Answer: Sometimes the map requests are overwhelming and can seize up the map server. The only thing you can do is to keep moving your character and trying to reload the map or relogging.
UPDATE Map issues are more common again these days due to website issues. Game maps are stored on the website server, so if the website crashes the maps will no longer load ingame. If this happens you'll notice in the ingame chat people complaining of not being able to load their maps- if the website is down try to stay in the same map you are in and not move to a new map until it goes up again or you will get stuck as well.
UPDATE(again)*Avast, Trendmicro and Malwarebytes all block the map server IP/website for the game for some reason.
*If you have one of those and you unblock
http://94.102.52.40 on the resident shield the maps should load again.
*Unfortunately if you have the paid version of Malwarebytes there is apparently no way to remove the block on the map server.
*Also turning off the antivirus apparently does not work, the resident shield must still run in the background. Apparently this part of the antivirus program can even stay installed after you uninstall the main part, so be sure it is all gone from your program list if you choose to uninstall it as a fix to this problem.
how do fix this problem as it has only just started