Is googling a sin?

[lacktheknack]

It's only a "cardinal sin" in a point-n-click adventure game.

The rest of em? It's silly and reduces value of puzzle-heavy games, but I won't begrudge you.

And hell, you'll get a pass for some point-n-clickers. Myst Online is utterly brutal.

 

[Uncle Comrade]

I share the view of most others here, that it depends on why you're doing it. If you really are stuck, to the point it's becoming frustrating, then looking things up is forgiveable. If you're doing it just because you can't be bothered to try, not so forgiveable. I once caught a friend of mine reading a comprehensive walkthrough for a game I was lending him. Before I'd even given him the disc. He didn't see that there was anything wrong with doing so.

If you find the answer to be "doh! I should have known" then you probably should have tried a little harder. If your reaction to the answer is "how the fuck was I supposed to know that?!" then you've just saved yourself a lot of wasted time.

I do agree with this though. I always feel very guilty if I look up an answer, only to end up thinking "Oh yeah. Why didn't I get that?"

 

[Jopoho]

If you're having fun, you are having fun. It might not have been possible to use the internet, but plenty of companies sold guides for games, and popular games could spread information by word of mouth. Not every gamer in the 90s solved every puzzle alone.

Also, some people are better at certain things, and there's no shame in looking up a way to get around the things you aren't good at. I'm a pretty bad navigator. If I get lost in a dungeon, I am going to look up a map. Yes, I could solve it myself by drawing a map, but screw wasting time and paper on that ordeal.

 

[PPB]

I used to take overcoming challenges by myself pretty seriously and often refrained from looking things up online. I also had the habit of playing on harder difficulty levels because I felt it was more fulfilling that way, even if it meant reloading many times and such. I sort of gave up both practices years ago. I still make an effort to do hard stuff myself, but as I get older I find that my most valuable commodity is time. I'd rather look up the solution to a puzzle and get to play more of the game than spending a long time picking my brains.

I don't think it's a sin or anything. The important thing is that you enjoy your time gaming.

Does that mean that you don't like solving problems? Because even if it takes up time, sloving the puzzle or what has you stuck can be fun. I'll give you an example, i was mad at ni no kuni ( ps3) because the basically told you the answer the the puzzle ( in this case people were missing emotions out of 7 i think), all you needed to do was go and get it ( which were marked on the map). There was zero difficulty, 0 thinking. I would have enjoyed talking to the person and figuring out which one i needed.

If someone is going to google it, or worst the game is going to tell you, then what's the point?

OT: is googling a sin? No . But i personally look down on people that do that. This goes tenfold of the person brags about how easy the game was afterwards.

Play how you want and all that jazz, but don't be proud that you had to look up the answers.

Capchat: sax and violins.

I used the word puzzle arbitrarily. The vast majority of games that I play nowadays are RPGs or strategy games. The "problems" you encounter in these games tend to be more dynamic and don't lend themselves very well to googling (i.e. a difficult battle in a RPG, enemy uses tactic XYZ in a RTS, etc.). I like "solving" these problems. What I don't have the patience to do by myself would be, using a hypothetical example, an RPG where there's a locked chest and I'm being told that the key is "somewhere" in the dungeon. If I haven't found that key after going through the dungeon once, chances are that I'll look it up online because I'm sure as hell not going to look through all those crates and barrels again.

 

[Rozalia1]

Depends really. If you use it for puzzle games, or Visual novels than you kind of defeat the point of playing them in a way.

Otherwise its just a time saving exercise. I for example make sure to check if the game has any unmissables in it before I play to make sure I don't miss them.

 

[mitchell271]

Oh, I thought you meant in general. Like, the Pope should amend the Bible to include an 11th commandment, "Thou shalt not Google"
If it's a game you really enjoy and you're stumped, then I say go ahead. I personally use them when I get lost in games (more "Where the fuck do I go?") and cryptic puzzles. Try not to use one, but if you need one, do it.

 

[FPLOON]

No... Unless you're using Bing...

But seriously, not really... I mean, it could either ruin and/or enhance your overall experience depending on the game in question... Then again, if a game is more vague than the DS games, in terms of knowing something beforehand, then it's a sin on the game itself...

 

[balladbird]

If you're trying to make a point about overreliance on Google, Persona's probably among the worst examples you could use to make that point. That's a very "Guide Dang It" franchise for reasons including its time limits, the waiting period between social links, the fusion requests requiring an intimate knowledge of the system and likely outcomes, and some comparatively high stat requirements (and expenses) that almost mandate save scumming to bypass on a first runthrough[footnote]"Damn it, the rainy day challenge didn't up my courage! I needed that stat for the next social link event!" *resets game* "Alright, 16th time's the charm..."[/footnote]...and then of course there's the whole 'true ending' thing...

Sooo much this. Good luck getting all the S.links maxed in P3, even on a second playthrough, without either a guide or taking more notes than you would to write a college paper. the level of micro-managing that system required was absurd.

