View Full Version : Why Do You Buy Strategy Guide?
jetsetradio4ever
11-13-2004, 09:03 AM
Personally, I buy them mainly for RPGs....unless they're cheap. But, I buy them for all of the secrets and beastiaries. And, if it's free (like my Enter The Matrix (Horrible game) was) it's for the weapons and chara bios...
FantasiaWHT
11-13-2004, 09:06 AM
The only strategy guides I have EVER bought in my life were $0.01 ones.
Oooh one exception I finally thought of :) Bought one for Everquest, because you couldn't alt-tab out and I had a tendency to get really lost.
Was a pretty sucky strategy guide tho... only had maps of the cities, not the zones.
EnemyZero
11-13-2004, 09:09 AM
i buy strategy guides for rpg's like after my 20th time on ff7 i still didnt get everything so i bought it to get what i missed....other than that there awfully useless, or sometimes i like the posters they throw in
stuffedmonkey
11-13-2004, 09:23 AM
I don't - since I am cheap. I usually go the plain text route with gamefaqs. My general rule, is that the 10$ the strategy guide costs could get me a used cart of something I would like more. Plus since the guys at the gamestores are now really aggressive about adding them on to the sale...
Promophile
11-13-2004, 10:10 AM
So I don't miss shit. I have probally over 100 strat guides.
digitalpress
11-13-2004, 10:21 AM
The only strategy guides I have EVER bought in my life were $0.01 ones.
Same here! I have hundreds of "pennied out" strategy guides. Someday I'll actually read thru them. It's cool to have maps and whatnot though I'd never even think to use a strategy guide to get through a game. Online FAQs take care of the "I'm stuck" questions, and I definitely want to discover the games on my own without some book to walk me through like a child. I'm old school, baby.
While I'm here, thought I'd point you to a thread about "the best strategy guides ever". Good thread:
http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=44414
brykasch
11-13-2004, 10:21 AM
Yeah rpg's are the only games I get em for, mainly more as a collectibility thing then for help, as I keep em in sealed bags, and use gamefaqs:)
But if anybody has some rpg strat guides fs/ft let me know. There are a few I need.
maxlords
11-13-2004, 10:48 AM
Me like thu purty pitchurs.
Psycho Mantis
11-13-2004, 11:33 AM
i buy them for cheap or for big rpg's with tons of secrets and stuff like
star ocean 3.
Gregory DG
11-13-2004, 12:21 PM
The only one I've ever bought was for Half-Life for Dreamcast. I had a feeling it might be worth something one considering it never "officially" came out.
Otherwise, I just go to gamefaqs.com to help me in a tough spot.
Lord Contaminous
11-13-2004, 12:30 PM
Like everyone else says, for RPG's.
I take care of them too. And even when I had some for over a few years they still smell brand new.
Richter
11-13-2004, 12:49 PM
fighters
that frame data comes in handy
lendelin
11-13-2004, 12:55 PM
I'll buy them predominantly for ARCHIVING game content. (I'm a bit nuts) I look at these games as virtual worlds with all kinds of little secrets, options, and hidden areas; and I want all of it on paper, so I can preserve what I discovered while playing a game and look it up in twenty years from now. I want to archive evry little item found in a RPG with detailed maps.
I buy guides for RPGs, but for other genres as well if it makes sense to have a guide. Unfortunately, my Best Buys don't have the penny guides anymore, but ususally I buy them cheap, but I spend a lot of money for new ones as well.
I have more than 250 guides (from 89 on). For lots of NES and SNES games I drew my own maps for games which never saw a publsihed guide.
devilman
11-13-2004, 01:32 PM
Does anyone really dislike strategy guides?
Personally, it bugs me when guides are released at the same time as games or even before - I'd much rather there was more self-discovery involved in games. In my local Gamestation the other day, they were offering a discount on the Halo 2 guide if it was bought with the game. I know you're not obliged to buy it or read it, but it narks me that guides pulling apart every last facet of the game are released so soon. I know it's probably a lucrative spin-off of the games industry, but just once I'd like to see a huge RPG released without any guides at all so people have to discover every bit for themselves and people would discuss the amazing things that *they* had found and not read in a book.
Guess I just like there to be a little mystery in my games still...
Captain Wrong
11-13-2004, 01:39 PM
Personally, it bugs me when guides are released at the same time as games or even before - I'd much rather there was more self-discovery involved in games. In my local Gamestation the other day, they were offering a discount on the Halo 2 guide if it was bought with the game. I know you're not obliged to buy it or read it, but it narks me that guides pulling apart every last facet of the game are released so soon. I know it's probably a lucrative spin-off of the games industry, but just once I'd like to see a huge RPG released without any guides at all so people have to discover every bit for themselves and people would discuss the amazing things that *they* had found and not read in a book.
