As a WoW player for the last two+ years, I’m certainly not an expert on all things Warcraft. I rely on insight and advice from many sources, including Just My Two Copper, Miss Mediocre, Cold's Gold Factory and several players and websites that have a ton of great tips and generally excellent analysis.
In fact, Marcko over at JMTC got me interested in blogging. He hosted a “guest writer” search in hopes of adding some columnists to his site. I responded and he liked my entry. When he decided to forego his guest feature, Marcko was very supportive of me and has prompted me several times to begin my own blog.
I had always resisted, for many reasons: not enough time, not valuable enough tips to warrant readership, fear of failure (most likely the biggest factor). However, I did begin commenting on the blogs I followed, first slowly and then more often. After a few weeks of this, and based on comments I received in reply to my own, I decided to jump in and see if I could publish a blog that people would find useful.
This “slow to get in but then jumping with both feet” scenario is exactly how I approached WoW to begin with.
As a kid, I grew up with PnP games like D&D and Marvel Heroes, but never made the jump to MMOs. Honestly, with a family and a very busy career, I didn’t think I had the time to spend on an on-line game. And besides: MMOs were really for nerds, weren’t they? LOL, little did I know I was about to embrace my inner nerd!
One day in late November, 2008 my son asked if he could use my credit card to sign up for the free trial for WoLK. Since on-line security was my biggest concern, I did a little research, read about how many people played Warcraft, and was astounded at the number of websites, blogs, tutorials and YouTube videos about the game. I figured, “What the hell? I’m on holiday for the next two weeks. I’ll get my son a trial and I’ll sign up too. It will give us something to do together”.
Over the next few weeks we played together doing quests and exploring the world. After about 90 days his interest turned more to CoD, but I was hooked. I leveled my first toon to 80 by the late summer and now have two additional 80s and two more that are well on their way.
In the WoW universe, earning gold appears tough. My first 20g purchase in the AH was nerve wracking—I saved for a week and got the last 5g by signing a guild charter. As I perused all the blue and purple gear in the AH, I couldn’t help but wonder how some characters appeared over and over and over, with hundreds of auctions.
Not being able to afford flying in Northrend sucked. That’s what began my passion to earn gold. I was determined to afford what my toons needed. I decided that I would learn by trial and error and not to buy a guide or service. But, by the spring of 2010, I realized I needed some new ideas. I bought a guide. Then another. Then another. Frankly, I have found a couple that are very good and many that are not.
JMTC and Dominate WoW Gold by Zuggy have been the most useful to me. ((totally unsolicited plugs by the way))
So, that’s my story. If you have read this far, then you either don’t have anything else to do, or you may end up being one of my fans. My goal is to share tips and ideas on things in the game that I find helpful. Some will focus on gold and others will be just general game-play thoughts.
I will try to give you a case study and details that will help you determine whether the tip is worth trying now, saving for a while down the road, or for whatever reason won’t work.
Thanks for reading.
