Beckett releases an in-depth WoW guide
by Mike Schramm 
Apr 28th 2008 at 2:00PM
Beckett Media is a company normally known for their collectible magazines -- they cover things like baseball cards, Yu-Gi-Oh, toys, and all of that other junk most people don't bother with (ok, ok, I kid, collectors, but I don't get the point of buying toys you don't take out of the box). Apparently, a little while back, Beckett started to get into another field where most of what you do is collecting: massively multiplayer online games, and they started a magazine called Beckett Massive Online Gamer. And now, they've started publishing a series of biannual guides for various online games, starting with our very own World of Warcraft.We haven't seen the guide, but their sales page promises "tips for conquering dungeons, guides for leveling to 70," and "perfecting WoW endgame classes," all for only $9.99. To tell the truth, it sounds pretty lame (not to mention that you can get exactly the same stuff right here for the low, low price of free), but at least there's another print competitor to the official Brady Guides -- if you absolutely need your WoW news in print form, you've got at least two choices now.
Anyone seen one of these yet? Next time you're at the collectibles store, see if they've got one sitting on the magazine shelf and let us know what it looks like.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Blizzard, News items, Guides
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Treima Apr 28th 2008 2:14PM
Knowing Beckett's reputation for "quality", I imagine it will be a guide for complete and utter noobs.
Travis Green Apr 28th 2008 2:22PM
Considering you can probably find all the information in that guide on here or sites like; wowwiki, wowhead, thottbot, etc... Just save yourself ten bucks, and learn to look things up.
tamanchama Apr 28th 2008 7:50PM
it seems to me that it would take more time and energy finding the magazine and driving to the store to buy it. then flipping threw the pages to find what you wanna read? internet ftw.
Emma Marie Apr 28th 2008 2:22PM
I have to question the use of these. With an online game like WoW, isn't it silly to have a printed guide? It'll be out of date before it even hits the street.
Jamie Apr 28th 2008 2:54PM
Exactly. All the information will likely be freely available online as well.
Liel Apr 28th 2008 3:44PM
I got one for BC when it first came out because I got it for half price when I bought some other game. It was missing so much stuff because it was based on the beta. Also half the raid strategies changed with several patches.
FancyRat Apr 29th 2008 2:12AM
@6
Same happened to me, I got a big pack of sh*t with the game-package-thing including an atlas, a 'bestiary', and the guide, which was really just a huge compendium of items and outdated talents. Seriously, I have maps of the old world and an empty Dustwallow Marsh, along with all of those great talent hints from five patches ago. The whole idea of a print version of anything like this is ridiculous in a constantly evolving game like WoW.
Johnnyd2 Apr 28th 2008 2:25PM
i bought it. its okay, its just a abridged guide to quests and stuff. very basic. it also has raid tips, though im not sure their accurate or not. it does say stuff about the black temple raid deck though. ill post errors when i see them.
Badger Apr 28th 2008 2:25PM
This is so ironic ... I just saw an issue of this magazine (with a cover that looked absolutely nothing like the art posted above) in Barnes & Noble this weekend, and thought to myself: "Why was this necessary?"
Judging from the "highlights" of the issue that were listed on the cover, it provided absolutely no new or re-hashed info on the game.
Alch Apr 28th 2008 2:26PM
Beckett is one of the worse mag companies on the planet. I subscribed to one of their mags before an they canceled it. They refused to give me my money back but kept sending me another one of their god awful mags instead.
JPN Apr 28th 2008 2:29PM
There's a lot of these out already...they just end up being outdated, but for some people, having a book they can refer to quickly for 6 months is worth it, as opposed to alt-tabbing out I guess...I am not one of those people.
Reinard Apr 28th 2008 2:33PM
At least the cover looks badass.
Right?
Right?
Badger Apr 28th 2008 2:48PM
That's ... pretty much the only thing that this publication has to offer, Reinard. A pretty cover.
... Oh, wait, that's right: They didn't use this cover art. The issue that I saw this weekend had some generic picture of a female Night Elf against - gasp! - a generic dark background. That's it.
MechChef Apr 28th 2008 2:42PM
"you can get exactly the same stuff right here for the low, low price of free"
Wait a minute, there's gotta be a catch!
Bravo Apr 28th 2008 2:58PM
ads for moviefhone.come and other garbage
Maybe Apr 28th 2008 3:04PM
I looked at this and almost purchased it based on the AH guide. I'm glad i didn't it wasn't very accurate or particularly useful.
Nick S Apr 28th 2008 3:03PM
lol books
Gessilea Apr 28th 2008 3:14PM
The only print guide I have is the atlas, which I actually quite like. I did buy my mom the Brady Guide when she first started playing, though, because she has a tough time with The Google sometimes.
Aurdon Apr 28th 2008 3:36PM
's Ultimate Guide to out of date info...
Never buy a MMO "Guide" that is in print. I did that with one MMO and it featured information on game features. These features were only talked about in beta and never even added to the game even 3 years after launch. Awesome waste of money.
MMO info changes at the speed of "Teh Internetz!" and thus you should only get your tips from these series of tubes.
Thal Apr 28th 2008 4:57PM
I used to work at Beckett as a software developer. This was one of the worst jobs I ever had. I worked for this complete f*cktard who thought he was the smartest guy in the world; he would try to prove it by choosing a random long word out of the dictionary that he didn't know and using that (usually in the wrong context) in nearly every sentence he uttered. Their products are pure crap. Their writers do most of their research via online sites like this one, and simply regurgitate the information in print form (albeit modified/abridged slightly to avoid plagiarism). Collecting sports cards isn't what it used to be, so they're desperately flailing around trying to find some way to keep their business afloat (they lost their really nice building they had constructed). I look forward to the day that sh*thole dies.