Expedition
I'm pretty sure I've logged more hours in Google Maps over the past decade than in any game.
I'm pretty sure I've logged more hours in Google Maps over the past decade than in any game.
Google Maps is a service provided by Google that offers a map of the world including satellite and aerial imagery for free. Using the scroll wheel, the user can zoom out to see a larger area. The Lena River is a river in northern Russia, flowing into the Arctic Ocean (with a large delta).
Clicking on the comic leads to an online Google Maps page showing the satellite imagery of the Lena Delta. Traveling south up the river will lead to the city of Yakutsk and eventually to Lake Baikal.
It appears that Cueball is simply trying to explore the world without zooming out the screen. He also seems to keep a log of what he sees onscreen.
Alternatively, he may be playing Mapcrunch, this 'game' randomizes a street view location with the goal of finding the airport. Another possible candidate for what Cueball is playing could be Google Earth Flight Simulator.
The title text states that he apparently somewhat still treats it as a game and that he has been on it for at least a decade.
A game called GeoGuessr was released three months later, with the user being put into a random location in Google Street View and asked to guess where they are in the world by analyzing clues in their environment. This often necessitates the user making their way from the middle of the wilderness to some manner of civilization, exactly as in the comic. GeoGuessr would actually get its own comic in 1214.