Breakfast Topic: No peeking!
by Jennie Lees 
Feb 9th 2006 at 8:00AM
When questing, I often use Thottbot to
help me optimise my hunting. Using the site I can find out where NPCs are to report to, where the mobs are
concentrated, and even read helpful hints from other players (and contribute my own). Thottbot's proved invaluable on
many an occasion, especially when attempting quests that are reasonably difficult to solo.However, recently I've found myself peeking ahead -- looking at the end of quest chains to see if the total XP and rewards are worth it, reading around the subject and generally spoiling any surprises that might have been in store. I've made the decision to stop this until I'm actually stuck on a quest, rather than before I even accept it, and it's a hard one to abide by.
Are you over-reliant on Thottbot? If people ask where certain items are, is your first response to direct them to the site -- or to grab that laptop and look it up for them? Or do you see it as a form of cheating, and prefer to find surprises out for yourself?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Tips, Cheats
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mike Feb 9th 2006 8:29AM
I've never even been to Thottbot. I've been playing for about two months now, fairly casually. Ever hear the saying, "Life's a journey, not a destination"? Well, in my opinion, WoW is a journey, not a destination. Who cares about getting to level 60 and getting that mount and all that epic gear if you didn't really get it yourself? It really boils down to the same reason I won't buy gold/items/levels.
To this point, I have only looked at guides that help with general strategies on how to play a particular class, particularly how to best play roles in a group, i.e. tank, healer, puller, etc. This is because you can't really even see most of the game content if you don't group every once in a while, and nobody will group with you if you don't know what you're doing. But I don't look at guides that presume to tell me what the "best" gear is or the "best" pets are or how to "best" spec my priest because who cares? And I don't look at guides that spoil quests.
-FIN-
Ethan Feb 9th 2006 8:32AM
Yeah, I probably use it too much. If I have to kill 10 'Raptor Variant Xs', I'll look to see where they've bee killed. I don't think of it's cheating... more like having a digital friend who's beaten the game and knows where everything is. It's also my weapon against occasional vague quest descriptions. For instance, a Goblin in Ratchet told me that the Venture Co. facility was "North of Ratchet". Not, "All the way at the north of the barren, almost to Ashenvale".
I will also check out Quest Strings to see if that Green-for-me quest is worth doing. I'm not going to get much XP or usuable loot, but maybe it's step 1 of a series that i don't want to miss.
boneyard Feb 9th 2006 9:45AM
didn't use it to check on final rewards, did use it for finding locations and such. usually i look around a little myself but when it's isn't going anywhere ill look it up. don't consider it cheating myself, but can understand some people do.
oh and plug this other sites with such databases also please: allakhazam and goblin workshop. thottbot can be very annoying with those different language items and such.
http://wow.allakhazam.com/
http://www.goblinworkshop.com/
anotherplayer Feb 9th 2006 12:20PM
rumour has it thottbot is owned by the gold sellers too ....
wwndata.worldofwar.net could be another alternative.
Tryst Feb 9th 2006 1:05PM
I use thottbot nearly every day and think it's an invaluable tool. Many of the quest descriptions are very vague, such as where to take Stalvan's letter in Stormwind. Spend any amount of time in SW and you'll see the same questions asked over and over again. "Where do I take Stalvan's letter? Where can I buy Merlot? Where is General Jonathon Marcus? Where is Trias' Cheese?" Because there is NO Canal District per se nor is there any listing of local stores to refer to and I'd rather find it for myself than be the 100,000 person to ask on general in the last hour. Although, I have to say, in the case of Marcus and the cheese, unobservance is the main issue there.
Based on the first posters reasoning, I'll assume that he considers asking questions on /1 and getting items any other way than as a drop (like from another player or the AH) to be cheating? I would certainly never purchase gold or items out of game, just as it never occured to me to look ahead on a quest (but I don't care if other people do!;-P), but I don't consider something like getting the coords for the elusive Bag'thera inappropriate. I don't want to spend an hour running up and down STV getting annoyingly attacked constantly by roaming raptors and felines with no hope whatsoever of just happening upon the place where she spawns. And that goes double for Bangalesh and Tethis.
Everyone has the right to play the game the way they choose, including the first poster, but I fully support the use of thottbot when the quest is unclear or when you've been killing Raging Rock Elementals for an hour in the Badlands waiting for the scroll fragments to drop and you just need to know, am I killing the wrong thing or is it that the drop rate is excessively sucky?
