[BookPage]

I used to LOVE reading GameFAQs walkthroughs for RPGs as a kid. The fact it was just a big text document made it super easy to hide in my "computer typing" classes too.

I'm kind of sad that the whole scene has largely slowed down, at least for modern games... Now you can just find video guides on any subsection of a game you're playing; or follow an IGN guide. I have huge respect for authors of the oldschool guides though.

[Noumenon72]

Morrowind walkthroughs in particular used to read like an adventure novel written in second person. For example, what's below is from https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/913818-the-elder-scrolls-ii...:

Next, we're looking for a staff. Felen Maryon's staff. It's an ebony staff, too. Oooh. However, Felen is a powerful wizard and will most likely kill you in one wave of his hand. If you want the job, take it. If not, pass.

Felen Maryon is in Tel Branora, to the south, and he's one of Mistress Therana's personal retainers. If you know little about the Telvanni, let me inform you that Therana is one of the six head honchos, and this personal retainer will be a damn sight powerful. But hey, it's your skin :)

Take the boat to Tel Branora, and head towards the tower off to your left. Follow the paths up as far as you can, then enter the Upper Tower. More info about telvanni - the most powerful people in each tower always live at the very top. And you were given the levitation potions because you'll need them. Telvanni aren't real fond of stairs.

Follow the tunnel opposite the doorway up, then take either door to Therana's Chamber. Use one of the potions to ascend the chute, and you'll find Felen in one of the end rooms. Note the shiny staff behind him.

SAVE, importantly. You'll screw this up a few times before you get it right, I know I did. Firstly, if you're REALLY good you can get the staff without even using magic, simply sneak around behind him until the hand appears, and seize the moment.

But if you're like me, you're not that good :( So have your custom Chameleon spell handy. The idea is to get both the sneak hand and chameleon working in your favour, and the easiest way to do this is to get BEHIND the bookcase it rests against. You'll always have the sneak hand, even if he faces the bookcase.

Cast your chameleon, and swipe the staff without a hitch. Hike back to Sadrith Mora, and proudly show it over to Big Helende. You good little thief, you."

[xamuel]

I think mybe part of why it doesn't work so much for modern games is that modern games are constantly being patched and updated. You could write a big detailed guide and then the next day, the devs push an update which changes everything.

This makes modern games less "real", in a pseudo-physics sense: experiments that you perform in them do not replicate over time, due to bugfix patches etc. Sort of like if, after physicists announced the results of the double-slit experiment, God force-installed a "fix quantum mechanics glitches" patch to make it no longer work.

[dota_fanatic]

Definitely. Still though, many modern games' players would be well served by the FAQs of old instead of ad-laden, poorly researched wikis. And even for those games frequently updated, eventually they do tend to crystallize into a final version after 3-5 years. It's only games like Dota 2 which are constantly getting balance* patches which are a constant sync battle of development and documentation.

* more like humans are incapable of balancing a game of Dota 2's complexity. The cynic in me thinks they don't want to balance it, that that's part of their monetization strategy. Long term I think a balanced game is more fun for everyone, though.

[im3w1l]

One way to balance a game like Dota 2 would be a continuous rebalancing. Parametrize each hero's stats by a "power-parameter". This doesn't have to crank all the stats up equally. One hero could benefit in one way by more power, while another hero benefits in a different way. Then automatically adjust the power-parameter based on win-rates in different skill segments and how often a hero is chosen. The targets should not necessarily be equal, you may want say beginner friendly heroes that lose steam at the upper level. In the end, the goal should be a fun meta.

Like if you were to balance rock-paper-scissors, and you want a meta where rock is played the majority of the time, you might want to give rock an adjustable chance of beating paper.

[james-skemp]

It's slowed down, definitely, but if you tweak what you're looking for you'll still find it, just spread out more.

Being older, I don't have as much time as I used to to play games, so I'll generally look at the various trophy guides for how to go through games that I'll likely only be able to play through once, and get the most out of them.

It reminds me a lot of what I used to see on GameFAQs back in the 90s/00s.

[site-packages1]

IGN guides with, sorry if I sound old, auto playing videos on every page. Ugh.

[narwally]

I know exactly what you mean, sometimes I could get a hold of a guidebook for a game that I didn't even have the system for; I just enjoyed reading about the world and the systems at play inside of it. Hell, I've never even played NetHack, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading the Guidebook. It's this weird combination of technical documentation and fantasy world-building that I for some reason find fascinating.

[Cthulhu_]

I like to think / hope that some of the people writing for GameFAQs landed a job at the 'professional' walkthroughs that e.g. IGN and co are offering.