>buy strategy guide>money stolen
What do you mean?
>>722585707my friend had the one for ffx and I remember calling him over the land line to ask shit, and he would get the guide and answer my questions
>>722585707Funny enough, I still remember trying to buy that guide as a baby gamer and the guy working the register at EB Games being nice enough to persuade me against it since it was all online>>722585915Want to find out why?Head to PlayOnline and use the keyword>DAGGERASS
>Buy guide>Get to the part where I have specific trouble>Sorry you have to pay us over the phone
we went from comfy strategy guides which doubled as beautiful art books/lore dumps to gamefaqs txt files to ign walkthroughs filled with ads to fucking youtube videos
>>722585707to this day I still hate dan birlew
>>722587764It will only get worse. Tiktok style splitscreen with sludge on one side and one word at a time captions on the other.
>>722585915It barely revealed anything that was hidden, and if it did mention a hidden puzzle, it "hinted" the answer by telling you to go online and input a password.And no, the Internet in 1999 was NOT "readily available" in everyone's homes and it was "dial-up" speed slow to process. It basically required you to leave your living room (and all your equipment on), go the computer room, hope no one was using it (sister using it for homework, dad writing reports, mom shopping), hope no one was going to call your house while you booted up and tried to find the webpage, discover "the answer" was, like, one sentence and non-specific, log off everything, return to your living room and discover that your sister who wasn't doing her homeworkd turned everything off and was watching Star Trek Voyager.FFIX Official Strategy Guide!Obscured by PlayOnline!
>>722586452>can't figure out how to open door in a game>look up online walkthrough>"okay and now open the door and continue"
>>722589330Want more? Input this password and go on playonline!
>>722589513Shouldn't I go on playonline first and then put the password?
>>722589578Yes
I never saw the point of these guides as even in the 90s I would just go on gamefaqs instead if I needed help with a game.
>>722587764>to ign walkthroughs filled with ads to fucking youtube videosActually for Silksong I've been using AI written ad-loaded "walkthroughs"
>>722589706no you didn't liar
>>722589921wat. I did. I specifically remember going on gamefaqs in the 90s when I got stuck in FF8
>>722589759>to find the hookshot in the new game by Team Chery, Metroidvania fans (affiliate link to some store) should go to the Cauldron!
>>722585707That's why I prefer reading the guides that came with magazines.
>>722587764strategy guide were cool as a kid and felt worth it as a game could take months to beatnow I wouldn't pay any money for help with finding a path that I missed in a game that I beat in sub 10 hours
>>722587764In hindsight, gamefaqs was great and it still standing is one of the few pillars of a time when the internet was good. Not perfect, but some people really did put the effort in despite the limitation of text only files and it was a great source of information.
>>722591476>start playing Shemue this year>use a walkthrough from 2000>perfectly organized and clearly written, no ads, everything is easily searchable on one page
>>722591476I miss when you googled some question about a game and gamefaqs came up instead of reddit
>>722587764>gamefaqs txt fileswere peak fan soul
nintenCHADs with nintendo power guides never had this problem
>>722585707If you looked at a guide, not only did you not beat the game, you’ll never be able to beat the game.
>>722585707PlayOnline's still up because of FF11: Online though?
>>722585707For me, it was unofficial walkthroughs that came bundled with a booklet full of cheat codes.
