Yiggle investigates : World of Warcraft Guides

World of Warcraft is the biggest and most successful MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) on the planet. With over 11 million active subscribers, Blizzard clearly know a thing or two about online gaming. But for many people World of Warcraft is complex - the sheer scale is vast. World of Warcraft guides have become very popular, including guides on leveling and guides to getting gold.
But how helpful are these guides really? They're all digital e-books, so often there's no way to tell whether it's a few pages offered by a casual player looking to make a few dollars, or a real expert player whop knows what they're talking about. We narrowed the search to the top four World of Warcraft guides, and put them head to head, under the Yiggle microscope..
Dugi's World Of Warcraft Guide
World Of Warcraft – The Beginner's Guide
As online role playing games go, World of Warcraft leads by a mile. In fact, it leads by thousands of miles – and that's the problem for most players. With such a vast landscape and such an immense range of possibilities, World of Warcraft guides have become indispensable to help players spend less time aimlessly wandering, and more time changing the face of Azeroth forever!
Price:
  
$67

World of Warcraft is the biggest online role playing game there is, and with over 11 million subscribers it's hardly surprising that it is constantly expanding and developing, with new content, new quests and new challenges being thrown at players on a regular basis. But whilst those fresh challenges may be an exciting prospect for hardened players who already know all the tricks, it can be a little daunting for those players either coming to the game for the first time, or who are really only casual players, looking to make the most of a little free time once in a while.

It's because of this that a large number of World of Warcraft guides and ebooks have surfaced, from a range of players who have become experts at either levelling characters very quickly, or raising significant sums of gold, the in-game currency which allows you to purchase better armour, better weapons and additional items such as recipes, potions and even pets and mounts.

But how can a guide help you level a character more quickly, or grab yourself a pot of gold for that matter? Within the landscape of World of Warcraft there are four continents, with the main two continents an effective 20 miles by 8 miles, giving over one and a half thousand square miles per continent. In total there are approximately 5,000 square miles of landscape to explore, and that's not including the many floating islands, cities, the underground dungeons, caves and mountain passes. This is a world that can be enjoyed purely as somewhere to escape to, to explore and to enjoy. When you consider that the level of detail can be set right down to individual blades of grass, the world of Azeroth is certainly a place worthy of any explorer.

But with so much to explore, it can be difficult to know where to go next in order to find quests which will be appropriate to a character of your level, and which will help you move onwards in the game. Similarly, there can be all manner of ways of gaining gold, sometimes by tracking down little known locations, creatures which drop particularly good loot, or even treasure chests, gems and other loot which can be sold for profit when you're back in town.

You can think of World of Warcraft guides as being a little like a cross between a really detailed map which has been created specifically for the journey you're about to take, and a friend to help guide you along that route, pointing out the advantages and opportunities along the way. Of course, for some people the fun is in the finding out, the learning and the discovery. With a World of Warcraft guide or ebook, the fun and the discovery is still there, but what is missing are the hundreds of hours of hanging around, lost, doing the same things over and over again, and looking longingly at armour and weapons you'd love to have, but simply can't afford.

For many people there's a particular advantage of using a World of Warcraft guide or Warcraft ebook, and that's to raise enough gold to buy a mount. You might imagine that buying a horse, a kodo or other mount is perhaps little more than a luxury. But when you have spent hours and hours walking the hundreds of miles of roads and paths just to get from one place to another, you'll quickly realise that having a mount will let you achieve far more far quickly. With initial mounts increasing travel speeds by 40-60%, and higher level mounts increasing speeds by nearly 300%, you can see just how much more of the game you'll see in the time you have with four legs or a pair of wings beneath you.

Whether you're an experienced player looking for some quick inside tips to help boost your end game and get some extra gold in the bank, or a beginner looking at ways to help improve your game to let you become a part of the action quicker and be better equipped, using a World of Warcraft guide will certainly help you achieve more in the playing time you have available. World of Warcraft ebooks will let you move on from chasing pigs round Durotar, and become a champion, a hero, and a legend!

