I seem to have thrown away all my old principles because just as I thought I'd never start playing a paladin in World of Warcraft I never thought I would use a level guide. A level guide tells you exactly what quests to do and don't do and the exact order in which to do them in order to level up as quickly as possible. Sometimes it even tells you to go and die on purpose because that's the quickest way to get back to town. The thing that surprises me the most is how much fun it is to follow strict instructions while playing WoW. I think it has got to have something to do with flow.

Wikipedia says:

Flow is the mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing, characterized by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity.

But there's one important factor in achieving flow that isn't in that description and that is to always have clear goals. That's something the level guide gives you. Now you do this and then you do that. No doubt and no hesitation about what to do. It means always knowing that you are doing the most optimal thing you could be doing and always with a feeling of progression, of getting better, even more so than when leveling normally since you can tell that this is a more optimized way of doing it.

I wouldn't recommend using a leveling guide the first time you level up a character, then it is clearly more fun to explore, to actually listen to what the npcs has to say and perhaps get a bit immersed in the world. But when you're doing it for the third or fifty-third time it can be a lot of fun - if you can feel the flow.