Late to the party as usual, but allow me to address the philosophical aspects of Mr. Barton's "Cartography" article, as well as the "map making" aspect.
Matt Barton wrote:
Finally, I wonder if there's something here similar to the belief that some people appreciate only surfaces (say, a pretty face or body) and are unable to appreciate the depth of person's character or the "spiritual depth" of a certain concerto or whatever. I guess I can't help but sound arrogant and self-praising here, but is it such that a gamer who can *only* enjoy "surface" games also "shallow" in other regards, or is this just purely coincidental?
Any thoughts on space, time, memory, and pleasure?
I like attractive women, and I don't much care for "map-making," so this "Cartography" article seems to me like history's most convoluted way of saying "Rowdy Rob is a shallow dumbass."
But seriously, folks.
I do, on occasion, make maps when I play games, but mostly because I'm drawn into the game and want to succeed. If I feel that "map-making" is a REQUIREMENT of the game, it tends to turn me off. A few recent games had me "making maps" in my own way: "Star Control II" and some graphic adventure games I played come to mind. With SC-II, I wrote down every system I visited, what was on the planets, what "specials" were in the sector, etc. I had at least two pages of notes on it. Same with the graphic adventures; I had flowchart-style maps of the game drawn out. I didn't have to do it, but I just did, without really thinking about it, because I was having fun.
(The first map-making experience I recall having was with "Alternate Reality" for the Atari 8-bit. I still have the graph paper maps I made somewhere.)
The act of map-making in and of itself is not fun to me, and therefore I don't consider it "a lost art." It shouldn't be "hey, I just bought a CRPG, let me break out the graph paper." If that was the case, you would be raving about the cerebral aspects of CRPG's as they went the way of the text adventure, because only the hardcore would play them, and few big-league publishers would be making them. Map-Making for the sake of map-making isn't fun; it's "homework."
Playing "Oblivion" recently, I don't see how I could have mapped most of the dungeons, since they are complicated, multilevel, and odd-shaped, among other things. Plus, there were a LOT of them. It would add another 100+ hours of dull paperwork to play the thing... thank the designers that they added an automap feature! It's not like the old days, when sections of dungeons were essentially blocks that could be easily mapped. But most post-1990 games give you enough visual cues to allow you to keep your bearings without having to resort to map-making.
I don't think what people play is necessarily indicative of their cerebral capacity. One of the smartest friends I ever had loved to play action games, and he was (is, actually) a high-level device driver programmer for a big company. As far as I know, he didn't ever play CRPG's. Another very intelligent friend of mine (also in the computer industry) plays racing and flight sims almost exclusively.
I've been known to play just about anything if it somehow strikes my fancy, from CRPG's to Defender to Solitaire. I don't know what that says about me, but I've never liked a diet of the same thing; I'm an eclectic gamer, I suppose. But I do tend to favor action in my games, and "map making" tends to get in the way of that.
I'm sure, Matt, as a highly-educated professional, you deal with a great number of other degreed professionals who DO NOT GAME AT ALL! They don't play D&D, they don't blast aliens, and they don't map out dungeons in a CRPG. In my case, I've known outright weirdos who spend inordinate amounts of time playing CRPG's who've probably never been in a relationship.
I think the greater question here is "why do people game?" Smart, creative professionals with lots of responsibility may just want to kill a little time with Tetris to de-stress. What you play may say a little something about you, but I don't think it necessarily indicates your true level of intellect or creativity.
(P.S. some early games I recall that had "maps:" Venture, Star Raiders, mainframe Star Trek, Rally X, etc.)
Late to the party as usual, but allow me to address the philosophical aspects of Mr. Barton's "Cartography" article, as well as the "map making" aspect.
Finally, I wonder if there's something here similar to the belief that some people appreciate only surfaces (say, a pretty face or body) and are unable to appreciate the depth of person's character or the "spiritual depth" of a certain concerto or whatever. I guess I can't help but sound arrogant and self-praising here, but is it such that a gamer who can *only* enjoy "surface" games also "shallow" in other regards, or is this just purely coincidental?
Any thoughts on space, time, memory, and pleasure?
I like attractive women, and I don't much care for "map-making," so this "Cartography" article seems to me like history's most convoluted way of saying "Rowdy Rob is a shallow dumbass."
But seriously, folks.
I do, on occasion, make maps when I play games, but mostly because I'm drawn into the game and want to succeed. If I feel that "map-making" is a REQUIREMENT of the game, it tends to turn me off. A few recent games had me "making maps" in my own way: "Star Control II" and some graphic adventure games I played come to mind. With SC-II, I wrote down every system I visited, what was on the planets, what "specials" were in the sector, etc. I had at least two pages of notes on it. Same with the graphic adventures; I had flowchart-style maps of the game drawn out. I didn't have to do it, but I just did, without really thinking about it, because I was having fun.
(The first map-making experience I recall having was with "Alternate Reality" for the Atari 8-bit. I still have the graph paper maps I made somewhere.)
The act of map-making in and of itself is not fun to me, and therefore I don't consider it "a lost art." It shouldn't be "hey, I just bought a CRPG, let me break out the graph paper." If that was the case, you would be raving about the cerebral aspects of CRPG's as they went the way of the text adventure, because only the hardcore would play them, and few big-league publishers would be making them. Map-Making for the sake of map-making isn't fun; it's "homework."
Playing "Oblivion" recently, I don't see how I could have mapped most of the dungeons, since they are complicated, multilevel, and odd-shaped, among other things. Plus, there were a LOT of them. It would add another 100+ hours of dull paperwork to play the thing... thank the designers that they added an automap feature! It's not like the old days, when sections of dungeons were essentially blocks that could be easily mapped. But most post-1990 games give you enough visual cues to allow you to keep your bearings without having to resort to map-making.
I don't think what people play is necessarily indicative of their cerebral capacity. One of the smartest friends I ever had loved to play action games, and he was (is, actually) a high-level device driver programmer for a big company. As far as I know, he didn't ever play CRPG's. Another very intelligent friend of mine (also in the computer industry) plays racing and flight sims almost exclusively.
I've been known to play just about anything if it somehow strikes my fancy, from CRPG's to Defender to Solitaire. I don't know what that says about me, but I've never liked a diet of the same thing; I'm an eclectic gamer, I suppose. But I do tend to favor action in my games, and "map making" tends to get in the way of that.
I'm sure, Matt, as a highly-educated professional, you deal with a great number of other degreed professionals who DO NOT GAME AT ALL! They don't play D&D, they don't blast aliens, and they don't map out dungeons in a CRPG. In my case, I've known outright weirdos who spend inordinate amounts of time playing CRPG's who've probably never been in a relationship.
I think the greater question here is "why do people game?" Smart, creative professionals with lots of responsibility may just want to kill a little time with Tetris to de-stress. What you play may say a little something about you, but I don't think it necessarily indicates your true level of intellect or creativity.
(P.S. some early games I recall that had "maps:" Venture, Star Raiders, mainframe Star Trek, Rally X, etc.)
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