Using Strategy Guides for Better and Worse

I'm not a fan of using strategy guides. Given time constraints, though, I make use of them to ensure I progress through games unhindered.

On Using Strategy Guides

Over Thanksgiving I took the opportunity to catch up on a couple titles from my gaming backlog. I’m not a fan of using strategy guides. Given the time constraints, though, I made use of various guides and walk-throughs to ensure I could tear through things unhindered.

This was a significant deviation from my normal approach of purity and struggle. In this episode I’m reflecting on the experience and take a look some pros and cons of using them. I’m also taking a look at the role of guides when power-gaming VS. doing casual runs.

Over the course of talking strategy I take a few detours. How did the pre-internet kids trade tips and tricks with each other? I share a couple stories from the playground. I’m also left wondering if the gamers of yesteryear were better than the gamers of today. Are today’s achievement-based, guide-heavy players worse off because answers are so widely available?