TYDKaWoW #022 | Arathi Basin is based on Atari Fanart from Jeffrey Kaplan
Even though the Atari 2600 games were already outdated when the development for World of Warcraft began, Jeffrey Kaplan still seemed to be a fan of them. Or at least his coworkers thought that when he presented his design proposal for the second PvP zone. Blizzard actually shared this historical artwork and the story behind it for the 10 year celebration of World of Warcraft . And I must say that compared next to the minimap of the final product, not much seems to have changed from the initial pitch. The only visible difference is the position of the gold mine and the lumber mill moving closer to the center. If I was asked to draw the Arathi Basin map today, I would have drawn something very similar. "This was the entire 'design' for Arathi Basin. I made that map instead of going to E3 one year. My team teased me and called it 'The Atari Map'" , was Jeffrey Kaplans explanation below the image at BlizzCon. And even the adjustments for the mine and mill locatio