So here's a curious question I've been asking myself for a while.



All of us, at one point or another, have used guides from GameFAQs, right? Right. Given the kind of site it is, it's pretty logical to imagine that they have ways to track the amount of views each individual guide has, if only merely for statistical purposes that serve us, as mere users of the site, no real purpose.

But even if it is to tacitly show your appreciation for the work done, even if no one outside GameFAQs themselves notice, when you look up guides for a game that's part of your gaming community's focus, do you support guides written by your fellow community members?

Allow me to explain with a personal example.

Let's turn our clocks back four years, and settle ourselves in mid-2004, right when MegaMan Zero 3 took the MegaMan community and the portable gaming world by assault. I was the first in the MegaMan community to submit an every-nook-and-cranny guide for the game to GameFAQs (viewable here), and the first to publish an entire game guide covering every single aspect of the game, even if it's been superseded/overshadowed by newer, more recently-submitted guides. At the time, those of you who for one reason or another decided to look up a guide, did you use mine? And if you did, why?

I myself, for all the years I've been using GameFAQs, I've always been on the lookout for guides by people I know. When I first had access to the internet AND an SNES at the same time (hey, blame third-world countries' shitty economy), I know I spent hours perusing Reeve's FAQ for the first MegaMan X game, and also did so with all the other guides he wrote for both GFAQs and his own site, originally MegaMan X Online and later The MegaMan Network. Even when he stepped down and Tim took over, every time I need a guide on a MegaMan game, I usually look for names recognizable within the community, if only to show an unspoken appreciation to them for all the work it takes to write out a detailed guide.

So what about you? Do you simply take whatever guide looks meatier, or do you explicitly look out for people you know and try to support them in a tacit way in their work?

EDIT: My title somehow got truncated. Corrected it now.

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Last edited by Shiki Tohno on Sun Dec 28, 2008 11:34 am, edited 1 time in total.

If I like a guide writer's style, then I will search to see if they have written a guide for the game I have in mind. If I can't find it, I usually go with a very thorough but easy to understand one.

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Depends on the game :P

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I rarely look for anyone specifically, I just use the old Ctrl+F combo to quickly browse through FAQs for the information I need, if I ever need any.

And 90% of the time I have to go through at least six or seven guides until I actually find the correct (or any) information at all.

In my experience, the majority of guides are very poorly written and never updated. The only submitted content usually worth reading on GameFAQs are Ashley Winchester's reviews, which are usually very unbiased and very informative. I've even submitted a few reviews and looking back, they were extremely pointless or half assed even though I felt I was doing a decent job at the time. If I need help, I'd rather just go to the boards to ask and wait thirty seconds for replies rather than wade ankle deep through bullshit for ten to fifteen minutes.

It's not just fan guides that are this way. If it wasn't for screenshots, most official guides would be awful as well. They didn't always be that way... Nintendo Power and Brady Games used to put out phenomenal guides during the SNES and N64 era.

Typically, I pick the first guide in the list that looks to pertain to the subject I want. (usually I am looking for a walkthrough to get through some part at which I am stuck, and not specific faqs)

However, if I notice a guide by someone whose guides I have used effectively before, I will pick that one. I don't ever know the person, really.

I would prefer a meatier guide by some dude to a weaker one by someone I know.

Does that help?

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