Videogame Strategy Guides On DVD - A Good Idea? 55
Thanks to Nintendojo for its review of the GameXplain series of DVD-based game strategy guides, in this case oriented around Mario Kart: Double Dash!! for the GameCube. The reviewer seems to approve, arguing: "Why bother struggling through conventional strategy guides by reading vague text and squinting at tiny images when you can actually see in motion exactly how you're supposed to solve that puzzle, defeat that annoying boss, or shave 15 seconds off your best lap around the track?" He also notes: "When the video arrives at the critical part of the strategy the video will pause, cued by a camera clicking sound effect, and everything unimportant will gray, leaving only the important information in color." The official GameXplain site also mentions forthcoming guides to Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask.
No. (Score:2, Funny)
Strategy Guides :: Dodo? (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously, with sites like GameFaqs, I look down upon printed manuals as a genuine waste of money. The only advantage of a DVD guide would be video examples, but it, too, would cost money and would require swapping out a PS2 disc or switching the TV over to a separate DVD player.
With the WWW, I can access hundreds of people who put out this information out of enthusiasm for free (not unlike OSS), so your only market with printed/DVD guides are people without Internet access or saps who make impulse purchases at toy stores.
Re:Strategy Guides :: Dodo? (Score:5, Insightful)
0. Terrible ASCII art
1. Useless table of contents
2. Overlong and pointless revision history
3. Petulent whining about stealing this FAQ (immediately followed by 'This is my first FAQ evar!'
4. Obnoxious introduction 'Why I LOVE this game' including stories of the author's friends and siblings
5. Actual useful info
6. List of shark codes stolen from somewhere else
7. Incredibly long and shameful list of thank-yous to every AIM screenname and forum account who ever emailed the author, along with warnings to properly address future emails with the subject 'FAQ-game X' or they will be ignored
8. Laughable attempt at copyright, similer to part 3 above
Sure, 10% of FAQs are detailed and useful, but most of them are incomplete, full of embarrassing typos, and only marginally helpful. I wouldn't call for the death of the printed guide yet! Not that I don't use online FAQs, I do turn to them in a pinch... but there's a lot of crap out there. And a lot of out-and-out lies.
Also, there's something to said for a genuine piece of gaming memorabilia for a game you really liked. Most guides I've bought have been because I want a scrapbook for the game, so I page through it later and relive the game without having to play the 15 hours again. I like seeing the promo artwork, good design and layout, and lots of screenshots. Not all guides have that quality, but many do.
Re:Strategy Guides :: Dodo? (Score:3, Interesting)
I've had pretty good luck with GameFaqs. I know how to use "Find in this page..." in Mozilla and know how to look up multiple sources if I question what the FAQ says.
GameFaqs is just one of many sites, too. Doing a web search for the game name plus a specific keyword like "chocobo training" or whatever is very effective. There is no shortage of information on the WWW about games.
I can't disagree about the collectability of g
Re:Strategy Guides :: Dodo? (Score:1, Insightful)
0. Terrible ASCII art
1. Useless table of contents
2. Overlong and pointless revision history
3. Petulent whining about stealing this FAQ (immediately followed by 'This is my first FAQ evar!'
4. Obnoxious introduction 'Why I LOVE this game' including stories of the author's friends and siblings
5. Actual useful info
6. List of shark codes stolen from somewhere else
7. Incredibly long and shameful list of thank-yous to every AIM screenname and forum account who ev
Re:Strategy Guides :: Dodo? (Score:5, Insightful)
Strategy guides can't be updated with new information or with error correction. I remember buying a Super Mario RPG strategy guide that had completely wrong information because there were two versions of the game.
In addition to having more accurate information, there's also more specific information in many FAQs. For example, there's a Final Fantasy Tactics guide that goes into extreme detail about the mechanics of the game. It covers the damage and success formulas for everything in the game, which is no small feat. The FFT strategy guides don't do that. There's FAQs that go over glitches in the game, translation issues, and all sorts of other things that will never make it into a strategy guide. Even if only 10% of FAQs are detailed and useful as you claim, those 10% completely blow away traditional guides.
I do agree that there's no better place for good game artwork, screenshots, and such, which is why strategy guides will probably never completely disappear. If I'm looking for information, though, I'll stick to my FAQs.
Re:Strategy Guides :: Dodo? (Score:3, Interesting)
I must say, that's a good point. You can find FAQs about the numerical damage level of every possible Pokemon combination, but you're not going to get that info out of Nintendo for any price.
It's all relative, I suppose. Choice A has benefits and Choice B has benefits!
Hooray, a resolution with a minimum of Slashdot posturing and insults. We don't fail it, good friends... we win it.
