Keeping the Map Foggy
In some video games, such as Zelda and Yakuza, the unexplored regions of the map are cloudy until you visit them. The real world used to be more like that: Columbus sailed into the unknown (and never reached his intended “there”) and you couldn’t know what was around the riverbend until you went around the riverbend. Some mapping apps now offer the chance to recreate that experience by masking regions of the map until you set foot in them. Check out one example, Fog of World, which promises us the chance to “experience a richer life”, then discuss with your team: can limiting easy access to knowledge really enrich our experience of the world? If so, what else should we keep “foggy”?
In Zelda, the map starts as blank cloud; you only see a region after you actually walk into it — and that not-knowing is half the thrill. An app called Fog of World drags that feeling into real life, betting that hiding information makes the world richer, not poorer.
Key concepts
- Fog Of War
- A term from military strategy borrowed into game design: unexplored parts of the map stay hidden in cloud, making a world feel large and alive because you can't see all of it at once.
- The Information Gap
- The pleasurable itch between what you know and what you want to know — the engine of curiosity — which total, instant access closes, leaving a fully-revealed map feeling strangely dead.
- Manufactured Scarcity
- Deliberately limiting access to make something feel more valuable; Fog of World makes the map itself scarce, so an unwalked neighborhood becomes a prize to 'unlock' rather than a thing already visible.
- Discovery Versus Information
- Knowing a fact and discovering it differ — reading that a waterfall exists is information; rounding the bend and finding it is discovery, and easy access can swap the second, richer one for the first.
What to know
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Discovery needs ignorance to work: the feeling of finding something depends on not having already seen it — so an app that hides the map isn't withholding value, it's restoring the gap that makes arrival feel like a reward rather than a confirmation.
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