I was wandering through the Fallout3 version of post apocolyptic Washington DC when I spotted what I strongly believe to be a small section of architecture lifted from Oblivion. The area I was looking at was taken almost directly from a section of Cyrodiil. It was very small and subtle, and since Bethesda made both virtual world games it makes perfect sense that they would try and reuse some assets.

But in noticing it I was struck by all the useless virtual architecture and virtual geography I have in my head.

Am I ever really going to need again the knowledge I have of Vvardenfell? Or High Rock? How about Vice City or Liberty City? I scoured Pacific City for orbs and rooftop races. Will I really need the ability to know the fastest way to traverse The Volk island to reach Los Muertos? As I started thinking about it I got more worried.

What about all the various levels I have memorized from the Quake, Doom, and Duke Nukem games? Or the special geographic layouts integral to being good at RTS games like Command and Conquer in all its various forms, Age of Empires and its sequels, and Starcraft? My god it goes even further.

I remember almost all the level layouts for Ultima Underworld. Wait it’s even worse than that, I can even recall dungeon layouts from my D&D days. Ship layouts from Star Frontiers. The path to the keys IN ADVENTURE FOR CHRISTS SAKE.

My generation probably has more brainpower dedicated to storing locations that do not physically exist than any other right now. An army of explorers and travelers whose gigantic virtual world Talosian brains would rule even more supremely would that there was some applicable use for the knowledge.

Now I’m depressed. If anyone needs me I’ll be at D3D: E1L5 mocking Levelord’s "You’re not supposed to be here"