Re:Strategy Guides :: Dodo? (Score:2)
Re:Strategy Guides :: Dodo? (Score:2)
Re:Strategy Guides :: Dodo? (Score:2)
Re:Strategy Guides :: Dodo? (Score:1, Interesting)
You forget one major thing (Score:5, Insightful)
"Professionally" written FAQs are pretty bad. While they do have the attractive full-color laminated pages, they also were written by someone who was given about a week to research and write this thing. Which means they are also incomplete, full of embarrassing typos, and only helpful for very basic things. For any kind of fighting game you are better off with GameFaqs than with a professionally developed magazine. Hobbyist Faq writers love the game enough and know it end-to-end enough to want to write such a thing, and maintain it over the course of months or years. They're the ones likely to discover the most original combos, the most abusive tactics, and the most powerful strategies.
Want to know where all of the developer sanctioned secrets are? Get the official guide. Want to know the most abusive, unbalancing strategies to raise your game? Go to GameFaqs. Want to know where one of the level designers snuck in Merlin the Meteor throwing Squirrel? You need GameFaqs.
By the way, when you are numerating something, please start with one. In much the same way that we don't want to imbue computers with mood swings, we shouldn't want computers to make us zero index everything. Otherwise we run the risk of running counter to the concept of counting.
umm.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:umm.... (Score:2, Insightful)
Or if like my TV, only has one SCART socket, the worlds least elegant AV connection, which requires you to manhadle the TV into a position so that you can actually get the bloody socket in/ (But at least it does RGB.)
The answer is a resounding... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Strategy Guides Suck (Score:2)
I agree. Final Fantasy X, for example, has some side quests (especially the celestial weapons) that have either zero clues, very ve
Re:Strategy Guides Suck (Score:5, Interesting)
I would disagree with that statement. Obviously, figuring out the puzzles, etc. is fun, but it is far from the ONLY source of fun in a video game.
Some people enjoy leveling up RPG characters so that they can defeat any enemy in one attack. Some people enjoy finding every secret item/level/etc. in the game. Some people like to play games in a movie-like fashion, and their enjoyment comes from the storyline/graphics/music rather than from deducing the solutions to the puzzles. Some people appreciate the cleverness of the puzzles from an objective point of view without being interested in solving the puzzles themselves.
I certainly do not agree with all of the viewpoints mentioned above, but the point is that different people enjoy different aspects of the same game, and I don't think we should be able to say that only a single method of enjoyment is valid.
Re:Strategy Guides Suck (Score:3, Insightful)
Strategy guides ruin all video gaming. They should all go away. However, there are exceptions. The exception is fighting games.
It seems to me as though he IS assuming that being the best possible game player is the only valid source of entertainment. Also, there is
Re:Strategy Guides Suck (Score:2)
Also (Score:3, Insightful)
Otherwise the rest of the game would have been lost to me. Extreme example perhaps, but web stategy guides do come in useful, and it isn't always cheating.
Re:Strategy Guides Suck (Score:5, Insightful)
Thank you, Fun Police. That sounds like the attitude of someone whose only real skill in life is video games so you need to knock down others who don't possess your button-mashing idiot savantry just to feel better about yourself. I see no other reason why you're so hostile towards people holding their own opinions about what is fun. You don't like strategy guides? Don't use 'em, genius.
I'll decide what's fun for me to play. For me, paying $50 for a game and then getting completely stuck just a third of the way through it is very much NOT fun. I game to relax and escape. I don't need gaming to be an exercise in frustration. I can get that in my everyday life. Sure, I absolutely enjoy challenging puzzles. I don't enjoy having to quit a game out of frustration because of some stupid puzzle when I can simply look the answer up online before I give up entirely.
Other than that if you pick up a strategy guide for a game you haven't already beaten, you are the lowest of the low in terms of video gaming.
You can keep your title of "King of Video Games" if it helps you get to sleep at night. Me, I'll save my skills and energy for productive pursuits and save gaming for the pleasant but meaningless diversion that it is. So just remember you can reign supreme over the latest version of UberCounterMegaCombatStrikeCell and mock us "lowest of the low" because we can't execute a perfect combo or whatever, you'll find that if you ever venture out of your mom's basement into the real world you'll find that no one will care about your l33t-ness and you'll find out who's really the "lowest of the low".
Re:Strategy Guides Suck (Score:2)
Re:Strategy Guides Suck (Score:1)
My, how elegant and succcinct.
Anyone who ever looks in a strategy guide prior to beating a video game is a total loser.
Well, it's even harder to win when you get stuck 10% of the way through with a puzzle you just can't beat.
The fun of the game is figuring out the puzzle and things.
Yes, that's part of the fun. But completing the game is alo part of the fun. Personally, I enjoy mental puzzles, but I really hate the ones where you have to thrawsh the controller wit
Re:Strategy Guides Suck (Score:2)
I find more often than not, that places where I get really stuck in games, they are often issues on *how* to play the game, not necessarily challenging puzzles. For example, in Zelda wind waker, I didn't realize you could pull certain blocks (I didn't play previous versions). The first time I found those blocks I had no idea that they could be moved! It was very frustrating....
Re:Strategy Guides Suck (Score:1)
I use guides for two reasons (Score:5, Insightful)
1) to find a solution to a problem I just can't seem to find the answer to. I'm not going to spend two weeks trying to solve a single problem in a game.