© William Penworthy, 2009

World Of Warcraft Ebooks – Gold Seller Tricks

There are plenty of World of Warcraft ebooks available online offering a range of gold seller tricks and advice on how to make stacks of Warcraft gold to help increase your enjoyment of the game. But how do you know whether these guides are telling the truth, and how do you know whether you'll be able to really make as much gold as they claim?

There are plenty of World of Warcraft ebooks available online offering a range of gold seller tricks and advice on how to make stacks of Warcraft gold to help increase your enjoyment of the game. But how do you know whether these guides are telling the truth, and how do you know whether you'll be able to really make as much gold as they claim? Is making gold in World of Warcraft really that important, and aren't there easy, more traditional ways you can make gold without using guides? Is there really anything wrong in buying gold from the many gold sellers who advertise online, and even within the game?

As far as World of Warcraft ebooks are concerned, these generally fall into one of two main categories – either those ebooks which specifically teach you how to make gold at any level, and those which focus on making gold once you have reached the highest level of the game, which is currently level 80. Is there much difference between the two? There is some argument as to whether it's really very important to make gold during the levelling up, as opposed to making gold once you have achieved Level 80. Let's look at all of these issues in more detail and understand the real situation concerning World of Warcraft ebooks and making gold in World of Warcraft.

The first thing to understand is the huge risk associated with using gold sellers. The publishers of World of Warcraft, Blizzard, make it extremely clear in their terms and conditions that buying or selling World of Warcraft gold is not allowed. To enforce this rule they have often closed accounts down entirely if they find players abusing this rule. When you consider the cost of buying the game DVD, plus the extensions, plus the months of subscription fees, this represents throwing away a very significant sum of money. If you buy Warcraft gold through a website there is a high chance that your account will be closed without warning, meaning that all of your characters will be deleted, and you will need to go out and buy the game and all of the extensions again, and start from scratch. The risk simply isn't worth it.

But is it really necessary to acquire gold in the game? What can you do with a pot full of gold that you can't do without it? Because of the vast landscape – approximately 5,000 square miles of it, you will need to buy yourself a fast mount to get about. Indeed, there are many parts of the game that can only be reached if you have a flying mount, but these can cost thousands of gold pieces, and the training costs a fair sum too. As you progress up the levels, you will be able to learn new spells and abilities, but these can often cost many gold pieces each, and it's not unheard of to reach a level, and find that to learn the new spells will cost nearly fifty gold.

On top of that, rare and particularly good items of armour, recipes or weapons might be available on the auction house for hundreds or thousands of gold pieces, and very quickly you can be looking at needing tens of thousands of gold. Without Warcraft gold you will find yourself being killed more often, unable to compete against other players, taking longer to get anywhere and achieve anything. World of Warcraft ebooks that teach you how to earn more Warcraft gold are a valuable resource, since they help you to get far more out of the game than might otherwise be possible. Simply following the standard quests available throughout the game is not enough – you'll rarely even have enough to learn the basic spells, quite apart from anything else.

Since quests alone are not enough to raise enough gold to buy a mount, equip your character with the best gear, the best weapons and the best recipes, it is necessary to know how to raise Warcraft gold. World of Warcraft ebooks which teach you gold seller tricks and other methods to earn the gold you need can often provide an added dimension to the game of Warcraft, allowing you to become the epic legend you were destined to become!

© William Penworthy, 2009
Delivery:
  
Immediate
Rating:
  
Would Suit:
   Novice/Expert

"Delivery was immediate, giving me full access to the online members section with the ability to download the products and guides, and view the video tutorials.

I was impressed with this guide, as it steers away from the traditional ebooks and printed guides or web based guides, which all force you to keep switching from the game to the guide and back to the game. This guide works within the game interface itself, unobtrusively guiding you every step of the way.

There are printed and online guides available as well, and the video tutorials for installation are very clear. Much was made of the support, and I tried using this - with an almost instant response by email - very quick, and clearly still a very actively supported an updated product.