Guess I just like there to be a little mystery in my games still...
Adding to that, I read an article once about how some of the companies who pay big bucks to be the "official" game guide for a game insist certain things are added to the game that the average gamer would have a snowball's chance in hell of finding on their own as a way to sell guides. I know most of that stuff becomes obtanable on the internet eventually, I just think that's some shady "cart leading the horse" bullshit.
MegaDrive20XX
11-13-2004, 01:41 PM
four words: For the Jumbo Posters!
The Manimal
11-13-2004, 02:08 PM
I buy them because....
I suck at video games LOL
Evil E
11-13-2004, 03:32 PM
Like everyone else says, for RPG's.
I take care of them too. And even when I had some for over a few years they still smell brand new.
For some reason this comment is disturbing...... :hmm:
Promophile
11-13-2004, 03:44 PM
Personally, it bugs me when guides are released at the same time as games or even before - I'd much rather there was more self-discovery involved in games. In my local Gamestation the other day, they were offering a discount on the Halo 2 guide if it was bought with the game. I know you're not obliged to buy it or read it, but it narks me that guides pulling apart every last facet of the game are released so soon. I know it's probably a lucrative spin-off of the games industry, but just once I'd like to see a huge RPG released without any guides at all so people have to discover every bit for themselves and people would discuss the amazing things that *they* had found and not read in a book.
Guess I just like there to be a little mystery in my games still...
Adding to that, I read an article once about how some of the companies who pay big bucks to be the "official" game guide for a game insist certain things are added to the game that the average gamer would have a snowball's chance in hell of finding on their own as a way to sell guides. I know most of that stuff becomes obtanable on the internet eventually, I just think that's some shady "cart leading the horse" bullshit.
Yea I wonder about that too sometimes. While on the subject of Strat Guides, 90 percent of US guides are crap compared to JP guides. For instance the JP Chrono Cross perfect guide has everything you would want to know about the game and more, including stats for every character at every level and all kinds of weird stuff. The US guide is half the size and only a plain vanilla walkthrough. The only US companies that I can think of that produce JP quality guides is (was?) Working Designs and the newest strat guide company, DoubleJump.
I buy Final Fantasy guides and N64 guides for collection purposes. I buy used guides if I have the game and they're cheap enough.
This is a bit weird. I insist that my used games are in perfect condition....but I could care less if a used guide that I buy is dogeared. I thumb through them very often. Maybe that's why.
Because I'm a collecting fool!
In addition, I simply like having references available in case I get stuck. Weirdly, I have a stack of Nintendo Powers and all sorts of hint books and guides for NES games, but I try *not* to use them. If anyone has the strategy guides for Uninvited, Fester's Quest, Wall Street Kid, or Lolo 2 (if it exists), please drop me a line. I'm still trying to track those down.
izret101
11-13-2004, 09:42 PM
I get them for games i really like. SC2, UMK3, MK: Deception a few others. I get guides every month in Tips and Tricks so i don't really need to buy newer ones. Usually by the time i get a game the info is already on the internet anyways.
I do have a few other guides that i got from family too.
Ape Escape, Spyro, DCK, DCK2 some others.
FantasiaWHT
11-13-2004, 10:48 PM
I got really pissed at my DM when we got nearly a hundred (yes, 100) strategy guides for...
MADDEN 2005!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We maybe sold 5 to some poor old grammas who didn't know any better. The rest are just sitting in the back room and eventually will be pennied out.
Griking
11-13-2004, 11:25 PM
Is there a way for the regular person to know just which guides are going for a penny at Best Buy or do you have to have an inside connection?
Dobie
11-14-2004, 12:03 AM
I get them solely for games that I like. I usually play through the game without it, and then hunt down the guide later. I just like having it to read through, and to look at the pictures, maybe get some tips on finding some items I missed the first time through.
tyranthraxus
11-14-2004, 01:37 AM
In the pre internet days, yeah, I bought them for RPGs. Games were harder
back then. Part of the fun of beating a game back then was scavenging the
odd hint from game magazines and talking to kids at school. A lot of the
guides back then didn't even have walktrhoughs!! I remember mail ordering
the Might and Magic hint book It took a month to arrive and was full of maps for everyplace but instead of describing what you needed to do there were riddles for each location!! At that point I had already hand drawn maps for
about 3/4s of the game :frustrated:
Now I buy them only if they are cheap and the game is one I really loved but
otherwise the use of gamefaqs.com pretty much pays for the cost of the
internet each month.
drummy
11-14-2004, 01:39 AM
I only bought two strategy guides: One was the Chrono Trigger one and that was because it came with the complete Chrono Trigger game auction I won, and the other one is Earthbound and that I got because it is essential to completing Earthbound (since it did not come with a manual, but the guide instead), and I traded for it; I didn't buy it.