Prima Launches Game Guides on Steam

[Treblaine]

somebody will buy them: money in the bank

And these game guides are AWFULLY concise, internet will do you 90% but game guide really do get that 100%. But these will be most useful if they go BEYOND text and pictures and start implementing video and directly interactign with the game.

Perfect use for this I'd see is a crackdown like game where you have to find like 500 orbs hidden all over a city, yet you find 499 orbs and the last orb... it could be in ANY of the 500 possible positions, you have to check each one. A guide to eliminate the ones you already have and narrow down on the final one. That would be something special.

 

[Monshroud]

While people are preaching gamefaqs, the fact is brand new games don't have gamefaqs for at least a few days, sometimes over a week.

So for that hot new title that you are plowing through, these could be nice for people who get stuck easily or want to get everything the first time through. As long as the price is in that $10 and under category I can see them being successful. Also if you can stay within the steam interface, that's some convienience right there.

Just my .02

 

[KeyMaster45]

Interesting... I would never pay $20 for something that tells me what's on GameFAQs, but I'm sure there's a market for them.

I actually used to buy guides for most games when I was younger...those were the darker years when the family had dial-up. I was actually offered the player's guide for Burning Crusade when I went pick it up at my local gamestop. The clerk and I both looked at each other in a brief moment of silence after that statement, then burst into laughter. (I'm a rather frequent customer over there so I knew the staff rather well at that point.)

I stand by a philosophy of mine about game design when it comes to guides. If the average player cannot complete your core game without the use of a guide (MMO's and some RPG's excluded from this rule) then you have failed somewhere in the design of your game.

 

[Delusibeta]

Considering Gamergate's been selling Prima guides for donkey's years, not surprising.

 

[Snotnarok]

This just in: Gamefaqs has ALWAYS been available on steam!

Hit Shift+Tab in game and bring up the build in FREAKING WEB BROWSER type www.gamefaqs.com for FREE guides typed by people with a lotta free time!

OT: Seriously who's bought a guide since the internet is around, with steam you can in game browse websites, like most do when waiting to spawn in games. At least I do anyway, escapist.com making respawns not boring since 2009.

 

[CoverYourHead]

The only guide I've ever bought for a game was for Majora's Mask, and that's only because I was quite young and that fourth temple is by far the hardest dungeon in any Zelda game.

I just use GameFaqs now. They have everything!

 

[Andy Chalk]

The only game guide I've purchased in years has been the Morrowind Chronicles, which I think was created and published by Bethesda itself. It doesn't really present itself as a guide book (although it's very thorough) and it compliments the game very nicely. If publishers put out more books like that, I'd definitely pick a few up.

AND NOW IT'S STORY TIME!

Back in '92, ol' Uncle Maly was working his way through Ultima Underworld, the finest dungeon exploration game ever to spring forth from the hands of man. One of the big tasks in the game is to track down the Symbols of Virtue (I think they're called), eight of them in all, and the first seven turned up fairly easily - but number eight was a goddamn mystery. (Actually, I think it was number three or four.) I spent hours and hours and hours looking for it, up and down and all over that great stygian abyss, and I just couldn't track it down.

Finally, I gave up. I ordered the hint book. But I didn't go to the website and click PayPal and be done with it, no siree. That's now how things worked back then. Ol' Maly had to get hisself a money order and mail it off to Origin Systems, along with a letter explaining what I wanted and an address to send it to, and then a few weeks later it showed up in the mail: Mysteries of the Abyss, an amazing, 64-page book with level-by-level walkthroughs, history, stories, stats and more, all told through the eyes of the game's characters.

It's a beautiful thing. That's the sort of game guide I'd pay for. Digital guides? Umm, no, thanks.

(Also amusing: The moment the guide showed up, I unwrapped it, flipped to the relevant page to find out where that GOD DAMN FUCKING BLADE was, then closed it up and never looked at it again. Eh, it was still money well spent.)

 

[razerdoh]

Just bougth the DAO and DAA guides...

why you ask?

because i felt like it

 

[punkrocker27]

Prima guides in my opinion will always be a little more in-depth and easier to use. Then again, you do have to pay for them.

 

[HK_01]

Why do people buy these things when you can view gameguides of all sorts and for everything for free on the internet?

 

[Gasaraki]

For fuck's sake, you can already access the internet in the steam overlay!
Why would you want to pay money to see what you could already see before for free?

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Alt Tab makes my copy of Morrowind crash...for me at least. And the Steam overlay doesn't work with it, either. So, this is just as useless to me. FUCK.

That remind me...I must do the House Redoran quests sometime.

 

[SimuLord]

To steal a line from the Retsupurae guys:

"If only they had a site on the Internet...that had FAQs...for Games..."

 

[-Torchedini-]

Alt Tab makes my copy of Morrowind crash...for me at least. And the Steam overlay doesn't work with it, either. So, this is just as useless to me. FUCK.

That remind me...I must do the House Redoran quests sometime.

That's why they made xfire.
But that doesn't have achievements, or a store. But you can host your screenshots very easily.

 

[Tharwen]

Hey, alt-tab is hard work. Too many games crash with it...

 

[UMNiK]

There is a browser in the ingame overlay, ya know...

 

[Kaymish]

alt+tab doesnt like the games i play that much in some games i play its been so bad i have to save before alt tabbing because the game crashes 50% of the time or i have to exit because alt tabbing just brings up a black screen or the game

that said i still wont spend cash money on something i can get for free with a mild inconvenience