Games whwere one has to scribble his/her own maps are ... well, I dare to say ancient. It was common during the times of the Ultima games, early Adventures, and especially text adventures.
Nowadays, almost every game has an built in map (automap), but to be honest, that's luxury. Like the radio in every car.
We don't consider it luxury, because we are al sooo used to that. But in fact, you'll notice it only when it's stolen (both the radio and the automap (Lands of Lore I).
A minimap is probablly far from the only thing we doesn't notice we'd miss terriblly if it was taken away. Like... I can't think of anything <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" /> (I'm sure I'd miss it though...).
Übereil
