Mapwow.com uses the Google maps API to provide an interactive map of Azeroth, the world in which MMO World of Warcraft is set. You can zoom in and out and drag to move locations just as with Google maps. Unfortunately/fortunately the site has received so much buzz and traffic that they had to turn off resource points for items like mineral ore, herb and treasure locations until they raise the cash for more hosting bandwidth -- if/when they do, this will be a fantastic resource for WoW players.

[Via WoW Insider]

I have been totally digging on the spate of MMO-themed mashups I've been finding lately that animate in-game characters and avatars to act out music videos or DIY scripts. Here's a nice one that mashes up Second Life with Michael Jackson's Thriller:


Some other faves are the World of Warcraft "Internet is for porn" mashup and the WoW Gaybar video. Anybody have any others to add to the meta-list?

Because there has been a real danger of having this blog mistaken for the Unofficial Yahoo Weblog of late, I've got to change the subject. That subject, and my new obsession in my thin margin of "spare" time (when does time become "spare"? It's like an "extra" cigarette… do they really exist?), is World of Warcraft. Yes, I went in with the noblest of intentions — research, pure, research — but I've been sucked in because you know what? This is what I've been craving from social software. WoW is a vast and startlingly real social metaverse I am exceedingly eager to spend time in. You can choose primarily solo play and certainly many do, but there are a number of quests and aspects of the game than can only be experienced socially, in groups with other players. And the most fun I've had is in banding together with guildmates and randomly encountered players, many of whom are more than eager to trade help on your quests for help with theirs (or who think nothing of offering no strings attached help).

So I'm echoing C.K.'s jealousy regarding why I didn't have classes as cool as "Games for the Web: Ethnography of Massively Multiplayer On-line Games" when I went to college (biochemistry seemed practical at the time… who knew?), and pointing you to a collection of student blogs (mostly LiveJournal) from this course. Undergrads at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas conducted ethnographic studies from inside the World of Warcraft virtual world for four months, and kept blogs on the progress of their research. They look at things like gender and sexism inside the game, colonial themes, sociological and psychological factors of play, real world transactions of digital items, etc.

I was wondering earlier about the long-term trajectory for these kinds of virtual worlds, and I think that sooner that we realize there will come a point where it's more unusual not to have a presence in one (for those of us privileged enough to live in the developed world). More game companies developing MMOs need to break out of the "let's band together to kill stuff" archetype (Second Life being a prime example of one that breaks this mold) and start brainstorming ways to appeal to non-gamers, which is the approach Nintendo is taking with its next-generation Revolution console. The gaming industry currently appeals to its large yet still relatively narrow market — but everybody loves to play. And there is something inherently fascinating about the realtime simulation and simulacra of a virtual world. Smart companies would be wise to tap into the concept of "life as play" (as the Flickr ludologists clearly grok) and work towards breaking down the distinctions between computing, gaming, and living.

[Via WoW Insider]