The revolutionary new system of displaying one's environs via an ASCII map has done little to give players a wider understanding of their surroundings, recent studies have shown.

"It all sounds very good on paper, so to speak," said Professor Argent Smargleblash, dean of studies of antisociology, misanthropy, and general applied assholery at Midgaard University. "Players are able to see several rooms ahead and around of them. Unfortunately, it seems to have little effect on their ability to see the consequences of their actions on people around them."

Since the automap system was released, there has been a noticeable drop in the number of newer players asking for URLs to sites with hand-drawn maps for particular areas. There are a few holdouts who still ask, it is noted, generally the people who ask for these URLs several times a day. This, the professor notes, is one of many problems the map fails to address.

"Short of tattooing 'Use the bookmark system in your web browser, you ignorant loud mouthed bastard' on their torsos, there's only so much you can do to help some people, sadly,' he commented. 'Likewise, the effect of automap on incidents of killstealing, combat maze lurking, and the PKing of others several tiers below the aggressor seems to be negligible."

The implementation of the code has also had several unforseen consequences in economic spheres, most notably the announced foreclosure of Melancholy's Map Shop in Midgaard.

When asked for comment, Lasher sought to reassure the critics of automap. "I'm aware of the problems that are causing concern, and the upcoming release of V3 should rectify a lot of them. With the AI code for mobs I've been working on, we should be able to replace human players entirely in the next few months, thus removing 90% of the problems on the MUD at a stroke."