I know selling leveling guides isn't new, but who in their right mind would BUY one?
by Mark Crump 
Oct 13th 2007 at 9:00PM
So, I'm sitting here today, Following the link brought me to a site that claims: "World of WarCraft leveling is both an art and a science. It is an art because getting to the next level requires much creativity." To help you unleash your chained-up creativity there's a link to a leveling guide. My first reaction to that line was side-splitting laughter. Leveling in WoW requires creativity like playing Whack A Mole requires a Masters in Fine Arts.
Now, I love me some leveling guides. I inevitably hit those weird spots where a zone is too low-leveled and the one next to it is too high-leveled. Having a site that listed zones appropriate to my level range was a boon leveling up. There's one, small difference between the links in this paragraph and the one above it: mine are free. His is not.
I've got two, hopefully easy questions: what sort of a snake oil salesman sells these guides, and who in their right mind would buy something that a quick Google on "world of warcraft leveling guide" should provide for free? What do you think? Is there any way in Azeroth you'd ever buy these things? And if so, I've got a lovely bridge for sale over the Hudson River for sale.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Walkthroughs, Odds and ends, Leveling, Guides
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Aeonis Oct 13th 2007 9:12PM
People who buy their way through World of Warcraft, people who are stupid enough to Buy Gold from Gold sellers only to spend it on an epic item which are being sold by Gold sellers, thus making it a win win situation for Gold sellers.
Wasnt the meaning of a game to enjoy it, not spend money on something which appears to be a 'chore', i can understand people who are levelling their 5th alt or something, but just go to wow-pro.com, they supply amazing free guides which are better than those many fony ones which cost.
Aigars Mahinovs Oct 13th 2007 9:13PM
Actually at least the two leveling guides I know of (Brian Kopps and Joanna) are very very useful resources. See these guide provide you a step-by-step guide on which quests to take and which to skip. They will also tell you what quests to take together and whether you should grind on these mobs some more to have extra of that thing they are dropping, because you will need it two quests from now. The XP/hour rate is much much higher if using these guides. And you do not really have to buy them - there is BitTorrent ;)
Of course questing without help, randomly on your onw terms and speed is more fun. Of course you can level via instances. BUT if you need to get a toon from 1 to 70 in the shortest time possible, then these guides will help you all the way.
Kats Oct 13th 2007 9:20PM
I am in my right mind, am not gullible and have purchased a leveling guide that went from level 1 to 70. Why?
Initially I was a new player, unfamiliar with quests and wanted some organized way to find my way from place to place. I looked at some free guides but most started at a level way above where I was at the time.
I now have a level 70 character. But I still use the guide with my alts. I do deviate from it, but find that it helps me to not miss quests and to level doing quests in a logical order.
Yes, I can go to a lot of different places and read up on quests, but I don't want to figure out out the optimum order to level and like having a guide available.
The guide I bought is one that I actually originally found for free. I didn't have to pay for it, except I knew that the author intended to charge for it and I felt it was worth the charge. So I paid for it.
I often have people tell me that they can't find quests or they have to go back to the same area over and over again because they didn't quest in a way to minimize useless trips. I don't have those issues.
The guide is just a guide. It is a suggestion. Sometimes I follow it, others times I may not. But I felt that the guide that I bought was better and more detailed from 1 to 70 than the free guides.
Tekkub Oct 13th 2007 9:18PM
I don't know who would pay for these guides. I've seen some (like the gold leveling guide) and it's all common sense crap... "farm motes"... "play the AH"...
As for the leveling guides, I'm working on my own solution. I've been writing an add, TourGuide, that not only tells you what order to do quests in, it gives you note, automatically maps coords, and detects when you turnin a quest, accept another, all that jazz. I'll be posting a beta to WoWInterface soon, and I need guide submission from users (I've only got ~20 levels of alliance data right now).
For more details:
http://www.wowace.com/wiki/TourGuide
http://www.wowace.com/wiki/How_to_create_TourGuide_data_files
Tekkub Oct 13th 2007 9:22PM
And, as usual, I can't type for sh**... I'm working on an ADDON, you don't level gold you farm it... bah! I wish I could edit my comments /cry
Kats Oct 13th 2007 9:22PM
@1 - I would never buy gold. There is a vast difference in buying a guide and buying gold. Buying a leveling guide is no different from going and buying one of the official guides you can buy in the store....except that I found the leveling guide better.
If someone doesn't want to use a guide, fine. But implying someone is stupid for buying a leveling guide is along the same lines as saying someone is stupid for buying a travel guide. Neither is true.
Wolfstalker Oct 13th 2007 9:28PM
"I've got two, hopefully easy questions: what sort of a snake oil salesman sells these guides, and who in their right mind would buy something that a quick Google on "world of warcraft leveling guide" should provide for free?"
You could say the same thing about 90% of university textbooks, which cost around $100 to buy and contain no information that can't be Googled.
Tekkub Oct 13th 2007 9:32PM
"You could say the same thing about 90% of university textbooks, which cost around $100 to buy and contain no information that can't be Googled."
Great thing about working late night or weekend shift at the library... we had textbooks for in-library use and copy machines. Every week I'd copy off the next chapter I needed for each of my classes. Sure it took a bit of time, but it was slow anyway. I got most of my text books for $5/ea + a bit of time :)
Pook Oct 13th 2007 9:58PM
I assume the guide made reference to is Brian Kopps (I should check put meh :)
I've seen this guide and it really inst much different from the nice free one at Wow-pro. Sure it give you 1-20 as well, but who needs that.
