Zygor's Diablo III Guide Coming Soon!

[dgrove21]

By law -- (and price agreements between different vendors) -- the price has to be $ 37.00. (: The price is obviously not something that we loyal customers will be excited about, or it would have been published. No doubt they are trying to decide how much of a price they
can get away with, in view of the fact that it will be new, untested, lacking much, and no reputation. After all that, it still will be $ 37.00. Most likely, there will be no discount for us who have bought their other products, since we are the most likely to pay whatever they ask, and they would be sabotaging the biggest, most enthusiastic customers. We'll see. If there is a true intro price, of approximately $ 17
to $ 20, I would buy. Otherwise, I will wait.

[savab]

Well, I shall certainly find it useful. I've never played Diablo before so won't know what the heck I'm doing when I first log in. I suppose you could say that that is half the fun of it, but I really do like to have a guide on hand. I've made very little progress in SWTOR without a guide, for example.

Again, SWTOR is an MMORPG, just like WoW, with 1000+ quests and a complete open, but predefined world. I can imagine that it would be hard as a casual player to enter this game and not be able to have some decent progress without guide. I have the same issue with WoW: without the guides, my game-experience wouldn't be half as much fun!

Diablo on the other hand is a hack&slash RPG (no MMO whatsoever!) with about 20 quests (there were 21 in the first 4 diablo2 acts), of which none will be so complicated that guidance is needed. It's not that I'm sceptic or anything, it's just the way a game like Diablo works. Neither do you have an elaborate skill tree, or 27 hotkeys that you constantly need to manage. It is a different kind of game, so if you've never played Diablo before, I'd say give it a try before reaching out to guides if you might not need them. Believe me when I say that the Diablo games are very self-explanatory.

So read my post again, but switch the word "WoW" with "SWtOR", and you'll see what I mean.

Ofcourse, if the guide offers something that I'm overlooking, you can ignore my words. But in that matter I'd rather get an answer from one of the Zygor mods/employees/... then from someone who has not ever played the game before and would buy the guide without even wondering if he would actually need it. (no offense!)

[jlangner]

I agree as well. I might pay $15 but unlike WoW which is an in game add-on, this will be a web page I would have to tab out check and come back, etc. That is a totally different experience....Really no different than buying a paperback game guide. If I had dual monitors would be easier, but I dont. There is just no comparison to using as an in-game addon. The WoW one is so smooth, its like part of the game, not sure how this would work, but anything over $20 and a no go for me, Ill just get a paperback guide. As poster before said, I have played the beta, you'd seriously have to be an idiot not be able to do the quest in no time.

[jlangner]

And yesa, I would have loved to have had a guide for SWTOR as well..

[cabby]

If you haven't done so already, check out the page that was linked in the first post to see what the guide will have.
http://www.zygorguides.com/diablo/


Also, D3 will have some MMO aspects to it as you'll be able to hook up with other players to work thru the acts and quests.

[savab]

If you haven't done so already, check out the page that was linked in the first post to see what the guide will have.
http://www.zygorguides.com/diablo/


Also, D3 will have some MMO aspects to it as you'll be able to hook up with other players to work thru the acts and quests.

I've looked at the page, which is why I asked these questions:
QUEST GUIDE:
- What is the use of a quest guide in a game that has just 20 to 30 quests?
- What can you do differently then say the exact same thing as the quest log? You won't be able to guide players without a maphack (and making the guide act against Blizzard policy), and the quests are always (and have always been) very simple.

CLASS GUIDES & BUILDS:
- With the new class build system, you can try out any build at any time, as long as you have acquired the correct level. So following a class build guide from level 1 is now, unlike in WoW, completely unnecessary. Switching between builds is so easy that you can always change to any (free) build online. How can you give us an edge on this part with this guide?

CRAFTING AND FOLLOWERS:
- The crafting system is, like all other loot, randomized in its extra abilities. You can not guide what you can not control, so how is this going to help me?

ACHIEVEMENTS:
- The achievements are pretty self-explanatory. What can you offer more than that?

And yes, you will be able to hook up and work through the acts and quests together with others, but why does this aspect suddenly makes this guide more needed? The same questions still apply.
(And why does this mean it has an MMO aspect to it? It certainly has a multiplayer aspect to it, but it is as much an MMO as Call of Duty is one)

[jlangner]

Other problem I see is no one has seen anything but the first Act, correct? So when the game is launched on the 15th, Zygor will see for the first time as well. The first Act can be completed in a few hours. Is Zygor going to be ahead of me in writing what they have not seen? I would assume they will have to complete the first Act as well before they can see new content. If so, we are all on the same page, and I possibly could be ahead. People planning to bust ass first day would possibly not be able to use..imo.

