Guide dang it!

 If you don't know about this site, tvtropes.org is something you should check out at some point. It's an awful lot like Wikipedia in some ways, and yet completely different. It's a listing of devices used in media, and while the site began listing ones used in television programs, it has since expanded to include other mediums. Video game tropes make up a large part of their site, and it's really interesting to look through and see just how common a particularly loved or hated plot device has expanded beyond your game.

 The title in question is something that has always bothered me since the dawn of gaming. Guide Dang It! is a device that described when a player can only come up with the solution to a problem or the means of obtaining something by using a guide, since conventional and common sense approaches just don't work.

 Take Shadowgate, for instance. The old NES classic was not only difficult and threatening, but the sheer abuse of power made this game a frustrating beast for gamers at the time. Should you wander into a room carrying the wrong item on your person, you'd die. If you were stuck at a dead end and there was a device at the dead end needing activation, a player could attempt to go through their item stack to see what presented a solution. Only problem is that the player could be killed by using any of the wrong items. It's just tough to play this game without feeling like a masochist, and that's not even the best example.

 Which brings me to the Zodiac Spear. Sure, there were guides and FAQs available for this game the second that is was released. Imagine that you bought this game and headed off to a cabin with no internet, phone, or guide. Would you ever find the Zodiac Spear or know of its existence? Without a guide, and if everyone who worked on the game shut up, would anyone have found it? For those who don't know what the weapon is, it's one of the ultimate weapons in the game, and while there are a couple methods to get it, the widely accepted version of acquiring the item involves you not opening certain treasure chests in the game. Within the game, there are no hints about this.

 Which leads me to wonder, what is the point of guides? It's been suggested that guide makers pressure developers to sneak these secrets in to sell guides, but there are too many games (specifically RPGs) that include secret stashes of items or special endings requiring the player to be absurdly obsessive. I consider myself to be a capable gamer with a pretty decent melon, but sometimes I will sit there playing an RPG wondering why it's second nature for me to have the guide before I even begin.

 To take this point further, this doesn't bother me so much if the game is completable without a guide. If I can beat the game without a guide and still discover the full extent of the story, then I don't bother unless I'm completely stuck on how to advance in the game (which is rare). If I can advance on my own, I'd rather not use a guide, and as you can probably tell from previous posts, I don't have a fascination with ultimate weapons. Generally, by the time I can get it, I don't really need it anyway. Some game secrets are specifically designed to pair with a guide and meant for only obsessive completists. So, unless there's a huge plot secret or a secret ending, guides don't make sense to me.

 That's when it pisses me off, though. It's when developers put these super-secret paths into their games and apply story weight to them that truly pisses me off. If there's some random hidden room that contains the key to the "true ending", or a character that needs recruiting so that you can face the real final boss, sometimes it's obvious to the player, and sometimes it's anything but. I seriously wonder at times why a developer would choose to put something vital in a game and require that the player be insane to have figured out how to get it. I know that selling guides is a factor, but who comes up with some of this stuff expecting a regular player to come up with a solution on their own? Go to GameFAQs and look up secrets for the latest Fire Emblem game and tell me that you know somebody who would have discovered this stuff on their own with no help whatsoever.

 It makes me curious, though. How many huge game secrets for legacy games have honestly been discovered by players and not leaked out by the companies themselves? Are there any game secrets that have been left undiscovered? On top of that, there's the reverse question of what would happen if, hypothetically, Squeenix released Final Fantasy XIII without a guide. Would players have any clue about getting ultimate weapons, summons, and side-quests? How would that pan out?

 Finally, I'd like to see a game be challenging by avoiding guides altogether. To clarify, I think that someone out there should experiment with a guide-proof game, forcing the player to get creative and to explore the game on their own terms rather than having their hand held. Some players out there rely on guides for survival and completion without using brainpower. I've seen it happen where a friend will get a brand spanking new game complete with guide, and every time that game is played the guide is open. How is that playing a game, and have games become so shady in their structure that guides are a required game tool?

 On the topic of how to make a game guide-proof, I've had some pretty good ideas in the past. Randomization is part of the equation, but alone it's an entirely broken idea. If you have to do something at a certain location, then a guide can always help you so long as you can find that location. If an enemy shows up in a different place each playthrough, the strategy will remain the same, so it's not the biggest deal in the world.

 What is required is a complex game system that avoids becoming a jigsaw puzzle, and by that, I mean that a game should make sense and not rely on the complexity as the game's sole selling point. Otherwise, the game turns out to be a jigsaw puzzle where you're spending the entire game piecing together the method and order rather than letting the game speak for itself. So, randomization is part of the equation, but there has to be some sense involved. NPC's who have dynamic dialogue can help avert this so that the player can discover things in a sensible fashion within the game world rather than piecing together the game world itself. It's just one example, but I hardly ever see this used in a game. If I go to GameFAQs, I know the exact location of every item, the odds of getting it, the method of getting it, who to take it to and where to find them, and what taking it to that person will do. It just doesn't seem very...satisfying.

 Anyway, rant over. Rescuing laundry. Digg It Stumble it ! Reddit