Are Game Guides Dying?

Thanks to GameSpot for their guest GameSpotting feature discussing whether the print-based game guide is a thing of the past. According to the piece: "As long as there have been games, there have been game guides to help players beat them. Over the years they have evolved into slick, glossy (and thin) books with tons of valuable information and high-quality screenshots and maps... Guides make tough games easier. But are they worth it?" The author references a videogame-store friend laughing: "Why buy a game guide when I can just download the FAQ for free?" Is there any new presentation of paper-based game guides that might make you tempted to pay for them, or are they truly dying out for good?

Comments

online faqs have major plusses..

[gl4ss]

first of all of course, they're free.

they're also available when you need it (just one googling away).

most importantly they're updated with various bits of little tidbits usually. the official kind of booklets can fail you miserably if there were some last minute changes to the game, or bugs. paper versions also aren't usually made by some mad gamer, which can be a plus as well as a minus.

also forums provide nowadays most of the information that such booklets would be useful for.

Why I hate the Game Guides

[chriso11]

It used to be you would get a useful manual with a game. Now, all that you get is a "how to install" and a "how to play the tutorial" section in the manual. The rest of the useful information is printed into the game guide for extra profit.

Re:Why I hate the Game Guides

[Ondo]

I agree, I love it when I start a new game for whatever reason and get to do the tutorial bullshit again.

That's also bad design. Most games either have the tutorial as a seperate section of the game, have some method of skipping it, or have it as fun as the rest of the game.

Never Mind, I know how to read.

Reading a manual is almost never fun. A good game will reduce the amount of time spent doing things that aren't fun. Reading numerous help screens, like in some Final Fantasies or Dark Cloud 2, is almost as bad, but at least it seperates out the dull sections over the course of the game, instead of putting it all up front.

No, they're not

[lightspawn]

They may be almost completely pointless for somebody who knows about gamefaqs.com, but some are great as art books / reference for game programmers (especially RPGs). And they have nice maps and stuff.

What I want to know is who's watching those 'cheat code' segments of video game shows and G4's 'cheat' full half-hour. I mean, watching it hoping one of the games you own ends up there and then going to the web site and printing the codes? Why watch in the first place?

On another note: are "are X dying" articles dying? I haven't seen one in a few days.

Finally dead

[Nukenbar2]

One of the last reasons that a guide would be useful has lost its edge, portability. It used to be that using a computer based faq was a pain because my computer was not right in front of me when I played the game. This is not a problem anymore because of wi-fi and cheap(er) laptops. Now with that combo, I can have it sitting right next to me in the den just like the old paper version.

The slight benefit of even greater mobility than the laptop is lost once you factor in the $9.95 (or more) price tag.

Screenshots

[erasmus_]

Not I have bought a guide in a while, as I use GameFaqs just like everyone else, but the one advantage that I think people haven't mentioned yet of the printed guides are the screenshots. There are definitely some games and situations where words just can't adequately express what you're supposed to do or go. Usually in the FAQ that will be accompanied by "just keep trying - you'll get it eventually!"

Like I said, I haven't bought a guide in a while, but if I'm already at the store, and I happen to remember that I'm stuck somewhere in one of many games I play and then put on hold, I definitely might check out the screenshot. Screenshots of items and enemies might be useful as well, as in the text FAQ all you're getting is the general description and then it's up to you to match that mentally when you actually encounter it in the game.

My first clue that they were dying..

[lancew]

.. was when I bought my son the guide book for one of the later Final Fantasy games ( I believe it was FF9). The book was full of the typical hints, tips and tricks, but all of the key information was missing. For all of the really important stuff you needed to take a code number listed in the guide and input it into Square's playonline.com website (which required registration, of course).

If I have to go to the computer to get the information anyway, why not just use one of the free faqs available? Why pay my money for a slick, colorful guide with little valuable information? I am pretty sure that was the last guide book I ever purchased.

In the future they will probably just skip the printed material altogether and charge you $5.95 to access the same information on their website.

Re:I still buy them...

[macrom]

So why not run to Wal-Mart (assuming you're in the US) and purchase a super cheap inkjet printer. I'm sure your daughter could use it for school, you could use it for work, and you can just print the FAQs at low quality to conserve ink. I would imagine after several guide prints you will begin recouping your investment.