[cabby]

I wish I could answer your questions, but I have nothing to do with the D3 guide creation. All I know right now is the same info from that link that you know. I didn't even know we were going to be making a D3 guide until the last night of beta, and that's all I knew about it until the post here. That's the one downfall to not working in the office.

[Atruehero]

I don't think I will need a guide for Diablo III. Without the ingame comfort of the Wow-guide, I see no use in getting it. Besides, exploring the game yourself is much more fun. When I get stuck so bad that I want to quit, I can always decide to buy the guide at that time. Besides, you only finished Act I, so I think I will wait till all acts are covered and smoothed out, before I decide where my money will go to this time.

[mike3a]

Quite right ;o)

In wow a guide is very useful and I use mine all the time. But D3 is a very different game than wow,

I'm not sure why I should buy such a guide. Let me explain why:

In WoW, there are thousands of quests, of which some yield more experience than others. You will never do all of those quests, so if you want to find the most optimal path for levelling, a guide of some sort comes in very handy (And you guys have done an amazing job on this part!). When it comes to loot, every boss drops a randomized object from a set list of objects, a list that is unique for each boss. Also here a guide can be very helpfull, so you know which boss to kill to get a certain item. The same can be said for dailies, the thousands of achievements, and so on: WoW is such an enormous, huge game, set in an enormous, huge world, and it is easy to get lost or overwhelmed by it. Thanks to the awesome addon support and the work of people like yourselves, guides have proven to be an amazing extra feature in the game.

Diablo is NOT that kind of game: you've got a handfull of quests. In Diablo 2, it was just 27! The quest description itself was always VERY clear (go there, through there, and kill boss X or pick up item Y), and every player would do nearly all of those quests (with the exception of the few optional ones, and the boosted players). The world itself is always changing, being randomly generated every time you create a game. The loot is completely random and (unlike WoW) boss independant.
So I'm wondering:
- What is the use of a quest guide in a game that has just 20 to 30 quests?
- What can you do differently then say the exact same thing as the quest log? You won't be able to guide players without a maphack (and making the guide act against Blizzard policy), and the quests are always (and have always been) very simple.
- The same with the achievements: they are pretty self-explanatory. What can you offer more than that?
- The crafting system is, like all other loot, randomized in its extra abilities. You can not guide what you can not control, so how is this going to help me?
- With the new class build system, you can try out any build at any time, as long as you have acquired the correct level. So following a class build guide from level 1 is now, unlike in WoW, completely unnecessary. Switching between builds is so easy that you can always change to any (free) build online. How can you give us an edge on this part with this guide?

I have always enjoyed your WoW guides, and have much respect for all the hard work you guys put in it. As such, I'm more than happy to pay a small fee for such an awesome guide. But knowing Diablo and its gameplay, as well as the general idea behind it, I'm very doubtful that a guide could actually make a difference here. I'm sorry to say this (I really am!), but at this moment this just feels like a scam, because it seems like you won't be offering anything better than the (free) competition. I would however love to be convinced otherwise. So is it possible to get an answer on my questions above?

grtz,
S

[savab]

In wow a guide is very useful and I use mine all the time. But D3 is a very different game than wow,

which is why I ask those questions

[jlangner]

Ok Amazon has the Brady Book guide for $13...and its online. What will your guide do that it will not, and I am still concerned no mention of price. JMO, anything over $15 is a scam.

[MrSapient]

we will know all the answers tomorrow... till then i dont think they are going to say a word.

[Zygor]

The target audience for our guides tends to be:

• Players who are new to a game and want to make a faster and easier transition from being a "newbie" to playing like a pro.
• Players who are tired of endless searching and unreliable content and just want an all in one resource covering every aspect of a game written by experts on the subject.
• Experienced players who want to take their mastery of the game to the next level.

At Zygor Guides, we try to meet those needs with every product we develop. If none of those descriptions sound like you, then of course you might not be interested in our guide.

As far as how we stack up to the competition, the differences between Zygor Guides and a printed guide are many, but I'll name just a few as an example:

Blizzard has stated before that Diablo III will be unlike any previous installment, with well over 100 quests. With how limited the beta was, however, this remains to be seen. If that is the case, and the questing becomes much less linear, as has been rumored, then a walkthrough would indeed prove useful. Without spoiling anything, one area where the walkthrough will be useful is if you are a big lore and story person. We alert you when pieces of lore (which tell you bits of stories with audio) are attainable and how to get them all - it's not always very apparent and you could miss a lot without getting that heads up to know what to look for, and what to do.

