What is your opinions on strategy guides?

[gf78]

Personally, I love them when related to a particular game/series. Just not for strategy per se.

To me, the deluxe, hardcover strategy guides are gorgeous. They are full of artwork & screenshots from the games and have detailed sections about the characters, locations, weapons, etc.  Its like the old SNES Explorer Guides (read:  big honkin' instruction manuals) taken to 11!

In this "modern age" of gaming when we dont even get manuals any longer, it's a nice addition to a great new game like Breath of the Wild.

Thoughts?

[soera]

I bought the big giant strat guide for Darksiders III after I had already beaten the game.

I come from a more seasoned side of gaming where the game itself isnt complete without the paired up strat guide.

[wartoy]

I never use them but i still collect them as long as i can pick them up for cheep.

[Flashback2012]

I have an entire bookcase filled to the brim with them with overflow onto another bookcase. They're the next best thing next to art books. They had their heyday 10-15 years ago but don't expect to see many more now that Prima has called it quits. Online access may have crippled what used to be a lucrative business but I think them going with $40-50 hardcover guides was just as damaging. Maybe if they were $20-30 tops they'd still have some skin in the game but at $39.99 to start...oof. You'd have a $60 game (for the regular edition...heaven help you if there's CEs involved), a $20-30 season pass and then another $40 for a hardcover book...ouch your wallet!

On the other side of the token, it makes sense that strategy guides evolved into those hardcover hybrid guide/art books. They certainly look nicer on shelves than the old softcover guides. 

[gf78]

Best deal I got on one was the hardcover Super Mario Odyssey guide. GameStop was "pennying" them out which translates to ripping the cover off and throwing it into the dumpster. I rescued it and a Farcry 5 hardcover from oblivion prior to the cover removal.

[bikingjahuty]

I been collecting them for years, however, just today actually, I came to a bit of a crossroad when it comes to my future plans to continue collecting them. I really enjoy player's guides as they represent an age before most people had the internet and if you wanted to know the best strategy to beat a specific part of a game than it was the strategy guide or nothing. I also enjoyed how many strategy guides including cool artwork, maps and spreadsheets to help the player really understand the game they were playing. On top of that they provide a quick, well organized source of most info regarding a specific game (typically).


Of course, we now live in an age where any game that sold relatively well or has a sizable fanbase has a million FAQs, walkthroughs, longplays, let's plays, and all kinds of other independently published guides available for free online. These free sources obviously vary in quality, but the vast number of them pretty much mean there will be at least one that will help you through a particularly difficult section of a game.


With all that said, nearly every player's guide has been made redundant by the internet and its vast amount of sources. The only benefit that player's guides, sometimes, provide is having all information for the game at your finger tips like an encyclopedia or thesaurus. There is also the artwork and maps, but at this point most of these are available online, especially the artwork. And this is where my dilemma about continuing to collect guides comes up, as well as wanting to keep most of my guides.


Even though I own many guides for many of the games I own, I feel like I use them once in a great while. I also don't look at them for fun as much as I should. I definitely haven't decided that I'm going to fire sale them off, but my decision to continue collecting them is certainly something I'm weighing right now. I have some pretty rare and valuable guides that could be used to buy some really awesome games....

[kashell]

I think I like collecting strategy guides more than games! My only rule with them is that I have to have the game before I get its guide.

I'll flip through them when I'm passing the time; kind of like how folks enjoy their favorite magazines.

[droaa]

I have a few either cuz they are pretty old like the original RE one I have or come with something extra like the Onimusha 3. The only hardcover ones I have are the dark souls ones which as a huge fan of the series are pretty neat however are not useful for information due to things getting patched and changed post launch. That being said, I don't collect them anymore because I feel like their usefulness has surpassed with video guides in the wild and its just something to look at for a couple minutes, say "thats cool" and put them back never to seen again until you find them again for reasons.

[soera]

Im actually still kind of in the market for a few! Castlevania: SOTN, Grandia, Misadventures of Tron Bonne, Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus, Persona 2, Saga Frontier 1 and 2, Suikoden, and Thousand arms.

[masamune]

I loved strategy guides as a child, not really for the strategies, but for the artwork and story telling held within. I used to get Nintendo Power magazines in the mail in the NES/ SNES era, and they put out some really nice players guides back then.

[sworddude]

I never use strategy guides it can kill the fun in solving puzzles etc in the game not to mention spoilers.

I do however collect strategy guides and I do appreciate the art work and the content that is inside of them. Especially if I already completed the game and I'm a big fan of the game it can be fun to look through it for the maps and art work character descriptions story etc. a strategy guide is very luxurious manual after all wich in most cases pretty much contains the entire game and extra's

[wolfen]

I grew up in an era with the internet and Gamespot so I never really got the itch for them as a kid. In a similar vein I do love having the manuals that come with games and am kinda sad that they are getting phased out.

[theflea]

I don't go out of my way to "collect" or use strategy guides. The only time I buy them is at garage sales for $1 or under.
I like to play a game and only use a guide or look up help on the internet when I get stuck.

[burningdoom]

Don't use them. It takes away from the magic of discovery in a game.

And if I get to the point where I'm completely stuck, there's the internet.

[bikingjahuty]

Last night I sat in front of my shelf of guides and thought long and hard about what my criteria for owning them is. My intention was to pick out the ones that I didn't feel like I'd ever use and sell them, but while doing this I realized that my criteria for keeping guides has been fairly solid since I began collecting. While information for virtually every game is available online, I actually prefer the way the info is laid out in most player's guides more. I know in the past I've had to go to several sources in order to find out what to do for a specific part of a game, whereas with a guide it is generally all there. I feel like this is especially true for more involved gamed games, mostly RPGs, but sometimes other games too. Out of the hundreds of guides I own, I was only able to select 6 that I felt comfortable getting rid of.


On a side note there are also guides that I feel very sentimental towards even if they aren't all that necessary or helpful. An example of this is Star Fox 64. The game is an on-rails shooter and while there are some fun secret areas and paths, it is by no means a complex or difficult game. However, I adore Star Fox 64 and the guide just enhances that sense of adoration I have for it.