Back in the days of WarCraft 3, when WoW was barely more than a public announcement, Blizzard started releasing information, screenshots, movies, and you guessed it: wallpapers in a slow drizzle. In those days, I obsessively checked Blizzard.com for any hint of new content—I was hooked on WoW before I even got a chance to play it. I'd download the available media look through it time and time again. I couldn't wait to find out more information about my favorite Azerothian Kingdom (back then it itself was known as Azeroth, although it's since been retconned into the Kingdom of Stormwind), and one day Blizzard released what was quite nearly the Holy Grail of Stormwind wallpapers—a map of the city.
You can bet I downloaded that sucker. Hell, I downloaded it in every resolution they had available because the very thought of having to view such an awesome thing in a non-native resolution was scoff-worthy. Months went by: the MMO was eventually released, it's original site fading into obscurity (and eventually deletion). Several hard drive formats and a new computer later, I found myself browsing through the WoW wallpaper archives to re-download them all. But one was missing. My beloved map of Stormwind City was gone from the archives, and remains missing from the official wallpaper pages to this day. Feel free to look at the World of Warcraft Wallpapers 2 page yourself—you'll find no map of Stormwind wallpaper there. In truth, the map is craftily hidden, waiting for someone with sufficient drive to stumble upon it. The clues are there, they just need to be followed. Can you find them?
- Clue the first: The page shows (at the time of this writing) 43 lines of wallpapers. Each line showcases 3 distinct wallpapers. Each line but one.
- Clue the second: If you view each wallpaper individually and advance forward from the Korean Magazine Cover Art 2 wallpaper (either by clicking the picture or by hitting the "Next Wallpaper" button, it will advance you to the Night Elf Cinematic Art wallpaper. If you're comparing the order to that which is presented on the wallpapers 2 page, you'll noticed that it seems to have skipped something.
- Clue the third: If you view each wallpaper individually and proceed backward from the Night Elf Cinematic Art wallpaper, it will take you to the Night Elf Mural Art wallpaper (the one that you may have noticed was skipped). If you proceed another step back, it will take you back to the Korean Magazine Cover Art 2 wallpaper.
- Clue the fourth: If you're a clever little boy or girl, you'll have noticed the inconsistency in the URLs as I walked you through the above. If you missed it, feel free to walk through it again, or read on and I'll just hold your hand through it.
- the Korean Magazine Cover Art 2 wallpaper is labeled as "wallpaper10".
- the Night Elf Cinematic Art wallpaper is labeled as "wallpaper 13".
- the Night Elf Mural Art wallpaper is labeled as "wallpaper 12".
Now the only question that remains is why is the map hidden so? Is it a mistake? Was the wallpaper intentionally removed? Did someone at Blizzard just decide to hide it as an easter egg for little lion guards to find? The world may never know. =P
Ooh, maybe they tucked it away to replace it with a new and updated map that includes the recently expanded harbor! We can only hope...
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