Article on wowinsider
It looks like my interview with GameSpy is having side effects.
Wowinsider just published a news article about my guides ;)
You can find the article here: WoW Insider Article
I appreciate getting more coverage, really. Because the only weakness of my guides is that they aren't known enough. People tend to overlook them because they are free, thinking that because it's free, it's probably crap.
However, there are a few inaccuracies in this article, sadly. I wish the guys at wow-insider would have contacted me and I'd gladly have provided them with more accurate information.
Anyway, I'll list the inaccuracies here:
In any case, I'd like to thank wow insider for bringing my guides to the attention of their readers. Because that's really what I care about the most: people trying my guides. A lot of effort was spent on writing them and improving them (and not only my effort, an army of wow-pro members also helped testing them and gave me feedback), so it always pains me to see people totally ignore my guides and jump on the "paying" guides, simply because they think "FREE" cannot be as good "Paying". Well, this is true in most cases, but not in this case. And to change that mindset, all we can do is spread the word about it, and that's exactly what wow insider and gamespy are doing at the moment. So cheers to them!
ps: I'd gladly give an interview to wow insider, should they be interested in more infos about my addons, guides or future projects.
Wowinsider just published a news article about my guides ;)
You can find the article here: WoW Insider Article
I appreciate getting more coverage, really. Because the only weakness of my guides is that they aren't known enough. People tend to overlook them because they are free, thinking that because it's free, it's probably crap.
However, there are a few inaccuracies in this article, sadly. I wish the guys at wow-insider would have contacted me and I'd gladly have provided them with more accurate information.
Anyway, I'll list the inaccuracies here:
- My guides do not turn the game into a "to-do" list. It does not ruin the content, it actually makes it more enjoyable. Every single person who tried my guide said so. The reason is simple: while following my guide, you're doing as many quests as possible, in the shortest time possible, with as little running around as possible. So basically, you will probably do more quests than if you were not following my guide (because I make sure to include even the most hidden quest chains in the game when they are worth it). You will effectively enjoy more content than if you were on your own. Moreover, what my guide does is cut a huge chunk of "running back and forth", by smartly optimizing the quest routes (and if you thought QuestHelper's route optimization tool was smart, you'll think my circuits are genius). So yes, my point is simple, my guides WILL make you enjoy the game more, while also making you level faster, I guarantee it.
- While following my guide, nothing is preventing you from reading the quests descriptions. Moreoever, you can read it in a more relaxed way, you don't have to focus on sorting out what part of the information is important to complete the quest, you can simply enjoy the lore instead.
- My wife didn't "need help" leveling ^^. As I said in the GameSpy interview, we were both leveling our alts together, and she was simply following me because I already had those "optimized quest circuits" in my head, and she was just enjoying the ride. But she would have been fine leveling on her own, even though I wish I could be that superhero taking a damsel in distress through the mazes of Stranglethorn Vale. But it just wasn't like that :P
In any case, I'd like to thank wow insider for bringing my guides to the attention of their readers. Because that's really what I care about the most: people trying my guides. A lot of effort was spent on writing them and improving them (and not only my effort, an army of wow-pro members also helped testing them and gave me feedback), so it always pains me to see people totally ignore my guides and jump on the "paying" guides, simply because they think "FREE" cannot be as good "Paying". Well, this is true in most cases, but not in this case. And to change that mindset, all we can do is spread the word about it, and that's exactly what wow insider and gamespy are doing at the moment. So cheers to them!
ps: I'd gladly give an interview to wow insider, should they be interested in more infos about my addons, guides or future projects.
Posts
Hi Jame! I'm one of the writers at WoW Insider, as well as a big fan of your guides. I'd definitely be interested in doing an interview with you. You can reach me at eliahhecht@gmail.com.
I do have one point to make in our defense, though. Saying the guide makes the game into a to-do list is a matter of opinion, not fact. It's not really fair to call it inaccurate just because you don't agree (I don't agree either, for the record). And he did call your work the gold standard of leveling guides :)
Eliah, to be blunt... why didn't you write the article. Mike may have tried to write without bias, but it still came shining through. The article would probably have been a little better had it not come from someone that had used guides and understood their intended audience a bit better.
