Your view on strategy guides

[TurboGenesis]

I am just wondering folks views on the use of strategy guides. Do you use them, and find them handy or do you view them as cheating?

I have a pretty decent size collection of guides and have found myself referring to them to progress through tough spots in games and to view maps to avoid getting lost and wandering around too much aimlessly.

I ask cause a few of my friends have seen my in use guides next to my chair and say why do you want to cheat through a game and ruin it.

I like the guides better than scrolling through gamefaqs walkthroughs as I usually get nice maps and a nicer interface than a bunch of words typed out. And they are collectible too :)

[Technosis]

I find them useful. I don't really have the time or patience to spend alot of time if I'm stuck in a certain spot in a game. Also, if it's a "walk-through" guide, it may mention specific things such as "secrets" that I would never had found on my own.

That said, I find that buying a traditional printed guide like the ones from Brady is usually unnecessary. Usually the 'net yields better info, but like you say the guides are a nice "collectible".

[Jimmy Yakapucci]

I try to get through them without a guide, but I feel no shame in using one. Also, some are really nice just for their artwork. ( Working Designs ). I have noticed that EB/Gamestop offer new games packaged with the guide for a discount.

JY

[Technosis]

I have noticed that EB/Gamestop offer new games packaged with the guide for a discount.
JY

I suspect this is because the markup on guides is like gravy for the game stores.

I saw tons of people purchasing the Oblivion set.

[p_b]

My answer isn't really up there. I don't see the point of strategy guides, as all the releveant info is on the web anyway. So usually I just grind on, relying on sites like gamefaqs for a last resort. I have never used a guide and probably never will, unless someone starts handing them out as presents to me :-)
I realise that a collector might want them or that they might have some artistic value, but that doesn't rock my boat :-)

[jajaja]

Im not sure what to answer. I do love the guides because of the detailed pictures etc. but i dont use them. I guess i would have to answer the 3rd option.

The few strategy guides i've bought is mostly for collection purposes only. I have never used any of them if/when i was stuck in a game. I have of course used guides that you find on i.e Gamefaqs.com when i'm stuck. I dont really like to use them because i want to make it on my own :)

It also depends on what game tho, like if there a game i just want to try out it doesnt really matter if i use guides or cheats. But if there are games that i really want to enjoy i try to stay away from guides unless its absolutely nessessarry hehe.

[Captain Wrong]

I guess what pisses me off is so many games that seem to be impossible to complete without a guide.

[Griking]

I guess what pisses me off is so many games that seem to be impossible to complete without a guide.

I agree 100% here.

But that being said if I pick up a guide it's usually only because I found it really cheap or it was for a game I really enjoyed.

I have noticed a disappointing trend were games are being designed to need the guide (since instruction manuals are pretty much non-existent nowadays) combined with the price of guides are going up and up.

[LAGO]

I tend to use them when I get stuck. The absolute best guide I have ever seen is the guide for FF9 /sarcasm

[RadiantSvgun]

I collect them. I try to beat the game without the guide, then go back through using the guide for extras, hidden stuff, and whatnot. However, I believe Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne was almost impossible without the guide. (and the guide has some errors in the extra section too.)

[jcalder8]

I like the books but only if the price is cheap, I'm not willing to pay full price for them so I normally pick them up after I have finished with the game so I'll use the online ones if I get stuck but normally I try and go through it on my own.

[cyberfluxor]

I try to stay far from guides and walk-throughs. When I get stuck I try to wonder around more and do extra things and hope that eventually I'll figure out what to do. If I've been at it for over an hour though, it's time to bust out a guide and just read enough to get by where I'm stuck.

[RegSNES]

I tend to use them when I get stuck. The absolute best guide I have ever seen is the guide for FF9 /sarcasm

I don't think I've ever been more disgusted with a guide than the FFIX guide. What's the effing point of a guide that constnatly refers you to a website? Can't believe I wasted my money on that crap. And it came from Brady Guides of all companies. Wonder how many e-mails they got involving four letter words.

Anyway, I have no problem using strategy guides. Especially if I'm playing a game I've already gone through before. If I can save myself from running into dead ends in a RPG, thus saving myself some annoying random encounters, I'm all for it.

[7th lutz]

Some of the genres like rpgs, a guide is needed in some cases. Some of the rpgs I play, are difficult without a guide like phatasy star 1 and 2 and the game I am currently trying to beat lufia 2. I depend on online guides on gamefaqs for some rpgs when I am stuck. Some of the rpgs have difficult puzzles to figure out.

