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Scott’s FAQ about guides – Part 1

Growing up in the 8-bit era of Contra and the original Ninja Gaiden,  I (like many others) developed a “try until you win” mentality towards even the most punishing and frankly broken games. I mean, without time as a limiting factor, it was purely my own skill (or lack thereof) holding me back from successfully finishing games, right? Unfortunately, this has had a side-effect of developing a sort of elitism against seeking outside assistance for many years, especially now that games are evolving to help the player more directly. However, as an adult, I have far less time to persevere against the odds than I used to, when needed.

My beat
I have 61 unfinished games in my collection. This cannot stand!

Since joining The Backloggery, I’ve become progressively more conscious of my game-buying habits; evaluating new releases as “must-haves” or just “wants” against the unbeaten quality games in my collection has become essential. Inevitably, during new-release peak-times such as the holiday season, my ratio of beat to unbeat shifts uncomfortably into the latter. In the battle against the backlog, it’s tempting to choose a game from your collection that can be picked up and put down in less than a weekend, but what do you do when the majority of your games consist of meaty JRPGs, retro-compilations and lengthy open-world adventures? FAQs are out of the question, Scott. Suddenly every hurdle which merely delays progress becomes a problematic game-stopper, as you strive to advance in something with your gaming time…

Classic adventure game Fate of Atlantis had multiple endings, and I spent some time as a lad trying to get the best one.
Classic adventure game Fate of Atlantis had multiple endings and I spent quite some time to get the best one.

The issue is made more complex with the confession that I am a bit of a perfectionist, especially when it comes to narrative resolution. Unlike my younger-self, I can no longer use the standard logical stipulation that you’ve beaten a game when the final boss curses you and the credits roll; I require the optimal outcome for our plucky protagonist, and often (with RPGs in particular, although it’s become a bit of a trend in all genres lately), that means fulfilling a specific-but-unclear set of criteria before setting off to face Doomsday.

Here's a particularly infamous example of when a FAQ is flat-out required: the above hint should actually say: "Duck at Deborah Cliff for five seconds with the Red Crystal equiped". Wow.
Simon's Quest is a particularly infamous example of when a FAQ is flat-out required. The above hint should actually say: "Duck at Deborah Cliff for five seconds with the Red Crystal equipped". Wow.

So I say to myself, as a responsible adult: Scott, when you feel it’s necessary to progress, it’s okay to use a guide. It’s okay to pull up a walkthrough to find out that you need to combine the pepper and the snow-cone together, rather than try and mix every item in your inventory for over an hour. It’s okay to refer to a spoiler-free FAQ to attain the true paragon ending, and avoid repeating 40 hours of cut-scenes and gameplay because you didn’t make a backup save before Ilos. And it’s especially okay to reference a guide to get something new out of an old favourite, from a game that you’ve likely beaten before without any help at all! It is a necessary evil, but one that is absolutely justifiable now.

Join me next time, when I’ll be taking a look at stand-alone printed strategy guides, and evaluating their worth in a rapidly changing industry.

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4 responses to “Scott’s FAQ about guides – Part 1”

  1. Mark avatar
    Mark

    “even in the face of evolving game difficulty”

    Complexity maybe, but games are definitely not get harder. From player tailoring to unlimited saves to in-game hint systems to everything mentioned in Kirsten’s latest blog, games are far easier now than they were 20 years ago.

    I mean, back then everything was arcade ports, which wanted you to die all the time so you’d put in another 50p. Nowadays, they want you to get through the game so you’ll buy the DLC and check out the sequel 😛

  2. Scott avatar
    Scott

    Hi Mark,

    Perhaps it was a poor choice of words on my part there, but I wasn’t implying in any shape or form that games are harder than they used to be. Like I say, I grew up on the original Ninja Gaiden. There’s no way I could think things are harder now! 😉

    I meant more that game difficulty has evolved to suit gaming’s constantly expanding audience. And yes, that means greater complexity – sometimes this causes more confusion as to what to do than it used to, however. In some cases… not so much. See Simon’s Quest above.

    Thanks for helping me clarify that, though. I’ve updated the blog.

    (I just got my Internet access back, whoo!)

  3. Zoey avatar
    Zoey

    Backloggery is both the best and worst thing ever. Why did you introduce me to it Scott?! Although, at least my stats areconsiderably better than yours (although I haven’t finished putting up 360 games yet!).

  4. Ben avatar
    Ben

    Nice article Scott, not seen Backloggery before will have to check it out.

    “It’s okay to refer to a spoiler-free FAQ to attain the true paragon ending, and avoid repeating 40 hours of cut-scenes and gameplay because you didn’t make a backup save before Ilos.”

    Ah Mass Effect, how I hate thee, I do believe I made that same mistake.

    I do remember checking out a guide for Final Fantasy VII when it was first released, the insane ways about getting all the ultimate weapons, not to mention chocobo breeding just completely swamped my young fragile mind.

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