Personally I'm mildly peeved that no mention of TourGuide was made at all in the WI article. The Gamespy interview mentions TG, and WI did feature TG in the past. Free link back to your own article right there, more clicks for your advertisers... but again, it just feels like Mike didn't really research the subject at all, just posted about someone else's interview. Hell, he didn't even link to the actual interview!
Anywho, enough rant from me. If you're interested in tossing me a few questions about TourGuide itself I'll gladly answer them. I think that Jame's and my own goals are fairly well inline here. Provide quality guides, an addon that kicks ass, routing better than any addon could do, all for free and without eating your computer's resources for lunch.
Hey, I'm Mike Schramm -- I wrote the post. I'm a fan of Jame and his guides, and yes, I'm interested in reading Eliah's interview when we post it.
Yes, the "todo" list comment is my opinion. I am of the opinion that Questhelper does the same thing: you're being told where to go and what to do rather than determining your own path. Which for some people is half the fun. Sorry you disagreed. And yes, of course, you can mix up following your guides or Questhelper with just wandering around the game on your own. I never said you couldn't.
I got the impression that because your wife was following you around, she didn't know as much about leveling as you. Thus, you were helping her. Don't think that's a stretch, though obviously I wasn't next to you all while you were playing the game.
Anyway, I remain a fan of both you, Jame, and your guides. Sorry that you perceived some bias against you -- it's not there. The only thing I'd ever heard about you was your name and your guides, and as I said in the post, it was nice to read that interview and learn a little bit more about what you do and why and how you do it. Feel free to ping us at WoW Insider about your addon or anything else you've got cooking (wowinsider.com/tips), and we'll be happy to get a post up about it.
Nice to see that more and more people will know wow-pro (I'd refer to the site instead of only Jame due to the contributing comunity - there are a lot more guides than those James wrote!) even with some inaccurancies.
Being a simple gamer, I find the guides a way to enjoy the game better. I know that for a player that has never tried the guide , it can seem a list of to-dos without any other feelings. But it isn't, hopefully. Joana and Zygor's leveling guides are a list of pointless to-dos, those are really un-funny to follow (even if you don't care about the lore you'll get tired very fast :) ). My 2 cents, really, I think that the article's writer just reported his impressions. A bit of misunderstanding :)
-Benhir
Sad to say, but I'm not surprised. Some people just really hate to see good things in others' work. It's like they're jealous and have a need to tear it down because they didn't think of it first. Whatever. I'll probably get slammed for that.
I've been using your guide for almost a year now. I thought I knew all about the quests in the old world and just really picked one out of curiosity. I was floored by the number of quests that I'd never even heard of that turned out to be a blast. So, in no way do I consider your guide to be a "to do list" for anything.
Point to remember, just because someone has posted an article in a well known periodical doesn't mean they necessarily know or understand their topic of discussion.
I used Jame's guides to level my first toon, a lock, from about level 20 to 70. They also helped get my druid to 70. Then TourGuide came along, and I loved it. To be honest I thought it WAS using Jame's guides at first (until I noticed some discrepancies in the quest order). It's good to know the two are in sync now!
I levelled my death knight to 80 without using any guides, but that's more because I didn't think any guides were ready. Been getting my druid up to 80 using Jame's guides once again and found all sorts that I had missed first time round, such as Ymiron's awakening and Gjalebron. I'll be getting the tourguide modules as soon as I get home.
Oh, and I read WI every day and I have to say it's getting worse and worse with poorly researched articles. It's fine for some details to be missed or wrong, but some things are so basic they really should be caught.
Hi Jame! I've been using your guides since I started playing. I may not have followed them to the letter, or closely in some cases. But for leveling alts, it's what I use.
I was excited to find your guides as they are very thorough and helpful. Now if Horde had a reasonable leveling pattern that avoided the Barrens. *sigh*
I have been a fan of your guides since i started playing wow since almost 2 years ago and i absolutely disagree with what the writer of wowinsider has written.
Rest assured Jame that all your fans appreciate the hard work and effort u have put in.
Cheers mate.
Wow, I didn't expect so many responses, especially from two WoW Insider writers AND from Tekubb himself ;)
@Eliah I'll send you an e-mail right away!