P4 is much easier in that regard, though it has it's own fair share of cheap tricks, such as two social links having caps where you need to get a certain stat above a certain level to advance to the next level. The game doesn't tell you this, and when you go to initiate the social link it plays out like normal... so you could waste a ton of precious time trying to level up a link that won't go anywhere.



On topic, eh, I don't have the authority to unilaterally declare the actions of strangers to be a sin. Why care what other people think of how you choose to play a single player game? The kinds of people who would seriously criticize you for how you play a non-competitive game are probably just shallow elitists who are anxious to hold something, ANYTHING above their fellow people. If googling makes your experience more enjoyable, great. If you want to puzzle your own way out, good on ya.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Ha, no! I look up stuff online about games all the time. Doesn't matter what game or how hard it is. I go for trophies, and some of them require you to do something exactly right, or collect every single thing, in one shot, otherwise you must play the game over. And then there are the hidden trophies that I would never know how to unlock if I didn't look them up, because they require me to do something I would never think of doing in the game.

Now, most of the time those trophies don't spoil the story for you. They just point out one or two things that you need to do at a certain part and I'm find with that. However, there are times in a game where I will get stuck. And unlike everyone else it seems, the longer I'm stuck, be it puzzle or a hard part of the game, the more frustrated I get and thus the worse I get. Turning the game off and trying again later rarely helps because my mind gets so locked in trying to do the same thing over and over that I can't see another way. At points like that, I will look up what to do in the game because I have stopped having fun and that's not good. There are a few games that I know I never would have beaten if I hadn't looked up what to do at certain points.

 

[Skratt]

Total sin, unforgivable. You must now burn your entire game collection post haste.

It's the only way to be sure.

 

[bbchain]

Capchat: sax and violins.[/quote]

I've never met anyone with the gall to brag about how easy a game was after looking up every solution. THAT is something to look down upon.

Depends, is it because the gameplay is challenging? If so hang your head in shame *evil laugh*
Or is it because you can't find the red keycard for the red door despite looking for x amount of minutes. Cus that's bad level/map design and is the developer's fault.

I recently played a game with an early ff style map and had an objective that was something like find Bob. In literally the whole map with no clues as to where to look. Fuck that.

Also, another thing that game makers screw up is ability descriptions in RPGs, they explain them well enough sometimes but others it is just like improves battle ability. Yeah? In what way, increased attack/accuracy/speed etc. Be more specific or otherwise I'll ask the internet.
Some r worse than that though, by giving NO description. *Sigh*, rant over.

I'm thinking more of the latter situation. I love Final Fantasy VIII to death but the sequence in Balamb before you fight Fujin and Raijin was ridiculously cryptic. I circled the town for no less than an hour trying to figure out what i was supposed to do.

 

[Belaam]

If you are googling answers to puzzles because you are too lazy/dumb to figure them out yourself, yes.

If you have done due diligence in trying it yourself, no.
If it's a problem with level design, no.
If it's an optional collection of hard to find items and you are bored to tears looking, no.

If I've exhausted everything I can think of, have covered every location I can access, and still haven't found that last mushroom I need to open the next part of the game, not a sin. Any time my options are put the game down in disgust or look up the answer, not a sin.

In one of the older Uncharted games (I don't remember which) there was some floor puzzle that I couldn't even figure out what it was asking me to do, much less what the solution to it was. No guilt about googling that one.

Vistas in Guild Wars 2, Lorebooks in ESO, Sea Shanties in AC4... stuff that isn't really necessary, but you want to hunt down, I don't see a problem in online guides, particularly if you are finding the majority on your own.

But really, all of this is your own call. There is no God of Games to commit sins against, so go with whatever you feel comfortable doing.

 

[SirDerpy]

Depends really. If you use it for puzzle games, or Visual novels than you kind of defeat the point of playing them in a way.

Otherwise its just a time saving exercise. I for example make sure to check if the game has any unmissables in it before I play to make sure I don't miss them.

Well, puzzle games, sure, but visual novels?

I'd have to disagree strongly on that. I don't think of point of visual novels is "die every other choice because you chose to give this side character a cupcake instead of a brownie". I mean, have you seen the Fate/Stay Night flowchart? The size is intimidating, to say the least. I'd rather not spend several hours of my life doing every single permutation of the choices only to figure out that my first choice happened to be incorrect for my particular route.

Even Katawa Shoujo, with its nine choices and leniency in routes (many sets of choices will lead to same route), got me killed twice before I stumbled upon a correct route. Maybe I'm just unlucky, but still. There's really no fun in getting killed over and over before you realize "Oh, I probably should have played aggressively in that chess match instead of passively, even though I had no way of knowing that was the correct answer."

OT: Other than visual novels, though, and deliberately abstruse games like the aforementioned Persona series, Googling for a solution shouldn't be your first instinct. It's fun to solve puzzles, unless they take you more than two hours, in which case it's less of a puzzle and more of a sadistic test of resolve.