Having said all that, the guide tends to focus much more strongly on leveling from 1-80 rather than making gold. The gold making tips are really all based on high end game content. Attention to detail, talent specification advice and a clear interface all add up to one of the best guides I have ever reviewed."

William Penworthy, 2009

Zygor In-Game Alliance & Horde World Of Warcraft 1-80 Leveling Guides
Price:
  
$50 (Per Faction)
Delivery:
  
Immediate
Rating:
  
Would Suit:
 
Novice/Experienced

"Immediate delivery, including access to the online tutorial videos explaining how to setup and install the guide. This is another example of an in-game addon which guides you step-by-step through the most appropriate quest chain sequence for your class. Unlike some other guides, the quest chain will adapt depending upon your class. This is helpful, since there are some quests that are almost impossible to solo for some classes. The interface is larger than some other in game addons, but can be reduced to a minimal window at any time.

One of the things which struck me was how linear and simple the whole experience was. Rather than collecting a heap of quests and then running around uncertain which order to do them in, this guide gives you one thing to do at a time. On the minimap and the main map there is almost always a single dot, directing you to the location to either pick up a quest, hand in a quest or carry out a quest.

I was pleased to see that the guide has been kept up to date, with support for Death Knights and the new Inscription profession. Updating seems easy enough. Overall I was very impressed with the guide, although this is aimed at people who really want to do little else but level quickly, rather than PvP or collect gold, although having said that, you're obviously free to disable the guide's addon at any time and enjoy your character at whatever level you have achieved."

William Penworthy, 2009

Warcraft Millionaire
Price:
  
$47
Delivery:
  
Immediate
Rating:
  
Would Suit:
 
Experienced/Expert

"Delivery was immediate, including access to the online members section which includes up to date tips and advice not included in the printed guides. There are seven guides in total, which for a complete beginner might seem a little overwhelming, but in essence you are likely to focus on just a couple of them, depending upon your playing style.

One thing I was pleased to see was the fact that this is not a gold guide aimed at the high level characters only. Although there are many pages dedicated to raising quite significant sums of gold at higher levels, there are plenty of tactics aimed at characters from just level 10.

This is not a quick fix solution - if you're looking to make stacks of gold immediately, then you may be disappointed. There really is a huge amount of information and advice, and it will be helpful to spend time working through it, highlighting particular tactics, locations or suggestions and trying them out. However, there is a wealth of valuable information which it is clear really can work to raise thousands of gold in a much shorter space of time than might otherwise be possible.

With advice on popular gold making tactics that are less likely to work, and up to date information on new opportunities available with the new expansion, this is a gold making guide for the serious gamer, rather than for the casual player."

William Penworthy, 2009
Joanas 1-80 Horde Leveling World Of Warcraft Guide
Price:
  
$77
Delivery:
  
Immediate
Rating:
  
Would Suit:
 
Experienced/Expert

"I have to admit that Joana's guide was the first one I purchased, some time ago. At that point it didn't have an in-game mod, but in order to write this review I returned to Joana's guide, and was able to log in with my previously registered details and access all of the new content, guides, videos and in-game addons completely free.

This is a particular benefit of Joana's guides - being able to access the web content anytime, and with over 12 GB of online video, there's a great deal to see. Because of the large video files, this wouldn't be suitable for anyone with a capped download limit or slow internet connection, but for those who have the internet connection and allowance, there's little better than actually watching someone else level from 1-60 in one continuous video!

Of all of the leveling guides I find Joana's to be the most detailed, and perhaps the most complex. There are plenty of choices, and different recommendations depending upon class and preference. This means that rather than blindly following an arrow for sixty levels you have choices and options. This might suit some players, whilst others may find that the range if choices and details is a little more confusing.

The in-game mod is detailed, and with colour coded NPC names and quest titles, easy to follow, although it is one of the largest in-game mod panels of all of the games. Once again, Joana is providing detail - lots of it, and it is for this reason I would suggest that this guide is best suited to a more experienced player looking to either boost their leveling, or wanting to create alts and level them quickly."

William Penworthy, 2009