Imaginary Maps

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"Oh, that's just a maelstrom," says library information specialist Charlotte Franklin. As chaotic natural features go, she explains, maelstroms are a pretty popular feature in online computer games. Then she overviews the character orientations that WoW players can choose. "You can be with the forces of good — paladins with glowy eyes and all. Or you can be on the death side and cast plagues on people and stuff. It's all good."

Maps of places that don't exist highlight the Map Library's April "Third Thursday" social mapfest. The event features forty to fifty maps related to board and computer games, and visitors are encouraged to bring their own.

This rich, diverse exhibit ranges from a prim seventeenth-century French geography card quiz game to maps from the violent computer game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Map puzzles are also represented, including a puzzle of the Paris Métro and a wooden puzzle depicting a 1906 rendition of Michigan's Lower Peninsula that makes it look like a soggy oven mitt.