 

[Adam Weiler]

Ooh, there was this one N64 game that had a game-breaking glitch in the final release and it was impossible to beat without using a cheatcode to get to the last level. Just a second, I'm going to go look for the name..

Space Station Silicon Valley. I seem to recall there were these floating "thingies" that you had to collect in each level, and one of the "thingies" wasn't coded right so you drove through it everytime you tried to collect it, and you had to unlock all the "thingies" to open the last level. Yep.

 

[pspman45]

If I get too annoyed, I'll google it. Usually I like to figure it out because that's what I think video games are about

 

[saluraropicrusa]

I tend to enjoy puzzle games and point-and-clicks for their often great visuals and story/characters. The thing is, I'm terrible at puzzles. I wouldn't be able to beat most of the puzzle/point-and-clicks I've played without walkthroughs, but I would hate to miss out on the entirety of the game just because I'm not good enough at puzzles to figure them out. So, no, it's not a sin in the least. I've never felt that I'd deprived myself of anything by using walkthroughs--even when I think, "oh, I should have seen that," I also think there's more to enjoy in these games than JUST the puzzles, and if there wasn't I probably wouldn't be playing them.

 

[Vault101]

if your like me and have been trying to finish Banjo Kazooie for around 15 years then no

or if you want to play a point and click adventure games and don't want to fuck around with arbitrary puzzles then no

I tend to enjoy puzzle games and point-and-clicks for their often great visuals and story/characters. The thing is, I'm terrible at puzzles. I wouldn't be able to beat most of the puzzle/point-and-clicks I've played without walkthroughs, but I would hate to miss out on the entirety of the game just because I'm not good enough at puzzles to figure them out. So, no, it's not a sin in the least. I've never felt that I'd deprived myself of anything by using walkthroughs--even when I think, "oh, I should have seen that," I also think there's more to enjoy in these games than JUST the puzzles, and if there wasn't I probably wouldn't be playing them.

this is why I don't like them..its like "oh heres a really cool story but NUH UH! now you have to fuck around for hours on ened trying to figure out some arbitraity bullshit we thourght of"

I'm terrible at puzzles...I thourght mabye because they always wanted you to do it in one particular way....or I'm just dumb

 

[Something Amyss]

Googling a solution for a video game. *ding*

Huh. I guess it counts as a sin if it sets of my imitation CinemaSins counter.

I kid, I kid. More seriously, though:

It does diminish my enjoyement of the game somewhat.
And it's a sign that either the game is not for me or it is illogical or doesn't present it's challenges well, at least if I have to do it a lot.

I tend to use it more for games that I'm not crazy about in the first place. If I really love a game I'll have more patience for it. If it's a game I borrowed from a friend for a weekend and one that I'm playing to pass the time then I'm more likely to google it.

That all goes for main story and sidequests, the main content so to speak.

For difficult achievements or easter eggs I have no problem using a guide or google.

This is more or less how I feel. Sometimes, once I've beat a game once (or more times), I might go back with a walkthrough to get everything (even if there's no achievement, as I did this before the standard of the seventh gen), but if I have to do it for basic things, for the main missions, something's wrong.

 

[pearcinator]

If it's a puzzle game then it's definitely a sin.

For example, I just bought The Swapper from Steam and I am stuck at a couple of puzzles. However, I WILL NOT look up the solutions because that would be cheating and there would be no 'I am a fucking genius' reward after solving it.

if your like me and have been trying to finish Banjo Kazooie for around 15 years then no

or if you want to play a point and click adventure games and don't want to fuck around with arbitrary puzzles then no

I tend to enjoy puzzle games and point-and-clicks for their often great visuals and story/characters. The thing is, I'm terrible at puzzles. I wouldn't be able to beat most of the puzzle/point-and-clicks I've played without walkthroughs, but I would hate to miss out on the entirety of the game just because I'm not good enough at puzzles to figure them out. So, no, it's not a sin in the least. I've never felt that I'd deprived myself of anything by using walkthroughs--even when I think, "oh, I should have seen that," I also think there's more to enjoy in these games than JUST the puzzles, and if there wasn't I probably wouldn't be playing them.

this is why I don't like them..its like "oh heres a really cool story but NUH UH! now you have to fuck around for hours on ened trying to figure out some arbitraity bullshit we thourght of"

I'm terrible at puzzles...I thourght mabye because they always wanted you to do it in one particular way....or I'm just dumb

Puzzles are one of the most important aspects of point-and-click adventures! The 'aha' moment you get from solving a puzzle (unless the puzzle makes absolutely no sense) is a great feeling. If you're stuck then put it down for a while, think about it, and come back later.

 

[Brown_Coat117]

The key is how you personally get the most enjoyment.

For instance in The Witcher 2 the only thing I googled what how to get the different attributes, because honestly I would have never gone around chopping up random practice dummies, some in areas that guards will attack me for having my sword drawn for too long without knowing that there was some benefit. But I did all of the quest and story stuff cold.