@Tekkub Your addon rocks, really. I can't stress it enough. You deserve all the credit in the world for it.
@Mike Schramm No worries! I didn't feel any bias against me in your article. I'm actually very glad that you did write an article about my guides. I was merely pointing what I thought was innacurate (because you did mention that you hadn't tried my guides, so I didn't think it was your opinion, just a lack of information). But in any case, the rest of the article was quite good and I really appreciate it!
@Everyone else. Thank you so much for the support. I won't dissapoint you, the addon version of my guide will be perfect, I will work hard until they are. (with the help of the wonderful wow-pro community, and also thanks to Tekkbub for giving us a perfect addon framework to do it).
I'm one of those who find that the guides really make the game more relaxed and more enjoyable. I don't have to worry, get lost or find myself slogging.
It helps me avoid having to focus on "to do" listing and enjoy the game instead.
I'm glad to see that your guides are getting more exposure Jame. I've been using them for quite some time now and they are better than anything out there.
I was just thinking to myself since I found TourGuide that someone should translate Jame's guides to TG format. I'm glad that is being done and also glad that a member of the wow-pro community is writing their own mod as well.
Thanks Jame and Tekkub for your great work. Now I'll have my cake and eat it too!
BTW, I'd like a circuit for the Burning Steps. I'm tired of the plaguelands and am looking for something else to handle 58 to 61 before I go to the Outlands.
I thought I remembered you having one.
I'll keep looking for it in the archives as an alternative.
Mike when you don't know a shit about something shut, saying that Jame's Guides area to do list it's an insult. Shut up next time and let the envy out.
Instead of dissing his works, try it before to talk. There's guides around that you pay money for and aren't good as Jame's Guides, so please document yourself next time dear Mike if you don't insults.
I still think that your guides are the best. I don't really search for other guides available , whether they are paid guides or free ones because I felt that I didn't need to. Your guides have helped me a lot, and a few of my characters have reached max level with the aid of them. I didn't hesitate recommending them to my friends or whoever I meet inside my server whenever it comes to leveling, because I think they can only benefit from following your guides. Some say with Questhelper, the guide is more of an extra help on your quest to max level but I find that not true. It's much more enjoyable and relaxing following your guides. Quests and extra stuff that are usually ignored or left out are all listed by you. Thanks to your relentless effort in making those guides and improving them, WoW has become a really enjoyable game and experience for me even though I stopped playing due to University ... I will never forget Jame and his guides :D whenever WoW is in the picture.
p.s. sorry if I repeated some of your words
Hi Jame
First of all i want to apologise for my english, I'm spaniard and english is not my mother language, sorry.
I'm one of the users of your guides. The first time I used them was to level up one alter, and I have to say that I find some quest chains that I dind't do with may main. I don't see them as a todo list. I have a lot of fun with four guides and they had made more funny to level up an alter, visiting zone that I never have been with the other char.
Thanks for your work
Muchas Gracias!
Jame, you are so right about your response to Wowinsider. I love your guides, and they are the polar opposite from "crap." Thank you. They've taught me to play the game wiser and more efficiently by FAR! I used to go into a zone and get a quest here or there. Now I get them all and blast forward.
Quests, by their nature, are often "to-do" lists. That has nothing to do with you. And since they often are ALREADY to-do lists, why not do them efficiently? Why go back to where you JUST were and do something you could have done whle you were there?
I'm looking forward to your future releases big time. I hope the new zones will come up soon.
Thank you very much. Seriously!
Bill Janis
I also want to say that your guides definitely make leveling all the more enjoyable. Do not have the Tourguide yet, but with your guide and Q-helper i spend way less time screwing around. And, as you said, now i have more time to actually READ some of the lore which so many people worked so hard on instead of just looking at the 'Collect 8 Relics of Whatever' part. Now i'm 78 and a bit on my main and Zul'drak without your guide is much more tiresome :-/
So keep on the good work and don't you feel bad about the player-haters! Because if you don't want to use your guides, you're always free to do the quests by yourself. It's that simple.
Thank you Bill Janis, and Rintelman :)
I've just resubbed to wow after half a year. And one of the first places I came to is here - tells you how much I literally depend on your guides Jame. Keep up the great work!