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Extremely hardcore casual gamer.

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Strategy guides are for me. Are they for you?
Mr Dimples \| 12:36 AM on 05.02.2008	14 comments

Strategy guides are something of a hot topic with gamers, especially "hardcore" gamers. If you're seen with a strategy guide you're automatically "softcore", or "casual", or just plain dumb. It's not true that having and using strategy guides makes you "softcore", a guide can actually be a sign of just how "hardcore" you really are.

In case you're wondering, I deliberately put the quotation marks around hardcore because it is such a useless term... I can't really define what a hardcore gamer really is and neither can you. If you think you actually can then let me tell you that you're wrong.

I don't consider myself to be either hard or soft core at all, I simply consider myself a gamer who like most of his friends has a life. I work, I go to college, and I have a girlfriend. Not much time left to game. At all.

Gaming recently got a bit more expensive, and I am not made of money. If I'm going to pay $60 for a game it better be good, and I better get the most out of it. That's where the strategy guide comes in. I only get to game for about 30-40 minutes a day and I'm the type that likes to get everything in a game. It sucks to have to play a game twice only to get a few items that were missed the first time, or to get the "good" ending to a game. RPGs are good examples of this.

If you're as busy as I am, games go from being a simple time killer to being more of an investment, and as such you want to take full advantage of it. Strategy guides help you do just that. Before I used to just play a game until I got bored with it. In a sense, you could say that I was paying $50 for a game and only playing some of it, throwing away my money. If you're sure you've completely covered a game then you have made a solid investment and your money was not lost.

Of course, I could just go through the entire game trying to get everything myself, and a lot of people would say that's the way it should be done. I have to admit that I agree but then reality sets in and I see that I can't do that; it would take me months to finish a game.

Strategy guides make me "hardcore" I guess you could say since I'm going the extra mile to make sure I know all about the game. I say they make me a smart gamer and a smart consumer for getting the most bang for my gaming buck. I know that I'm having a lot of fun with my games and I know that I'm actually seeing everything there is to see and doing everything there is to do. I'm playing the entire game. Are you?

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14 comments | showing # 1 to 14

ajaxender

I feel that using a guide to play through a game the first time is kind of wasting it. I feel that its playing for the destination, not the journey, if you get what i mean.It spoils things, and prevents you from thinking and solving problems yourself.

That being said, once ive finished the main quest, if im still bothered to get 100% ill turn straight to a guide.

killryancooke

I tend to buy the guide but not use it during the first play through unless I am honest to god stuck. My reason for purchasing the guide isn't necessarily the ability to get everything and all that jazz. Instead it is because sometimes the guides deepen the game for me. Somehow reading the guide after the game almost solidifies the experience. There are guides out there that had so much information about the world that I'd end up playing the game again just to see what the hell I am reading about. Guides are for me but for aiding in creating a richer game world for me.

Mr Dimples

As I said on the post, I can see your point quite clearly but I don't like playing a game twice just to get the 100% completion rate. Though I will admit that it has a lot to do with my limited gaming time since I wasn't like this a few years back. In my present circumstance, I don't really feel that the guide takes away from the experience. There may be times when I can't play the game for a few days and I have so much in my head that I may forget the storyline, the guide helps with that as well.

TheHunter234

I never thought of being "hardcore" as determined by gaming skill or even the amount of games one plays, but by one's dedication and love for games and the culture associated with them. In that respect, it doesn't matter how you go about playing your games, just that you love doing it.

Skribble

I've used FAQ's before on puzzles when I've been really baked. But I try never to use them, I like the challenge, using my own skills and merits to do what I can with the game. I don't want to be constantly looking at text to see if I missed the piece of cheese in a certain level.

However, I don't think using one makes you any "softer" than any other gamer. Some would say it does, but they are douches, and you probably have a bigger penis than them. So don't worry about it.

Mr Dimples

Something I actually forgot to mention in my post was that I'm also into drawing and having a strategy guide usually means having some sort of extra game art that I can use to sharpen my drawing skills. On the hardcore side of the argument, I guess I consider myself to be a hardcore casual gamer since I play kind of rarely but I do try to somehow get the most out of my games. Isn't that what hardcore gamers are known for?

Kyousuke Nanbu

I think the terms aren't really needed, you game, you game, it doesn't matter how much you game.

And for guides, depends on the title, if its an RPG, the guide is next to me at all times, I hate missing things, if its an adventure type, I usually beat the game first then use the guide to supplement my next playthrough, currently I own the GTAIV guide, I've only used to find the random weapons and armor lying around the city.

Eschatos

I like strategy guides for really big games with tons of content. I'll play through the first time on my own, then go back with the guide to find all the stuff I missed and easter eggs. You have no idea how much stuff there is in Oblivion until you look at the guide. The one game like that I wouldn't buy a guide for would be GTA. All the fansites put up any information I could want to know within a month of the games release.

Char Aznable

Dude, you're making it sound like gaming is a burden. You don't have to spend your hard-earned money and limited time on this. Thinking of games as an investment that you have to get the most out of...seems to be taking the fun out of it, at least to me.

I'll only consult a guide if I get stuck and/or pissed off at a certain part in a game. And then I only use free FAQs online. But I can appreciate the extra artwork and stuff in some guides, like the Ocarina of Time one that I have from Nintendo Power.

Ocified-Xboxer

I can understand where you're comming from, but your point is a little off. If I went to the movies, and paid my 12 bucks, sat down, and then the guy over the loud speaker says, "Donald is the killer" am I getting my moneys worth because I know what happens already? No.

If anything, I'd say you were wasting money now on games, as opposed to the past. Why even play the game when you can just read what happens, and how to get there, exactly how, in the strategy guide? I could understand if there is a huge undertaking, and you get stuck. We all get stuck at some point...But I think that the joy of a video game is the ability to overcome the obsticles they put in front of you. Basically you're spending 70-80 bucks per game now...Can you really say you are getting the full amount back?

It comes down to choice and opinion...But I think strategy guides are pretty useless, especially with the internet here. If I'm stuck, really stuck, I can find what I need for free...If I want to find all the orbs/hidden packages, I can. For Free. Wasting money dude.

king3vbo

I think its a waste of your money and, more importantly, your time. Whats the point of playing a game if you know whats going to happen. I never buy strategy guides, and I dont go to gamefaqs or anything like that.

RHWeeeee6

The only reason I would go to gamefaqs is if I have already played through the game and I think I may have missed something,but I have not bought a strategy guide in years and I can no longer justify buying one unless for some reason it comes free with your game via a preorder bonus, or you get it as a present from some one.

zombiekiller13

If I am really, truly stuck in a game, I'll check out the strategy guide or GameFAQs.

That said, I haven't bought a strategy guide in many, many years. Last one I got was for Phantom Brave, just because I liked the way it was designed.

Mr Dimples

Yeah, I guess I do kind of make it sound like it's a burden to play video games and that kind of sucks since it wasn't my intention. As soon as a game stops being fun I stop playing it, no matter what because then I feel like I'm just working, wasting my time. That's probably one of the reasons I actually enjoy using a guide; they don't really seem to take the fun out of my games. If my games got boring because of the guides I wouldn't buy them.

I can see what you guys mean when talking about online FAQs, I would also use those sometimes some time back. Fortunately I am able to afford buying the guides (not to say that you can't, mind you) and I think I buy them because I like the screenshots and the art a lot. I'm a really visual type of person.

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