Virtuality and Reality of Game Maps

Digital information technology has made human beings move into a mixed space where virtuality and reality are integrated. Maps, that have always been used as the abstraction and interpretation of the real world and assist us to cognize the real world, are facing new challenges. Under the new digital and communication situations, maps need to incorporated digital virtual spaces and analyze the impacts brought by virtuality and reality, nihility and existence and the interpromotion of void and solid. Game maps are suitable carrier in this paper to analyze and discover the relations between the virtuality and the reality. Game map has seven elements including the time, the place, the personage, the object, the event, the phenomenon and the scenario to describe the world. This paper analyzes their virtual and real characteristics, explores the relationships and the interactions between virtual world construction and the reality, and discusses their feedback to the real world. This research can enrich the theoretical system of cartography and facilitate planning a smarter and more pleasant society for us.