The thing I hate about strat guides - whether they reveal the storyline or not - is that any decision you make is informed by a source other than you own personal gaming experience. As a result, the game loses a great deal of that "personalised" touch if you use one: partymembers don't evolve the way YOU want them to, they evolve the way they should do in order for you to finish the game with the highest score.

Knowing the best strategy behind a particular scenario means you'll never make the mistake of choosing the worst one: a fundamental part of what makes humanity what it is. With a strat guide, you're robbed of the freedom to make mistakes and - most importantly - learn from them.

Playing Deus Ex the first time, due to my inactions a character I cared for died. Learning from this mistake, the next time I played I was able to SAVE them: the result being that I valued the two possibilities much more than I would have done if I knew in advance what to do because I personally learned from the mistake rather than learned from someone ELSE who made the mistake.

Quote:Originally posted by Interference22


Playing Deus Ex the first time, due to my inactions a character I cared for died. Learning from this mistake, the next time I played I was able to SAVE them: the result being that I valued the two possibilities much more than I would have done if I knew in advance what to do because I personally learned from the mistake rather than learned from someone ELSE who made the mistake.

*spoiler alert!*
You mean PAUL DENTON! AHAHAH... Hah... Ahhh yes.

I had a strategy guide for Deus Ex (one of the only printed strategy guides I have used) and it really didn't detract from the experience at all. The game is fun regardless, I don't really find using a strategy guide to be "ruining" the experience.

I still have a strong desire to make a game that randomizes events in a way that makes them interesting to watch, but prevents any sort of a step-by-step walkthrough.

Quote:Originally posted by Troupe

Quote:Originally posted by Interference22


Playing Deus Ex the first time, due to my inactions a character I cared for died. Learning from this mistake, the next time I played I was able to SAVE them: the result being that I valued the two possibilities much more than I would have done if I knew in advance what to do because I personally learned from the mistake rather than learned from someone ELSE who made the mistake.

*spoiler alert!*
You mean PAUL DENTON! AHAHAH... Hah... Ahhh yes.

I had a strategy guide for Deus Ex (one of the only printed strategy guides I have used) and it really didn't detract from the experience at all. The game is fun regardless, I don't really find using a strategy guide to be "ruining" the experience.

No, actually I didn't mean THAT one (there IS another event) but that is equally as valid.

What I'm saying is that you should learn MORE from your own events rather than trying to better someone else. It is better to know the glory of victory once you know the misery of your own defeat, eh?

And you're NOT stuck in the design of the creator's game if you don't know what happens next. Not knowing what happens next doesn't mean you can't at least predict an event may happen and prepare for it. By knowing more than you SHOULD, you are in fact limiting your potential solutions.

Example: I know by the end of this section that the game plans to kill all but me in my party, hence I prepare for this by devoting very little time to keeping my party in peak condition since they'll be dead anyway. I learn nothing from my own actions and escape the dungeon in a breeze with my stockpile of healing potions.

Were I not to know this, I'd be trying hard to prevent their deaths, assuming the game had something in mind for them other than the sweet hereafter. As a result, I blow a crapload of healing kit on them and end up with no means of repairing myself. Then, when they die I feel genuinely sad since it's something I didn't expect and get the additional challenge of escaping the dungeon using only my wits, scavenging for some form of sustenance to keep me going - heightening the survival aspect - before tentatively fending my way through the undead and grasping my way out of the dungeon to daylight. I leave with a better understanding of my tactics, a greater appreciation for my partymembers and knowledge gained from any mistakes I made.

So, the options:
1. Hoard the healing potions, beat the crap out of the undead
2. Go with the flow, lose the healing potions and fight a battle that is both a challenge and a fight for survival, ending with a reward that, while not tangible, is certainly emotionally and tactically fulfilling.

Now, which one sounds like the better story to you?

Quote:Originally posted by Omni

And you're NOT stuck in the design of the creator's game if you don't know what happens next. Not knowing what happens next doesn't mean you can't at least predict an event may happen and prepare for it. By knowing more than you SHOULD, you are in fact limiting your potential solutions.

On a side note, anybody see Paycheck?

Nope. I'd like to see it - even if it isn't very good - just to make my own decision on its quality.

Quote:Originally posted by Omni

There are a lot of "I saw that coming" moments, but it's a good movie. Of course, watching with friends increases the enjoyment factor.

Oh no! I've given advice! I've limited your potential choices!

Very funny. It's not the generic advice I worry about, it's the shameless revealing of certain nuggets of information that you either couldn't possibly know or reveal the plot in some way. Were you to tell me the ending, THEN I would have to smash you to death with a selection of rusty gardening implements, beginning with a SPADE.

Surely it's quite possible to read only the parts of the strategy guide which is closely related to where you are in the game currently? And I believe some strategy guide writers are good enough to leave out the spoilers part from the main guide.

I seldom use a walkthrough for a whole game, though, but I always use it to look up secret sidequests, etc. Because I seldom play a game more than once, so I want to have a look at all the secrets in the game. But I never need the fighting strategy guides, and I seldom read ahead much farther from where I am in the game.