While the walkthrough will be present and as detailed and helpful as possible, we believe that for a game like Diablo III, other parts of the guide are where it will shine. Particularly, detailed class tips and strategies and how to play the classes and use their skills to maximum effect. There's not really specific builds for the classes - you get everything. It's going to come down more to how you play a class with all the possible skill combinations that will set you apart. That's what we aim to help you with in that department.

Also, the later difficulties of the game (where all the great items will be found) will be much easier with a guide. Help on how to configure your character and approach certain situations, such as monsters with multiple immunities or various other difficult situations, will be valuable to allowing you to advance through those much harder difficulties quicker.

As for achievements - yes, many will be very self explanatory and easy to get, just the same as WoW's achievements. However, also like WoW, there definitely are achievements that are tougher and require skill and know-how. Having a detailed explanation on how to complete the achievement, or even a video example would be useful.

Our guide is online which means it can be accessed anywhere without having to lug a heavy book around, and can be viewed on tablet devices such as the iPad.

Printed guides are set in stone when they go to press, which means any errors or typos cannot be corrected, and new content cannot be added or updated when the game is patched.

Zygor Guides are digital, which means they are constantly updated with the latest information and thanks to the vocal support of our community, we can shape our products to fit the specific needs gamers want addressed.

Also, our guides are written by professional gamers as opposed to editorial writers. f you've ever actually looked through a printed guide they often seem out of touch with what a real gamer would want and are overloaded with endless filler.

Lastly, there is a significant difference in total content between WoW and Diablo III. However, there will also be a significant difference in the guide price for each game. For example, if you wanted to have a guide for all aspects of World of Warcraft that Zygor currently covers, you would be in for a bill of about $200. In comparison, our Diablo III Guide will cover every aspect of the game at a fraction of that cost.

And with that, we're running out of scroll space. :-P We hope that covers all of your concerns.

Thanks. Take care.

[savab]

I hope you don't mind me asking a few more questions, as some points in my questions above still go unanswered. I do appreciate the elaborate answer, and I hope to get some more

I'll go through it in parts. If I misplace your words in any way, please let me know!
*I've went over the allowed number of characters, so I've deleted some parts of your answer. This is not to take them out of context, but just to give you my complete opinion/questions*

The target audience for our guides tends to be:
- ...
At Zygor Guides, we try to meet those needs with every product we develop. If none of those descriptions sound like you, then of course you might not be interested in our guide.

As far as a 12 year old kid (that's when D2 came out) at that time could really be counted as an experienced player, I do call myself one because of the years I kept playing the game after it's initial release. I never played ranked or hardcore (I'm not really competitive when it comes to RPG games), but still: I've come to know the game pretty well.
That being said, overall I'm a less-than-average gamer. I suck at every LAN party I ever go to, and even in WoW I don't do really great. Better than I used to, thanks to your guides, but still: not exactly the greatest addition to your guild So in a way, it is pretty strange that diablo comes so easy to me, and the only explanation I got is: this game is easy to figure out. The difficulty isn't in obtaining your gear (because frankly, that purely based on luck and hard work), but in your reaction speed as a player and the creation of a descent build (more on that below). No combo's to remember, no 128 spells to combine, no 20 different weapons to carry around and constantly swap. You just pick up the best thing you find, hit the group of demons in front of you, and get out of the way when something horrible happens
Ofcourse I want to take my mastery of the game to the next level, but it's pretty hard to see how a paid guide will do this better than the free competition, or even the in-game directions. Especially when I'd expect an added value to this guide because of the money I spent. In WoW this would be the in-game addon, with the very professional interface. But if you guys would have tried to sell your guide as a webbased website, I don't think I would have ever paid for it. Because, when it comes to webbased guides, there are tons of those out there, some better than others, and most of them free.

As far as how we stack up to the competition, the differences between Zygor Guides and a printed guide are many, but I'll name just a few as an example:

Blizzard has stated before that Diablo III will be unlike any previous installment, with well over 100 quests. With how limited the beta was, however, this remains to be seen. If that is the case, and the questing becomes much less linear, as has been rumored, then a walkthrough would indeed prove useful. Without spoiling anything, one area where the walkthrough will be useful is if you are a big lore and story person. We alert you when pieces of lore (which tell you bits of stories with audio) are attainable and how to get them all - it's not always very apparent and you could miss a lot without getting that heads up to know what to look for, and what to do.

