Strategy guide
Strategy guides are instruction books that contain hints or complete solutions to specific
Strategy guides marketed as "official" are written by game distributors themselves or licensed to a specialty publishing house; Prima Games and Piggyback Interactive specialise in writing official guides for various companies. There are also a number of publishers who make unlicensed, "unofficial" strategy guides, and many of today's mainstream publishers began by making such guides.
Typical contents
The contents of a strategy guide varies between game genres. Typically, the guides contain:
- Detailed gameplay information, for example, maneuvers that are not detailed in the manual.
- Complete maps of the game, which show the placement of all items (including hidden and hard-to-find ones).
- Detailed instructions for specific locations on how to proceed from there.
- Explanations of puzzles.
- Details of enemies, including techniques on defeating individual enemies (especially bosses), the segment for minor enemies is commonly referred to as a bestiary.
- Checklist of collectible items.
- Cheats and game editing, although this has been less common in official guides.
- Walkthroughs to help the player complete levels.
- Advice on tactics and strategies for use in multi-player (games with multi-player only)
Publishing before game release
In order to be released at the same time as the game, commercial strategy guides are often based on a pre-release version of the game, rather than the final retail version; BradyGames' guide for
Strategy guides are sometimes published before the game itself is published. This can be risky because there is always the chance that a game will end up not being released. For example, in January
Online guides
Video games |
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Online strategy guides and FAQs are hosted at sites such as GameFAQs and IGN FAQs, though much of this content is user generated and not published by the company. A number of other sites contain strategy guides, and videos in a number of niche areas, such as Role Playing Games or First Person Shooters. These sites may attract a more limited set of viewers, but can include more depth of content. Video-sharing sites such as YouTube have given rise to video walkthroughs using programs such as Fraps, which allows players to more easily mirror the strategies being described. These videos are re-posted to a number of sites.[1]
Video game wikis are used as both strategy guides and documentation. Content is generated and edited completely by users. Wikis allow for information to updated if a developer introduced a new patch to the game. Wiki farms such as
Aside from the quality of the content, the community aspect of fan walkthroughs is significant. One perspective argues that walkthroughs are shared stories for gamers and game fans. In creating walkthroughs, gamers actively create meaning for the games. This is similar to activities of traditional media such as books, films and television (e.g., Fan Fiction).[3]
The increasing availability of free online FAQs and walkthroughs has taken away some of the demand for commercial strategy guides, although there is still a large market for them. Print guides often feature extensive picture-by-picture walkthroughs, maps, and game art, none of which is possible in the
Some publishers have tried combining their printed books with the
Source mistakes
Some companies make mistakes in the book about the game itself, such as stating that "Character A" has a relationship with "Character B", despite there being no relationship. In a strategy guide for Diddy Kong Racing they referred to characters with terms such as "The Dinosaur" and "The Octopus" instead of their names.
Games journalist and guide writer Alan Emrich has severely criticized recent strategy guides for:
- Containing only facts which should have been in the game manual, e.g. about the user interface.
- Failing to teach users how to improve their play.
- Failing to provide information which helps them to make decisions, e.g. about the capabilities and costs of units and buildings.
- Being inaccurate, often because the developers have tweaked the game during the publication lead time.
The faults, he says, are mainly caused by the game publishers' and guide publishers' haste to get their products on to the market;[5] "[previously] strategy guides were published after a game was released so that they could be accurate, even to the point of including information changes from late game 'patch' releases. The Master of Orion official strategy guide that Tom Hughes and I wrote is just that kind of book."[6]
Lists
Best-selling guide books
Title | Author(s) | Year | Sales | Game(s) | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Final Fantasy VIII Ultimania
|
Studio BentStuff
|
1999 | 2,200,000 | Final Fantasy VIII | [7] |
Mastering Pac-Man | Ken Uston | 1981 | 1,700,000 | Pac-Man | [8] |
Final Fantasy VII Kaitai Shinsho | Studio BentStuff
|
1997 | 1,700,000 | Final Fantasy VII | [7] |
Super Mario Bros: The Complete Strategy Guide | Tokuma Shoten, Naoto Yamamoto | 1985 | 1,300,000 | Super Mario Bros. | [9][10] |
Myst: The Official Strategy Guide | Rusel DeMaria, Rick Barba | 1993 | 1,200,000 | Myst | [11] |
Final Fantasy X Scenario Ultimania
|
Studio BentStuff
|
2001 | 1,000,000 | Final Fantasy X | [7] |
How to Master the Video Games | Tom Hirschfeld | 1981 | 650,000 | Arcade games
|
[12] |
Tomb Raider III strategy guide | Unknown | 1999 | 350,000 | Tomb Raider III | [13] |
Best-selling guide series
Series | Sales | Revenue | Games | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|
Ultimania
|
12,000,000 | Unknown | Square Enix games | [14] |
Pokémon strategy books | Unknown | $142,000,000 | Pokémon series | [15] |
Metal Gear Solid strategy guides
|
3,000,000 | Unknown | Metal Gear Solid series
|
[16] |
Pac-Man guide books | 1,700,000+ | Unknown | Pac-Man | [8] |
Grand Theft Auto guide books | 1,600,000 | Unknown | Grand Theft Auto series | [17] |
See also
- Golden age of video arcade games
- Video game walkthrough
References
- ^ "Example of YouTube Video Re-posts". Archived from the original on 2016-01-09.
- ^ "About Guild Wars Wiki".
- S2CID 145162771.
- ^ "Square's Innovative Strategy Guide Strategy". Archived from the original on June 17, 2006.
- ^ "Decline of Guides". Archived from the original on 2008-07-26. Retrieved 2008-07-27.
- ^ Emrich, Alan (2001). "Master of Orion: The History of a Game Series — One Man's Telling of a Cosmic Tale". Master of Orion III - The Official Web Site. Retrieved 18 January 2015.
- ^ Studio BentStuff(in Japanese). 15 June 2016. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
- ^ a b Uston, Ken (Fall 1983). "Arcade Games: Mastering Pac-Man Plus and Super Pac-Man". Creative Computing: Video & Arcade Games. Vol. 1, no. 2. p. 32.
- Ken Uston (Fall 1983). "Mastering Pac-Man Plus and Super Pac-Man". Creative Computing: Video & Arcade Games. Vol. 1, no. 2. p. 32 – via Atari Magazines.
- ^ Gifford, Kevin (May 4, 2011). "More on Tokuma's Mario Guide". Magweasel. Archived from the original on 2014-03-06. Retrieved 22 February 2021.
- ^ Yamamoto, Naoto (2011-04-23). "【1985】 スーパーマリオ狂騒曲 - ふぁみこん「雑誌」昔話" [(1985) Super Mario Bros. Famicom "Magazine" Old Story]. Hatena (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2011-04-26. Retrieved 22 February 2021.
- ISBN 978-0-429-77139-2.
- ^ "Learn The Code Book And Beat Video Games". Ludington Daily News. March 1, 1982. p. 25.
- ^ "DataStream" (PDF). Edge. No. 79 (December 1999). 24 November 1999. p. 132.
- Studio BentStuff (in Japanese). 15 June 2016. Archivedfrom the original on 2017-01-12. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
- ^ "Nakagawa Report ~ Toward a Sustainable and Competitive Industrial Structure ~ (Summary)" (PDF). Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RETI) (in Japanese). Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). May 2004. p. 10. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
- ^ Siegel, Tatiana; Kit, Borys (9 February 2007). "'Metal Gear Solid' film being forged at Columbia". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
- ^ Johnson, Steven (22 May 2005). "Viva virtuality". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 September 2021.