a moment ago; I made that one before I saw your post, believe it or not.
Some of the Bloggers here really need to learn to include more details from their sources. Little outbursts like these would be easily avoided.
6-25-2008 @ 4:45PM
Badger said...
Oh, man, that is fantastic ... I decided not to post about this being lifted liberally from 'XKCD,' but then so very many others beat me to it. Awesome.
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6-25-2008 @ 10:54PM
Balgair said...
Love that map, although it's missing my favourite WoW-related place: usenet, alt.games.warcraft in particular. Yeah it's a small community but I've learned so much there and made some great friends via it; it doesn't really fit under any of the other categories listed so maybe deserves a little island someplace ;-)
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6-25-2008 @ 11:26PM
Kaljin said...
He spelled Archipelago wrong.
Also XKCD did it first, and it was funnier.
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7-01-2008 @ 8:32AM
Rovec said...
It is referenced? *panics* Guess I need to do more then skim for a link =P Good to know.
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