They have also stated that a lot of those quests will be from small events and adventures, which are randomly generated each game. This means that only the big quests, needed to complete the storyline, and just a few other smaller ones, will be fixed every time you enter a game. All the others may or may not spawn, and you won't even know when or where. It's impossible to make a guide for those quests, as it is impossible to create a guide to acquire a certain item: you have no way of knowing if the quest has spawned, will spawn or where it will be.
The other quests (the big ones + the few smaller ones) will have a very good description in-game, and with the number of players playing the game, it will be equally easy to surf to zygor guides, log in, go the the guide and find the quest as it is to enter the quest title in google and click the first link you get. Guaranteed that your answer will be in the first 3 google searches.
However, as you stated below, the quest-guide is not the prime reason people should buy this guide, so I won't focus any further on this subject.

While the walkthrough will be present and as detailed and helpful as possible, we believe that for a game like Diablo III, other parts of the guide are where it will shine. Particularly, detailed class tips and strategies and how to play the classes and use their skills to maximum effect. There's not really specific builds for the classes - you get everything. It's going to come down more to how you play a class with all the possible skill combinations that will set you apart. That's what we aim to help you with in that department.

The problem with this part is that you can not actually provide a true guide here. You can certainly help people improve their use of skills at the right time and reaction speed, but you've actually called it a guide in the same way all of your other products are named. The other products have been guides in the true sense of the word: they tell you to go there and do that, press that item and kill that enemy.
However: this time it will be more of an abstract description of a situation. E.g.: If you go as a demon hunter against a mixed group of opponents, containing ranged magical damage and close combat physical damage, you should first try to eliminate the ranged enemies, while slow-trapping the physical damagers (I'm just saying something random here). For WoW there are numerous websites out there who do just that: describing every encounter for every class, role and build, and they all do this for free. I imagine this is the reason you guys don't sell such a guide for WoW: the free competition is too big in this area. And exactly the same thing will occur for Diablo3, within 2 weeks after release. So regarthing this subject I still have the same question: what does your guide do better than any other free one, or for that matter a google search? It's as you said: you'll be aiming to help people with their characters instead of guide them, because the true guidance we've come to love, admire and respect you guys for is sadly not possible in this game.

The second thing I'd like to say on this part is that there will always be better builds/guides. Even in your own field of expertise, the WoW talent guides, you have provided ways to add new talent builds (tech support on this forum can help you exactly with that in the talent builds discussion). I myself use the installed zygor talent builds, just because it is in-game, no fuss, no poking around in lua code. But if I had to alt-tab constantly to my webbrower, I'd probably get one from elitist jerks or something. Your builds are very good, but if I have to go look around on the internet myself anyway, I might just as well look one page further to the very very best.
(I truely hope I didn't offend any of your team members, and do not imply any lack of skill!)

Also, the later difficulties of the game (where all the great items will be found) will be much easier with a guide. Help on how to configure your character and approach certain situations, such as monsters with multiple immunities or various other difficult situations, will be valuable to allowing you to advance through those much harder difficulties quicker.

This is essentially the same as above: presenting abstract situations about all the possible random encounters a player can get, and telling them how to react. Which is a great idea, but it will be hard to compete with every other pro player that writes about it in their free online blog.
As far as boss-encounters go: most players will just be playing the game just for those moments, so they will be documented, captured and written about very well.

As for achievements - yes, many will be very self explanatory and easy to get, just the same as WoW's achievements...

But the number of achievements in D3 will be just a fraction of all possible achievements in WoW. However, I can see some players struggling on that part, so this part may really be handy to have gathered on one single conveniant location. Especially when it comes to achievements that can be acquiered in rapid order.

But still: this part of the guide won't be the major reason people will be interested in a Zygor Diablo 3 Guide. Most will be looking to the other subjects of levelling, questing and talent builds.

Our guide is online which means it can be accessed anywhere without having to lug a heavy book around, and can be viewed on tablet devices such as the iPad.
...

I agree completely on this part with you: a physical book is nice at release, but is not much more than a collector's item after a few updates and patches.

But my unanswered question on this part is still the same: There will be a gazillion free guides out there, who will be doing most of the things you guys will do:
- offer a guide through all pre-defined quests
- offer a listing of and guide through all randomly generated quests
- discuss the different encounters on all difficulties for each class
- offer builds for each of those encounters

I hope you don't mind me questioning your work. I truely am a fan of the WoW guides, but I'm also a very critical thinker.

Thank you very much for the answer, and I hope you will again answer all of these questions and critics.

grtz,
S