Comments for "A geophysical survey of the World of Warcraft" Video at VideoSift.com

By 11735

11735 (http://www.videosift.com/member/11735) — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 08:36:58 -0800

Nice. What conference was this at?

By 9678

9678 (http://www.videosift.com/member/9678) — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 12:10:08 -0800

Nerds.

By Drax

Drax (http://www.videosift.com/member/Drax) — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 14:59:39 -0800

Give that man an illegal danish!

By Ornthoron

Ornthoron (http://ornthoron.videosift.com) — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 15:31:40 -0800

LOL, this is my quickest top 15 ever.

By Rugil

Rugil (http://www.videosift.com/member/Rugil) — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 16:37:41 -0800

Some questionable assumptions there, mate. First of all, I wouldn't call the standard pace of forward movement in WoW "walking speed" and second, who says the map shows a whole planet and not just the parts that are "discovered"?

By atara

atara (http://www.videosift.com/member/atara) — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 16:41:49 -0800

I have have achieved a bachelor of science in geology and am an avid WoW player. This pressed just about every one of my geek buttons. Well done!

By rychan

rychan (http://www.videosift.com/member/rychan) — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 17:07:12 -0800

Wow, this seems like a rip off the work I did on this very topic four years ago. See http://ytrilynth.org/board/viewtopic.php?t=282 which has been publicly posted since January 22nd, 2005. It's not entirely paranoid -- Google for "azeroth geography" and it's the 11th hit.

He even uses terms that I use in my post like "tape measure". He used the same methodology that I did, except I didn't have to make assumptions about the size or speed of characters. He's wrong that Warcraft doesn't have native units, it DOES. Distances for abilities are all expressed in yards.

To be fair, he does verify that Azeroth has the same gravitational acceleration as Earth, which I did not do. I didn't bother to consider things like density of the world because, like I say in my post, it seems more like a flat world because the sun sets at the same time everywhere.

By vairetube

vairetube (http://www.videosift.com/member/vairetube) — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 17:13:38 -0800

nicely done rychan

By gwiz665

gwiz665 (http://gwiz665.videosift.com) — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 17:32:58 -0800

There are addons which can show the 30 yard circle around the character on the minimap, such that you theoretically could map distances with two characters, by adding the diameter of the circles continuously for a long stretch. That way you would eliminate the assumptions about speed.

By westy

westy (http://www.videosift.com/member/westy) — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 18:16:40 -0800

wow is not evan a good game .

By vairetube

vairetube (http://www.videosift.com/member/vairetube) — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 20:24:54 -0800

u r rite. its da bestest.

By thinker247

thinker247 (http://www.videosift.com/member/thinker247) — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 21:03:52 -0800

You had me at the Deathstar.

By peggedbea

peggedbea (http://www.videosift.com/member/peggedbea) — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 22:50:22 -0800

NO!

By blankfist

blankfist (http://blankfist.videosift.com) — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 23:51:10 -0800

Oh. Fucking. No. World of NERDcraft! I've never played it, so I simply don't understand the cultural importance. You see what I just did? I thrashed something I know nothing about. I'm a fucking bigot.

By Zonbie

Zonbie (http://zonbie.videosift.com) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 05:05:22 -0800

^ Blankfist - pushing boundaries, with A$$Gravy since 1992

I thought this was hilarious and very well done! great find

By atara

atara (http://www.videosift.com/member/atara) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 05:15:38 -0800

>> ^Rugil:
Some questionable assumptions there, mate. First of all, I wouldn't call the standard pace of forward movement in WoW "walking speed" and second, who says the map shows a whole planet and not just the parts that are "discovered"?

That's what I asked a friend. "How do we know that the known map of Azeroth doesn't just show one hemisphere?" Also, when he referred to the edge of the world, I'm pretty sure he was in Outlands, which is another planet all together.

You can toggle your character's speed, though. Default is running speed, but in the basic interface you can change it to a walk using the "/" button. So that seems like a reasonable way to measure distance. What I want to know is how he measured the height of the tower that the tauren jumped off of.

By GDGD

GDGD (http://www.videosift.com/member/GDGD) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 10:20:52 -0800

>> ^atara:
>> ^Rugil:
Some questionable assumptions there, mate. First of all, I wouldn't call the standard pace of forward movement in WoW "walking speed" ...

... Default is running speed, but in the basic interface you can change it to a walk using the "/" button. So that seems like a reasonable way to measure distance. ...

Thank you for mentioning that. Remember the guy said 18 minutes to span elwynn.

By Drax

Drax (http://www.videosift.com/member/Drax) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 19:31:54 -0800

Interesting note about the sun setting at the same time everywhere, it also rises and sets in the same exact position. That is, it rises up into the air from the horizon, then at noon it makes a u-turn and begins to set in the same direction it rose from. Then the moon comes up again from the same spot and repeats things.

After noticing this I realized it's because all the larger objects like buildings, trees, mountains, etc. cast static shadows onto the ground. If the light source in the sky moved to the other side of the sky it would look completely off (though note, as of a recent patch you can set all shadows to dynamic ones).

I do love though that they have a 24 hour day / night cycle.

Oh and that edge of the world isn't from Outland. If you go to Tanaris and use water walking due south from the zone (to clear the fatigue water) you can reach a small chain of islands (used to have a bottle on the island and when you clicked on it it read, 'How did you get here?'. Now it's easy to get there). If you go further south from there, you'll hit 'the edge of the world'. There's probably other spots like that too.

...not that I used to play a lot or anything.....

By mas8705

mas8705 (http://www.videosift.com/member/mas8705) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 18:40:17 -0800

So wait... the WoW is as Big as the Deathstar!?! Best new discovery of 2009!

By 14282

14282 (http://www.videosift.com/member/14282) — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 07:32:31 -0800

That is me in the video, and I have never heard of Rychan or read his old post on the subject. Thank you.

By 14282

14282 (http://www.videosift.com/member/14282) — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 07:35:13 -0800

Also: WoW is not as big as the Death Star, it's one-tenth the size of the Death-Star (see the little blue ball to the left of the DS? That's Azeroth); and we have no way of knowing if a WoW yard is the same as an Earth-yard, and they are only ever referred to in the context of game-mechanics, so I discarded them. Besides, imperial systems of measurement, ew.

By Ornthoron

Ornthoron (http://ornthoron.videosift.com) — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 06:12:59 -0800

Hello there, James! Cool of you to stop by and comment. That was a great talk! Care to clarify for us where and when it was held?