[BocoDragon]

I definitely don't rely on guides because it does ruin "the challenge", but lets not forget that "the challenge" is usually finding some random item that some random developer has stuck in a random corner.... the challenge is often stupid, and deserves to be "broken" with a guide.

In short, I find a guide enitirely reasonable due to the obtuse challenges and secrets of most games, and they are fun to collect too. Do I keep the guide open in my lap while I play through the entire game? No. It's only for when I'm stuck.

[jajaja]

I try to stay far from guides and walk-throughs. When I get stuck I try to wonder around more and do extra things and hope that eventually I'll figure out what to do. If I've been at it for over an hour though, it's time to bust out a guide and just read enough to get by where I'm stuck.

Im usualy like that too, i try everything until i get a stomach wound lol. Then when u finaly reach for the guide and read the solution you think "arg.. thats the only thing i didnt try!".

[BocoDragon]

I don't think I've ever been more disgusted with a guide than the FFIX guide. What's the effing point of a guide that constnatly refers you to a website? Can't believe I wasted my money on that crap. And it came from Brady Guides of all companies. Wonder how many e-mails they got involving four letter words.

That FFIX guide was legendary for its suckiness. I know personally many people who were burned by it, let alone the common complaints on the internet.

But don't blame Brady Games. Note that the "Check PlayOnline for more info!" scheme was Square's idea. I believe they mandated the same practice for a bunch of strategy guides in Japan, and even made it illegal to write your own FAQ and put it online! I don't know how sucessful they were with that, but you can see their goal: Everyone will check their PlayOnline site for FFIX info instead of anywhere else, including online guides or even offline guides for that matter!

Not only was PlayOnline a rather crappy place to get your FFIX info from, but they eventually just made "PlayOnline.com" your normal Square corporate site, and PlayOnline now only refers to their online community service for games like FFXI. Point is, I don't think their little FFIX information embargo accomplished anything.

[dcescott]

I don't play rpg's at all. The last strategy guide I bought was for Time Splitters Future Perfect. I didn't use it until I got to the haunted house. Which I didn't need to, but I wasn't happy about using a bat and was looking for the shotgun. When I saw the gun on the wall, I put 2 and 2 together and used that cool pulling gravity glove toy thing to get it.
What I am getting at is, I should not have bought a guide, nor should I ever. If I get stuck, I will go on the net and find my answers there. I will save 15 bucks to blow it on other crap like flowers for Valentines Day for the wife;)

[apocalypse later]

I rarely buy them. With the wealth of free guides online, I don't see the need.

The only time I do buy them is with a big release. For example, I had been anticipating Final Fantasy XII for about three years. When it finally came out, I bought both the CE game and the LE Guide. Just a more "complete" experience.

I know guys that buy a guide with every game though. My friend gets a guide even for games like Tekken 5 and Call of Duty 3 or something--games that really do not need guides.

[boatofcar]

I don't think I've ever been more disgusted with a guide than the FFIX guide. What's the effing point of a guide that constnatly refers you to a website? Can't believe I wasted my money on that crap. And it came from Brady Guides of all companies. Wonder how many e-mails they got involving four letter words.

Geez! I'm so glad someone else felt this way! I've never felt so ripped off in my life. That was the last strategy guide I've ever bought. Since then if I get stuck in a game I just go to GameFAQs. It sometimes takes a little longer to find what I need, but it's free.

Oh, btw, my favorite strategy guides is the one Nintendo made for the first Final Fantasy. Actually, as far as strategy goes, Nintendo Power was awesome. I remember when Chrono Trigger came out, they devoted most of the magazine that went about halfway through the game.

[Steven]

I like guides, esp. when they're well done. The art is nice to have, it just makes a perfect companion to the game, whether you actually use it or not. Ironic, because I just used Super Play's map of Super Metroid to help me get through certain spots. ;)

[50s Brawler]

I am just wondering folks views on the use of strategy guides. Do you use them, and find them handy or do you view them as cheating?


