#mini maps

Intersections of Detroit Mini Maps

Peter Gorman of BarelyMaps known for his minimalist maps, created a version of his street intersections for Detroit.

BookMyShow App Update Brings Split Tickets, Mini Maps, and More Features

Online diversion ticketing platform BookMyShow on Friday unrolled the freshly designed and improved version of its app to ease user expertise.

Users will currently opt for their most well-liked picture show by filtering either by language or by cinema.

In addition to the default English possibility, users will be ready to discover diversion choices in Tamil, Telugu, Hindi and South Dravidian.

“Bo…

Hızlıyım aynı zamanda öfkeliyim diyenler için Mini Maps

NFS ve GTA 1 oyunlarını delicesine oynamış bir hedef kitleye sahip olan Mini, bu durumu fırsata çevirerek etkileyici bir dijital proje hazırlamış.

Google Maps benzeri haritalar üzerinden oynanan oyunda, Facebook üzerinden bağlanarak araç seçilebiliyor, kilitli araçlar açılabiliyor, kullanıcı kendi parkurunu hazırlayarak arkadaşlarını davet edebiliyor ve dünyanın her yerinde yarış yapabiliyor.

Is it just me or have we become too reliant on map markers?  Time was you'd be asked to make your way to a location and you may or may not have been given any sort of directions.  Nowadays not only is the destination made painfully clear but you are also shown the quickest possible route to minimize having to traipse around for too long without shooting someone.  In essence it makes sense, and yes it is a very useful mechanic, but as with all popular mechanics it gets abused to the point where it is no longer viable.  As a vague landmark-affair such as the maps found in the Final Fantasy series it does a very good job of letting you know where important places are without painting big red letters everywhere saying 'come here next and kill Brian'.  This meant there were still strong elements of exploration and discovery.  Then they were updated and we had GTA III letting us know where we could get missions from along with certain sideshows, but again the detail was minimal.

In fact, everything was more or less fine until two things came along: the dawn of the deluge of information that must apparently be crammed into mini-maps such as in Assassin's Creed (which is still a hideous use of a possessive apostrophe by the way); and the rather distracting 'line of quickest arrival' which has somehow found itself implemented into a game about the wild west.  To be fair, Red Dead Redemptions tracks do wind a lot and you can often find yourself heading in the opposite way to where you thought a road was heading, but with such obvious landmarks scattered about the place having such a system only encourages players to be lazy.  I should know, I am one: I can't spend more than two seconds riding a horse in that game without glancing at the map.  I have tried to get myself out of this annoying habit but it just won't leave.

But having a go at mini-maps is difficult because they do facilitate some very important parts of playing a game, namely being sure of where to go or what is still available to do.  But there are thresholds aren't there?  Take the example of Assassin's Creed, which has about a million distractions built around two ideas, and which flashes up every last one of them on your little helper.  This doesn't work.  Plus, it's lazy.  When you incur a bounty you are shown where the nearest official is that you can bribe to get let off.  Why?  Most of the fun is to be had fleeing from the guards, so signposting the 'get out of jail' opportunities is almost like being handed a cheat code.  I also don't appreciate being told where the viewpoints are: If logic follows that the viewpoint can be found at the highest point of the neighbourhood, which already has a circling eagle to guide you, why is it then bluntly marked on my map, devoiding me of the scant opportunity to find out anything for myself?  The only time a marker would be handy is in telling me when I have collected an unmarked collectible, thus allowing me to avoid the hassle of roaming the entire gigantic city and scanning every inch of it because I can't remember which ones I've found and which I haven't.

Mini-maps are therefore a great asset often misused.  They should be a supplement, not a core mechanic.  If I can find my way back home while drunk in the real world without consulting a magic compass then I have no qualms about doing the same in a gaming context while sober.

Mini maps - Let's play.