27th March 2015, 6:53 AM
It's true, modern guides have more than two problems. Chief among them, as you said, there's always GameFAQs (or whatever the Japanese equivalent is). However, pure text guides have something missing over guides with pictures, namely fully detailed maps. Sometimes, written walkthroughs don't quite match that. Was your Mario World guide Nintendo's "Mario Mania" guide? I loved that one, and describe it above. Another factor to consider is sometimes there are deep game secrets only developers are privvy to, and while those eventually get on GameFAQs, that information is usually gleaned from a player's guide of some sort originally.
Another big problem? Modern games can have added content, and when that happens, a "complete" guide is instantly obsolete. Fallout 3's player's guide was rendered useless surprisingly fast, and to that end weird experiments like guides with clipped binders to allow additional "sections" came along. Those were sorta clunky though. However, online guides can added to and corrected for free, forever.
I still think there's a place for professionally made guides, but that place is on an e-reader. Nintendo had a somewhat clunky solution for the Earthbound guide, using it on the gamepad screen on the Wii U (through a web page), but I can see future solutions that are far easier to use. Tablets are becoming wide-spread enough that ultimately, guides will need to go that route. Prima games is already doing that, but they really aren't taking full advantage of the format yet.
All that said, the only guides I actually "collect" are Zelda guides. I gave myself permission for my favorite game series of all time. Beyond that, the rest of my guides generally were gifts or subscription bonuses with Nintendo Power, all from back when I was younger. The only other exception was that Conker's guide, which is very well made indeed. More to the point, I gotta get back to that game now. I shouldn't get stuck at this point, though my general "rule" with any sort of guide is to save it for my second playthrough.
Another big problem? Modern games can have added content, and when that happens, a "complete" guide is instantly obsolete. Fallout 3's player's guide was rendered useless surprisingly fast, and to that end weird experiments like guides with clipped binders to allow additional "sections" came along. Those were sorta clunky though. However, online guides can added to and corrected for free, forever.
I still think there's a place for professionally made guides, but that place is on an e-reader. Nintendo had a somewhat clunky solution for the Earthbound guide, using it on the gamepad screen on the Wii U (through a web page), but I can see future solutions that are far easier to use. Tablets are becoming wide-spread enough that ultimately, guides will need to go that route. Prima games is already doing that, but they really aren't taking full advantage of the format yet.
All that said, the only guides I actually "collect" are Zelda guides. I gave myself permission for my favorite game series of all time. Beyond that, the rest of my guides generally were gifts or subscription bonuses with Nintendo Power, all from back when I was younger. The only other exception was that Conker's guide, which is very well made indeed. More to the point, I gotta get back to that game now. I shouldn't get stuck at this point, though my general "rule" with any sort of guide is to save it for my second playthrough.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)