Back in the day (the 8-Bit and 16-Bit era) I refused to use any kind of Strategy Guide or walkthrough, but these days I don't have the time or patience I once did as a younggin. If the game is entirely in Japanese Text and requires reading a lot, I don't have any problems using a "walkthrough", but even now I don't much care to use a strategy guide for domestic games. I also have never used a Action Replay (well other than as a convertor cart during the Sega Saturn days) or a Game Shark, etc. Don't see the need really. I don't frown on ppl who use strat guides or walkthroughs, I've just always been of the mindset to get though the challenge without them, or after I've beaten a game once... then go back and see what I might have missed. Of course even back in the day I had to know that A,B,B,A code for IKARI and the Konami code for Contra. 8-)

[alec006]

There very useful when you get stuck somewhere or want to know about some hidden secrets about the game ^^

[Push Upstairs]

I think the only guide I've bought recently was for "From Russia with Love" because I wanted an actual guide with pictures, not someones wordy description of where an item or something is.

And sometimes you just gotta use GameFAQS. As bad as the forums may be, the guides are sometimes top notch stuff.

[MarioMania]

I like getting Guides just to Collect & to Read it

[Lemmi_Is_God]

my thoughts on Strat. Guides are they are to expensive now
only a few years back you could find them for $3 a piece no matter what kind were, and now i see that $12.99 is the lowest price for them in my area, even an old SNES guide i saw a price of $11.99 on it when they couldnt give them away for $3 a few years ago

hell the one for the Zelda collection on the GC sells for $50+ alone. hell i paid less for the game brand new

[DonMarco]

Another guide collector here. I have been since the days of the Sega CD. I'm two guides away from a complete GameFan Books collection... So close...

On a whole, they're usually great to have available, as someone somewhere will want it. Everyone has gotten stuck in a game. Be it a kid that bit off more game than they could chew or a college kid that can't find one damned key.

[DonMarco]

http://www.dontpressstart.com/upload/guides/left.jpg
http://www.dontpressstart.com/upload/guides/right.jpg

Sorry for the ten-day delay in posting these shots. I have just recently moved and needed to buy new shelves. I then spent a week unpacking these guides and arranging them. They're mostly arranged by publisher. Anyone else want to show off some pictures?

[dgdgagdae]

I think maybe games just passed me by somewhere. I read an article lately complaining about how games are just too easy these days, but not for me. No, I don't buy strategy guides, but only because I have access to the World Wide Web. Sometimes I'll have a walkthru bookmarked, because I tend to get stuck easily. Take Splinter Cell: Double Agent, for example. I had enough trouble with the control scheme; when I just couldn't figure out what to do next (and this was early in the game) and couldn't even see, because it was just too damned dark, I was done.

[Lemmi_Is_God]

HOLY CRAP! DonMarco, i dont think ive seen so many strat. guides in one place before, even in a book store :)

[mailman187666]

I like to buy guide books for games I know I'll really be into, like the DS Castlevanias and Oblivion. Its more of a collectors value to me, some guides i still got sealed.

[RPG_Fanatic]

http://www.dontpressstart.com/upload/guides/left.jpg
http://www.dontpressstart.com/upload/guides/right.jpg

Sorry for the ten-day delay in posting these shots. I have just recently moved and needed to buy new shelves. I then spent a week unpacking these guides and arranging them. They're mostly arranged by publisher. Anyone else want to show off some pictures?

Great Collection!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :o I know some of them are worth some $$$$$$

[cyberfluxor]

DonMarco:
Oh my god. I'm afraid to see how large your bathrooms magazine rack is...

[The Plucky Little Ninja]

DonMarco:
Oh my god. I'm afraid to see how large your bathrooms magazine rack is...

Hell that is his bathroom. You should see the living room.

OK not really, but damn that would make for a fine crapper. It's like gamefaqs took on physical form.

[TurboGenesis]

Another guide collector here. I have been since the days of the Sega CD. I'm two guides away from a complete GameFan Books collection... So close...

On a whole, they're usually great to have available, as someone somewhere will want it. Everyone has gotten stuck in a game. Be it a kid that bit off more game than they could chew or a college kid that can't find one damned key.

You have a fine, massive collection there!

Pretty much all of my guides are for RPG's. I generally use them for maps and in case I get stuck I'll reference it but I don't play by the book the first time through a game. I am currently playing Secret of Mana for the third time as I just got the guide and am playing it by the book more or less though some the the strategies are flawed as I still use my old tricks on bosses.

Then there are some guides that make absolutely no sense. Like madden guide WTF!

[DonMarco]

Then there are some guides that make absolutely no sense. Like madden guide WTF!
Here's a sample of the Guitar Hero II guide:

http://dontpressstart.com/upload/guides/mother.jpg

There's more to the guide than just this, but it's still pretty funny. It also has things like warm-up exercises, interviews, and tips from the GH team... Stickers...