map of middle earth

December 4, 2001 11:08 PM

map of middle earth courtsey of mapquest ever wonder when product promotions go too far?
posted by vincentmeanie (12 comments total)

Here, have some punctuation, it's free: !?.,;:--

Though it's featured at mapquest, it's actually at the New Line site. If there's sponsorship involved, it's well-hidden.

I didn't find this either objectionable (certainly not at the level of those gratingly awful-looking mugs) or particularly useful. And it isn't pop-under spam like X10, nor are there loopy animated gifs of Galadriel caught unawares. So, no, I don't think this goes too far. It's more like just a flash interface to some of the interesting content at the movie site. And it's useful, in this instnace, to try to disseminate some of the background material (e.g. about Ringwraiths), because as popular as the books are, they haven't been read by the majority of the audience for the movie.
posted by dhartung at 11:20 PM on December 4, 2001

grammarian

featured my ass...
posted by vincentmeanie at 11:55 PM on December 4, 2001

Ugh...

That is a really slow interface.. It's frustraighting to use. Would it kill people to do some testing? Would it cause pain not to have contempt for users!?
posted by delmoi at 11:57 PM on December 4, 2001

Grammar is good. Vincent is new.

As for the map, it's pretty good. I like the drive directions, and it's very convenient the way it lists all of the Starbucks locations within ten miles of Bilbo's hole.
posted by pracowity at 12:15 AM on December 5, 2001

I've found the entire official movie site lame from the get-go -- way too self-congratulatory, slow, with almost no payoff for all the user's waiting around. It looks better now than it did a year ago, but it still sucks. For example, I tried to play the Weathertop video just now and got only audio. How frustrating.

nor are there loopy animated gifs of Galadriel caught unawares

Something like that might help, actually.
posted by diddlegnome at 12:24 AM on December 5, 2001

dhartung was just pointing out, in a good natured way, that you might want to spend a little more time preparing your post next time, vincent. He wasn't "flaming" you.

And it's an advertisement...like pretty much every other advertisement on the web. A graphic or text link on a website that leads to a sponsor's webpage. How is it different from a banner ad, except that it isn't on the top or bottom of the page?
posted by Doug at 12:35 AM on December 5, 2001

If memory serves me right,^TM I have seen similar maps of Middle Earth, linked here by vincentmeanie, in several editions of Tolkien's books; making it not "courtsey of mapquest". Had vincentmeanie bothered to check the link[s] at Mapquest, he'd have seen strings such as this (space inserted to allow for flowing): http:// www.mapquest.com/ cgi-bin/redir? AdID=lotrhomepage1 &SpaceID=dout&URL =http:// www.lordoftherings.net/ index_map.html. Making it, as dhartung suspected, more of a featured link or advertisement by New Line Cinema and not "sponsored by" Mapquest. Of note:

• AdID=lotrhomepage1 is the thumbnail of the map, and links to URL =http:// www.lordoftherings.net/ index_map.html
• AdID=lotrhomepage2 is "Explore Middle-earth" text image, and links to URL =http:// www.lordoftherings.net/ index_map.html
• AdID=lotrhomepage3 is the text link: "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring," and links to URL =http:// www.lordoftherings.net/

No where in the map itself does it say that Mapquest had any involvement in producing the man. The map carries the same copyright notice as the rest of the site:

© 2001 New Line Productions, Inc. ™ The Saul Zaentz Company d/b/a Tolkien Enterprises under license to New Line Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Incidentally, a similar Middle Earth map can be found at Matthew White's website, linked previously at thread 8073.
posted by tamim at 12:38 AM on December 5, 2001

Well, this is sure going to make getting to Mount Doom a lot easier for the Fellowship. (Frodo reading map: "13.9 miles on this road to the large oak tree, turn LEFT, 2.4 miles on small path to fork, continue RIGHT...")
posted by SenshiNeko at 1:10 AM on December 5, 2001

According to the map, Middle Earth apparently has not one single Starbucks. Shocking.
posted by JDC8 at 3:19 AM on December 5, 2001

And it's useful, in this instnace, to try to disseminate some of the background material (e.g. about Ringwraiths), because as popular as the books are, they haven't been read by the majority of the audience for the movie.

I'm wondering if, since there's so much fantasy schlock on TV these days (Xena, Hercules, etc.), some of which is third- and fourth-generation derivative* of Tolkien, whether the masses are going to see this movie and think it's all old hat.

Sorta like kids these days watching old Twilight Zone episodes and thinking all the plots are old cliches...
posted by straight at 6:11 AM on December 5, 2001

Just to reflect on how far the Internet has brought us, I remember reading LOTR back in school in '78, and I thought it was cool that the library's copy of Fellowship had a fold-out map of Middle Earth. Fold-out -- gee, was that great or what! And now I can browse it online! Is this a great Internet, or what?
posted by alumshubby at 6:58 AM on December 5, 2001

What's that cloud of dust on the horizon? Oh yeah: it's a zillion LOTR threads approaching.
posted by lbergstr at 7:13 AM on December 5, 2001