Sorry for the long post, I'm not sure why this issue got me started this morning. Perhaps I should lay off the coffee....? :-)
Ricky Feb 9th 2006 1:24PM
#4 is dead on. Particularly about those scroll fragments.
Thottbot is cheating if you're really trying to be immersed in the role-playing. Outside of that and it's no different than typing /1 Where do I find the Mirefin heads?
I usually check out Thottbot when I'm lost, annoyed at a lack of drop or just don't give a damn about the particular quest, I just want it done.
Mike Feb 9th 2006 2:23PM
#4 - Well, I tend to not buy stuff in the AH other than mats for trade skills, but I don't consider it cheating. I certainly sell stuff on AH all the time. I don't necessarily consider Thottbot cheating either. I just haven't used it before and don't really see myself using it unless I'm REALLY stuck on something. It's really a personal thing and my post was not meant as an indictment of those who do use it, so much as just expressing that it's not my "cup of tea".
Personally, that sense of accomplishment I get when I finally find Echeyakee's Lair and those damn named animals for the Ashenvale Hunt (I've found the panther and the bear before, I just need to remember where they are now) is what keeps me playing the game. And I do like to keep my quest log clean, so at some point I may resort to Thottbot and similar sites. But for the most part, if I can't find the NPC/item for a quest, I'll just abandon it and pick up a different quest. There are literally thousands of quests in the game. I'll just pick up a different one and come back to that one later if it's still worth it.
By the way, and I just picked up on this one, you said that you use Thottbot nearly every day. I don't even play WoW nearly every day. I play maybe 2 nights a week if I'm lucky plus maybe 6 hours on the weekend. I'm still enjoying the game the way I play it. At some point, maybe that won't do it for me anymore and I'll have to start using these guides, but for right now, I'm pretty content.
slybri Feb 9th 2006 5:41PM
I use thottbot a lot and I don't consider it cheating. There are Strategy Guides and a WoW Atlas that give much of the same information and are advertised by Blizzard on their website. I also Alt-tab to thott a lot during the game. If your gonna spend 6 hours running an instance dungeon, it's best to have all the quests for it instead of finding out in the middle of it that you need to start the chain 5 levels ago.
I only wish Thottbot was a better organized website. It's hard to navigate, slow to load during peak hours, and the information is often confusing. It seems like they have information from the BETA and test servers included, and it's hard to filter out what item or drop or mob is real. They need to purge all the extraneous information, german spellings, and weird spawn locations, and crazy stuff...like things disenchanting into morrowgrain or sheep.
RighteousDork Feb 10th 2006 12:09PM
I've been known to open my laptop up from time to time and look up something on Thottbot because sometimes you can't get a straight answer in the game or people just don't know. More than anything, I use it to determine the value of an item. If I get a Blue Pearl from a mob, I like to look up what the pearl is used for. If it's not for engineering, then I sell it. Some of these items have NO DESCRIPTIONS at all and that's kind of crappy. If you pick up a staff or a piece of armor, you get specs on it. If I pick up a piece of Citrine, it would be nice if the game says something like "This could probably be used for engineering or leatherworking." Can I get an amen?
jennie Feb 10th 2006 12:58PM
I use the Auctioneer/Informant EnhTooltip addon for just that information, RighteousDork. 'Course, I still need Thottbot to look up exactly which recipe it might be used for, but it's good for knowing what to trash immediately and what not to.
Tryst Feb 10th 2006 1:54PM
#1 - I did notice that you said you were a casual player and I did think about that while I was replying. I actually think the first time I ever used thottbot was during the Stalvan's letter quest in my late 20's, early 30's. And, yes, I do play every day...when I am not very responsibly RL job hunting! ;-P
I think it's interesting the different ways that people play and the different motivations that people have for playing. I HATE abandoning quests. I like to tick off everything, done, done, done. I like accomplishing things and helping other players. So that's why thottbot is an invaluable tool for me.
Enchantrix and Auctioneer are also must-have tools to get more info on objects. When Enchantrix was down after the last patch I was just completely lost.
Lyttuch Mar 8th 2006 9:15AM
Look at it this way. WoW has been out for quite a while now and a few people have played it. Think of Thott as the old guy in the tavern that did that quest years ago and might be able to give you some inside information as to what you can expect. It's not like it's never been done before, so you have to ask yourself if it's cheating or not re-inventing the wheel. Heck, how many times did you hear your parents tell you to "Just do this way. Believe me, I know what I'm talking about." They are volunteering information so you don't have to go through the trial and error just to end up where they told you you would. Of course, if you want to guarrantee your money's worth in the game, soldier on and figure it out on your own.