2) to find eggs or secret features to the games that I didn't find after I've finished with the game.
That said, I think guides are pretty outdated. Most of the info you need is available on the net.
-Sean
Not the greatest of ideas... (Score:3, Insightful)
I can certainly understand why companies are trying new ideas with strategy guides, though. With the advent of GameFAQs, nobody needs to buy a guide anymore. I'd only buy a strategy guide for the nice artwork or as a collector's item.
Re:Not the greatest of ideas... (Score:1)
The REAL use for strategy guides... (Score:5, Insightful)
At least for me.
What they really need to do... (Score:5, Funny)
Now those were game guides!
Re:What they really need to do... (Score:2)
Now those were game guides!
Which ones?
There are 3 generations of invisiclues.
The first ones had the magic marker which you used to unveil the clue. The later ones had red cellophane. And finally there were some really neat ones made by Magnetic Scrolls where you were given an encrypted string which you typed into the game and it would reveal the answer if you had progressed far enough into the game.
God I loved those. I think I have Kings Quest I-V hintbooks somewhere.. faded
Re:What they really need to do... (Score:1)
Ummm... the high-tech ones that finally exist due to wonders of technology and a couple of decades of development in computers?
In other words, what we need is programs that operate similar to invisiclues. Show a question, click on a link or button or whatever to show more detailed hints. Not as funny or challenging as the originals, but it's the idea that matters.
If I ever finish making the NWN module I'm working on, I'll make a separate "hint module" that solely exists to provide clues i
Game on DVD, Guide on DVD (Score:2, Insightful)
A DVD in addition to the printed guide could be helpful, but I only bought the FF3 (FF6) strategy guide for the cool pictures and whatnot.
I used to do this (Score:3, Interesting)
I think I still have my Blaster Master and Shadowgate videos around somewhere.
Although today, the idea of using DVDs doesn't seem right. It might make more sense to have people download video from the internet for a price, perhaps as an added service for people willing to pay for gaming news online.
Of course, I'm sure some online site already do this, but I'm just not willing to pay for it.
Hmm, sounds fascinating (Score:2)
Did you also tape the daily beatings you received from your fellow classmates? You probably would have made much more money.
it could work (Score:2, Insightful)
On the other hand, it'd be rather stupid for something like Final Fantasy MCLMXXXVII.
Not that I read strategy guides, and I cheap lamer wh
Will people buy DVDs to read? (Score:4, Insightful)
I seem to recall something similar on video in the mid to late '90s. It don't think it went down all that well.
Moreover, the DVD-based zines I've seen haven't lasted. I'm not persuaded that people want to buy DVDs to read. For my own part, I don't like reading things off a screen all the time. It's hard on the eyes. (Then again, it's unclear to me how much of this guide is devoted to writing--as opposed to voice-acting and video--so this may not be an issue here.)
Also, while a great many people use the net for help in games, I've seen many gamers comment that they don't want to leave their game to consult a guide. They want something they can hold on their knee as they work through a problem. Or take to the bathroom, or to bed, or to the backyard. How many people have two DVD players hooked up in the same room? Hard-core gamers, sure. But are they the target audience for strategy guides?
A DVD tucked into a sleeve inside the back cover of a traditional guide for an extra fiver might be a better bet (as someone else suggested). It sounds as though this guide is well put together. But I'd ask the reviewer what the heck the quality of the DVD intro has to do with the quality of the information that follows? (Surely we've all played -games- with dazzling intros and lackluster gameplay?)
And I didn't see a price. It's $14.95, a touch high, IMO. $9.95 would bring in more of the impulse buyers.
Peter PS: It might also be nice if they could keep saved-game files on the DVD as well, and allow the player to off-load them into their memory cards.
Gaming Help (Score:2)
Both of which I anticipated great use for, but in the end it was a huge waste of money.
The best solution for me was having a PC online two feet next to me while I play games. That allow me to surf the web and access infinite resources.
Actually (Score:1)
simple (Score:2)
Perhaps because your TV is already in use due to the fact that you're playing a game?
Hopefully they're better than BGDA2's guide (Score:1)
Anyway, back to my point. For those of us who pre-ordered this game (at least through Game Stop) we were promised a guide on DVD. The DVDs printed all failed. None of us got them. After a couple of weeks Game Stop said the manufacturer is not going to bother creating the DVD now.
Guides are not usually necessary. In some cases where a game is not intuitiv
A video guide can be useful (Score:2)
What's Next? (Score:1)
Video vs. text (Score:1)
Text may be obscure, but at least it can be followed if you paid attention to the game. Video can be considerably more obscure if you only see segments of what to do. The cautionary example. [seanbaby.com]
The only way the video walkthrough can help is that if you cover the entire game, collecting everything and doing everything there's to do. If you can't fit that on a DVD, forget the whole thing.
Here's some good examples [c64-longplays.de.vu] of video walkthroughs (some ed2k'ing required). Check out the Last Ninja 3 one, for example. (Th