I usually play through games with my mind set on exploring as much as possible, get high levels and try to come up with fun spell/equipment combinations through the game mechanics. When I've grown tired of the game (99% of the cases that means I've played it through more than once), that's when I deconstruct the game with cheats, strategy guides and what not. It will sort of tell me how much I missed through my rigorous gaming, and open the unexplored (if any) territories in the game to me.

I'm with rpgking on this one. I like to go through the game on my own as much as I can, but if I get stuck then I either get ahold of a friend who's played the game or I look up a walkthrough or FAQ for the one little thing that I'm missing.

Also, congrats on getting Castle Heck's 100th thread.

I'm in the mindset of playing a game from start to finish without a strat guide.

I don't want to know ANYTHING in advance other than what I've learnt over the course of the game itself. I want to know that I finished the game completely under my own steam and using only my own wits to foil the bad guys: it makes me feel so much better that way.

Post-game, however, I don't mind dipping into the odd strat guide to see if there's something extra-special I've missed: once the game's over, I'm intrigued to know what I DIDN'T spot as much as what I DID.

I often use a strat guide because I hate to miss anything. (usually just look at the item lists and characters lists for the area I am at)
I find playing with the games systems are much more fun than any caricatures they come up with (no offence but character development seems like a parody in most video games)
As for story spoilers I would like to know who is going to leave the party so I don't have to care about them. (or do odd experiments with them like when I built Edward up to level 99)

Ram editors are great making your character look like the main villain and going up and taking to people is a blast. Using attacks and spells not intended for the players is always great fun when you find them.

what wonder? the games do not have complex stories. Anyway I play games for fun.
I also have fun with city building and strategy games where you have to know all about it to do well.
I find cheating and finding out what is where and what you can do much more "wonder" than any kill all the bad guys.
That being said playing the game itself will reveal the story much differently than knowing about it before hand. I read books that I have read before all the time and each time if it is good I will still be in "wonder" and for bad stories well in video games I just make the systems make up for it.

so what if you know where you are going. (ie. who did it) It is the process of getting there knowing the solution that is much more fun than knowing the solution without the process or the process without the solution.
Anyway I find the second time I read a mystery novel much more interesting than the first.
I would have to say that finding the inf. money exploit in FFVIII was alot more fun than the rest of the game.
(btw. I can't see anyone not seeing the end of FFVII before they got there.)

I think you misunderstand me when I say I use strategy guides.
They are for knowing what kind of stuff you can find in a area and what items the enemy has.
I never follow what the guide writer says to do in terms of actions. They wanted to get the guide done quickly so there will always be a better way. Not allowing for the unknown in planning is a sign of poor planing.
You are making a false dichotomy here saying everything is planned or it is not. Some planning must always take place like you plan to go up the path while I plan to go up the path looking for 5 potions on the way.
About limits, what do you mean by limit? Do you mean as the designer intended? I break that all the time. I often go farther beyond the narrative and make my the story my own. In doing this (and planing) I find much more a sense of achievement than just going though the motions of the game.

Strategy guides are a good thing if you're really stuck, but it seems to me that if you use a guide to read ahead then it makes playing the game a bit of a waste of time, certainly with an RPG where the whole point is to tell the player a story.

When I read the Lord of the Rings many years ago, I got to the bit where Gandalf dies, and I thought "oh no! What're they going to do without Gandalf? The quest is doomed!" or somesuch. Anyway, while stupidly looking through some of the illustrations (by the wonderful Alan Lee) from later in the book, I noticed some dialogue from bloody Gandalf, thereby consigning myself to knowing that he was going to come back from the dead and save the day, two hundred pages before it actually happened. I remember that it made those two hundred pages somewhat empty and unenjoyable.

So I can't see why anyone would want to know from a strategy guide what's going to happen next in an RPG. I suppose if you need to know when the scary monsters are going to pop up so you can close your eyes it could be useful... but other than that it can succeed only in making plot twists rather less twisty, the element of surprise rather less existent, and the game rather less fun.

I've read it once since then, and I probably enjoyed it almost as much the second time, but I think that was because I'd read The Silmarillion by then, which certainly helped make a lot more sense of LOTR. But, if I could erase my memory of a book I was about to re-read in order to be able to read it for the "first time" again, would I do it? Yes, I certainly would.

EDIT: As long as there were no unpleasant psychological side-effects. ;)

Quote:Originally posted by Omni
Maybe the whole problem with spoiling something for yourself (RPG or otherwise) just depends on how much you value the surprise.

I couldn't said it better myself.
For a game I find fun Breath of Fire Dragon Quarter. It has a nice challenge to it and if you do well the first time though you get bonuses (extra story movies, more areas to explore)