The Queue: In which I rant about maps

When I first started playing games, the major in-game maps as we know them now just didn’t exist. If there were maps at all, they were likely to be physical things that came in a game box, vaguely describing the game world in paper or (for fancier games) cloth. So how did I find my way around? I made my own maps with graph paper and as-neat-as-I-could-manage handwriting. How old-school is that?

I still have, tucked away in my desk, whole notebooks of game maps, particularly MUDs for which the graph paper method worked particularly well. Perhaps I’m spoiled these days, though, because not only do I expect maps in the games themselves, I expect good maps… and  WoW‘s just don’t meet my expectations. But whether you care about maps or not, read on for answers to your questions.

I have some issues with the in-game map, too, and though they aren’t exactly the same as yours, there’s some overlap. Personally, I don’t have an issue with the art style — that’s always going to be a matter of opinion and no choice Blizzard makes will be pleasing to everyone — but there are some annoyances.

Firstly, as you say, theres the issue of verticality. As the world moves into the third dimension, 2d maps — without any option to see upper or lower levels — become increasingly unclear. I find myself incredibly frustrated at times trying to find my way around zones like Nagrand and Tanaan, which have sections both above and below ground. Is the place I’m trying to find above ground level, and I need to find a path upward to reach it? Is the place I’m trying to find below ground an dI need to find a cave to reach it? Who knows!

I know there’s a camp that says this encourages exploration and is, in itself, a fun puzzle-solving exercise, but I don’t find it so. Running around in circles trying to find out where I’m supposed to go (and eventually turning to Wowhead to find it’s actually underground with a far distant entrance) just annoys me. This is a place where the in-game map doesn’t help us find things but, instead, actively hinders us.

Next, coordinates, notes, markers, what have you. Every time I reset my addons I say I don’t need a pile of map addons — isn’t the in-game map good enough? I typically try to run addon light, but no matter how light I go, I inevitably wind up installing a coordinates addon, which is soon followed by an addon to add marks or notes to maps (to mimic the notes I once took myself on my own paper maps). Sometimes it takes a week and sometimes it takes a month, but I always, eventually, end up installing addons like this. It would be great to see map convenience features like this be a baseline part of the game.

Warlords of Draenor did refresh the map system by integrating it with the quest log but, frankly, I’ve never liked it. Now you can only see the quests for the zone you’re looking at which makes it harder to see all of your quests (in order to decide where to go) and makes old-world quests practically invisible. It’s possible that I’m old and crotchety and just don’t like change, but I find this change, though it tries to cleanly integrate two complimentary systems, to be nothing but a nuisance.

So, yes, I think the map system could use another pass… especially as the game continues to stress terrain puzzles. The existing maps just aren’t clear, even after you’ve fully explored a zone, and I’m just not in the camp that thinks this makes for fun puzzle-gaming.

I boosted a Rogue, thinking it would be a good choice to help me towards The Insane title. It was a good idea, but… that Rogue is still level 90. Sure, I’ve played it some, and worked a bit on reputation grinding, but I haven’t gotten it a single level (or gotten anywhere close to The Insane).

The snag? I have no idea how to play a Rogue. I last played one in Burning Crusade and the class is — surprise! — different now. I suspect my difficulty is in part because I main a Monk, which is similar enough yet different enough from the Rogue for the gameplay to feel awkward when switching. But whether that’s the issue or not, it’s just tough to jump into a new character at level 90 (or level 100) when you’re not familiar with the class.

I’m not sure what, if anything, I’ll boost to level 100 because the level 90 boost did nothing for me at all. Did any of you have more luck than I did with boosts? Maybe my experience is just the exception!

It’s really a personal call, but I think it’s the combination of two things: how repetitive the activity is and how long you have to spend doing it.

I have an exceptionally low attention span for doing repetitive tasks, so I’m pretty sensitive to this… but, still, I don’t have an issue with quests along the lines of “collect 10 of X,” unless the drop rate for X is very low. If I don’t have to spend a lot of time collecting X, however, it doesn’t feel grindy. Compare that to Apexis dailies where I’ll spend at least a half hour to fill a progress bar… often by killing the same mobs over and over again. Repetitiveness and a lack of variety, over time, is what makes things feel like a grind.

I probably won’t even bother. The rewards for Heroes “veterans” seem weak across the board to me. Not that finding four people to join the game is necessarily difficult — though with a free to play game it could be problematic to find players who are interested in MOBAs but haven’t played yet — but helping and/or encouraging them to level up to 10 could be tricky… especially if you grab players who just aren’t very into it.

Personally, I feel like the rewards need some adjustment (the newbie awards are great while the veteran awards are mediocre), but we’ll see how they play out.

Two words: Yak Wash.

Murlocs. You’ve seen the Heroes of the Storm Treasure Goblin mount, right? Imagine a Murloc mount just like that.

That’s all for today’s Queue but, as ever, leave your questions in the comments and you may find them answered tomorrow. (Though please try to avoid sparking another map rant. Just how many of them does the community really need?)