What I do is install TinyPad & TinyPadFu copy and past Jame's guide into it. That in conjunction with Double wide & the rather fantastic LightHeaded seems to be the best and fastest way to go...At the momment.
Hopefully Tekkub's addon will be even better, sounds great :)
*Ooh obviously you want to have cartographer to get the way points from LightHeaded.
Kevin Oct 13th 2007 9:59PM
I use (but didn't pay for) Brian Kopps Guide and it is extremely helpful.
The reason I didn't pay for it is because there are a lot of people who put in a lot of work to update and improve all of the free site on the internet, and they never ask me for a dime, and I believe Brian should be more like them, and more welcoming to the community instead of trying to make a quick buck.
Tekkub Oct 13th 2007 10:01PM
Carto with LH? Why not TomTom, it's by the same author as LH... and it's a ton smaller. Carto is beyond overboard when it comes to quest waypoints...
Greengreen Oct 13th 2007 10:09PM
I think leveling guides are great. Some people suck at leveling and hate it with a passion like me. It's nice to have a step by step guide telling you where to go. Now I never bought one but I used one that was free and it helped me level. If you want to power level a character to 70 because all you care about is endgame pvp and pve and you don't like the leveling process and don't mind racing through it then these guides are great. Leveling takes a long time. A couple of my friends level really slowly. Like it takes them over a year to get to level 70. And they described the grind to 60 as torture. So anything that helps speed it up is welcomed. Not everyone likes grinding mobs over and over again or doing the same stupid quest with a different name over and over again. Shocking I know. But there's a lot of people like that.
Pook Oct 13th 2007 10:12PM
Have to say to my shame I've never looked at TomTom :P
Cartographer does a lot of nice things, but i'll check TomTom out..
As a side note I've only just realised what the picture at the top says, so obviously its was rerering to his guide :P
J Oct 13th 2007 10:17PM
The result of someone using a leveling guide: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=2215493634&sid=1
Aurendar Oct 13th 2007 10:19PM
The only guides I've ever bought were the Brady Games Guides (Master Guide, Dungeon Companion & the BC Guide. These fly by night leveling guides? Not so much... While they may be helpful, as Mark states, A quick Google on World of Warcraft leveling guide or WoWhead for that matter will get you everything you need to know - - -
FOR FREE!
So I too can't for the life of me figure out why someone would actually buy one of these things.
~Aurendar
Tekkub Oct 13th 2007 10:30PM
@14: It's commonly recommended that new players level their first time thru WITHOUT a guide. The guides are aimed at people that want to level an alt quickly, when they've already done the content once already.
If you level your first toon on a guide, flying thru the zones never reading a single quest, well you're missing out on a lot of crap you paid for. Why would you get a game just to mindless kill things for no reason at all? Games without any plot suck!
Krick Oct 13th 2007 10:43PM
When my first toon hit Outland, I just did quests as I encountered them without regard for reputation. I learned my mistake and for my second toon, I've been carefully planning my grinding and questing in order to get the maximum reputation for my effort and I've been documenting it along the way.
I hit Honored with Sporeggar at 62 so I could get my Petrified Lichen Guard, and I'm currently 63 and I'm 84% of the way through Honored with Cenarion Expedition and 75% of the way through Friendly with Thrallmar without having done any of the Hellfire Peninsula quests that give Thrallmar rep yet since I'm saving them until I hit Honored.
I've kind of hit a reputation dead spot at the moment where the only thing I can do is run Ramparts for Thrallmar Reputation or possibly low end zangarmarsh instances for Cenarion Expedition reputation. I'm considering trying to grind arakkoa feathers for Lower City reputation, or possibly grinding Marks of Kil'Jaeden for Aldor rep.
It would be nice to find a guide from someone who has done this already but I don't think I'd pay money for it.
Krick
...
http://www.tankadin.com
Wilken Oct 14th 2007 1:04PM
http://www.wow-pro.com/node/692
A site with a link to Jame's Alliance/Horde Leveling guides. All Free. There is some grind, but if you know your way around you can get by doing quests in another zone not mentioned. Just make sure to read ahead so that your not doing something he plans on having you do later.
Currently his guide is only lvl 20-60. for both sides.
Ugkul Oct 13th 2007 10:55PM
Jamie's guide is good enough. Who needs to pay for those other guides?
Panzor Oct 14th 2007 5:04PM
I bought one of these guides. The main reason was that I was new to World of Warcraft and I was finding that the NPCs don't give you much information other than "this is what I need you to do." Great! Unless I know more I can't really help you.
Take the dwarven quest line, for example. You get to Loch Modan and you run out of quests quickly. Even if you manage to work your way through those difficult quests, you'll probably only be 18 or 19 before you finish. That'll leave you with the group quests that are sometimes difficult to find a group for or nothing at all. You have to be level 20, I think, to get the quest that takes you to Wetlands.
Meanwhile, when you DO get quests they don't give you enough information. One guy says run to Stormwind and get my shield. That's fine, WHERE'S STORMWIND!?! A new player has no idea and he just runs south to find a gate that's locked or worse yet runs into the lands near Uldaman.
I really wanted to roleplay my way through the first time, but the NPCs don't really give you enough information. Brian's guide helped me with where to go next. He basically skips Loch Modan and runs you to Ashenvale. That doesn't make sense from a RP standpoint, but then again neither does just standing around levelling up and running back into town every level just to see if there's a quest giver now.