Joana, or Mancow as most might know him, created a guide similar to mine on Horde leveling 1-60. He shocked the WoW community by doing it in 4 days 22 hours to 60 in /played time. Which means he spent only 4 days and 22 hours playing the game to hit 60 and was the first person on the new server he did it on. This was a record. Not only did he do it and write a guide on every step he took, but he recorded the entire gameplay on video. Talk about having proof to back up what you say.

I first heard about his guide one day when I was browsing ebay for people who sometimes attempt to sell my guides. I came across him and the amount of detail, and with a video, I seen he had, I had to email him and ask him if Blizzard gave him any problems. I wanted to know because I had legal problems with Blizzard about my guides in the 4th quarter of 2005 because they said I had pictures in my guide and offered cheats when I first set up my guide, which were taken out before they even said to. I figured they hassled him since he had the entire 1-60 video, but he said they did not and never have to this day. I think I made them more lenient about the subject since my confrontation with them. 

His first auction sold for over $150 for the guide and video and now he sells it for a normal price of $37 for the guide and the video.

He clearly inspired me in what he did with his guide. Since I never played horde I got a copy of his leveling guide, and boy was it fast. For not knowing diddly about Horde I was able to level up fairly fast. Not as fast as him though, I was 42 at the same /played that he hit 60 in, but it was clearly fast for not knowing anything. 

Now he inspired me because I had thought of doing what he did, but with the problems with Blizzard I figured it wouldn't be worth it since they would most likely remove my auctions or tell me I couldn't do so. I had received many requests to make a guide in a fashion like his. Once I played with his guide I said to myself "I have to make a guide like this for Alliance" and the reason I did, and was able, to do so was because I had played WoW since day 1 and Mancow had as well. We both played the same, researching all quests as we played for the first time. We basically became experts in what we did, play WoW. May seem like no big deal but I bet that it's hard for most people to remember all of one zone let alone a whole game of quests.

So I started making my guide based off of how he made his. What I mean is that I used his format he typed it up in. I didn't mean in any way to copy him but the layout was good to start. I eventually completed my guide around August 2006, wishing I had made it a lot sooner.

You can view Mancow's guide here on ebay and now on his site Joanasworld and my guide can be found on the main page of this site Mars Gamer

In conclusion I have to say that Mancow surely did inspire me with more than my guide. We both have a guide that together makes WoW a whole. You'll never get a guide like either of our guides that is official or directly from Blizzard. They don't want you leveling at the speed of light, they want you to play for months and level up. The truth is that once you hit 60 you can have more fun and you will keep playing.

Both of us are going to make a 60-70 guide when the Burning Crusade expansion comes out, you can purchase a copy on the left of this page from Best Buy, buy online and pick up at the store if you want.

Enjoy,

Brian Kopp

http://www.marsgamer.com