Google Maps Worlds of Warcraft

Not Satisfied with just Planet Earth, Google has gone ahead and started mapping virtual worlds. In this example, Google maps is used to power A Map of the Burning Crusades expansion of the most popular MMORPG ever, Worlds of Warcraft.

The map utilizes the Google Maps API and therefore behaves just a like a Google Map. Clicking on the controls on the left side of the map will let you zoom in and out. Dragging the map around lets you scroll the map and view different areas. It’s that easy.

Use the menu to the right of the map to select resources and labels that you wish to display. Currently you can display herbs, ore, treasure, zone names, and city names. There are over 15,000 data points covering 69 resources with their exact map location in our database. The bottom of the menu provides quick links to popular locations in the game. Found a great area that you want to share with your friends? Go to the location on the map, click on the “Link to this Location” and then copy the URL.

We are always looking to make the site better; so more features will be coming shortly. If there’s something you’d like to see on the map or have an idea for a new feature, please email us at web@mapwow.com
You are currently viewing the map of Outland, which is also known as Draenor. Outland includes Hellfire Peninsula, Zangarmarsh, Nagrand, Terokkar Forest, Shadowmoon Valley, Blades Edge Mountains, and Netherstorm. It is actually a separate planet from Azeroth. The planet of Outland is included in the Warcraft expansion, The Burning Crusade (TBC).

The following herbs can currently be mapped: Arthas’ Tears, Black Lotus, Blindweed, Briarthorn, Bruiseweed, Dreamfoil, Earthroot, Fadeleaf, Firebloom, Ghost Mushroom, Golden Sansam, Goldthorn, Grave Moss, Gromsblood, Icecap, Khadgar’s Whisker, Kingsblood, Liferoot, Mageroyal, Mountain Silversage, Peacebloom, Plaguebloom, Purple Lotus, Silverleaf, Stranglekelp, Sungrass, Wild Steelbloom, and Wintersbite. The following ore can currently be mapped: Copper Vein, Dark Iron Ore, Gold Vein, Ooze Covered Gold Vein, Incendicite Mineral Vein, Iron Deposit, Lesser Bloodstone Deposit, Mithril Deposit, Ooze Covered Mithril Deposit, Silver Vein, Ooze Covered Silver Vein, Small Thorium Vein, Ooze Covered Thorium Vein, Rich Thorium Vein, Ooze Covered Rich Thorium Vein, Tin Vein, Truesilver Deposit, and Ooze Covered Truesilver Deposit.

 

2nd Life, Various Sims games and potential every large virtual world will have that “Powered By Google Maps” API increasing Google’s brand awareness and presence. With the amount of time people spend in these virtual worlds, it makes sense for a company like google to position themselves in front of that audience.

Spamming is nothing new to gamers. When there is a real exchange rate from virtual money to dollars, as there is in:

# Anarchy Online
# Auto Assault
# City of Heroes
# Dark Age of Camelot
# Dungeons and Dragons
# Eve Online
# EverQuest
# EverQuest 2
# Final Fantasy XI
# Guild Wars
# Lineage 2
# Lord of the Rings Online US
# Lord of the Rings Online EU
# RF Online
# Star Wars Galaxies
# Vanguard - Saga of Heroes
# World of Warcraft

and many more, you can count on their being a barrage of whispers from bots encouraging them to “have more fun playing and spend less time farming”.

Is it profitable? Oh yea. I’m told the top dogs in this space are doing more than $1 Million per month in sales of virtual property. They farm the labor out to people making $100 a month and sell the virtual goods to affluent players.

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