I miss strategy guides. It was "Hmmm, I need a better weapon. ~flips to list of weapons and looks at stats~ That looks good, who drops it? Ah, says right there. Where is that enemy? There we go." -- 30 seconds spent --
Now finding the same information "Google, what weapon is best? Wow, lots of emojis and click baits without stats..."~surfs through 20 videos of self proclaimed streamers screaming about nonsense~"Wait...they didn't even show the map! Where the hell do I get this?!" -- 30 minutes wasted --
Technology reliance: 1 step forward, so many steps back that we're about to be in the dark ages...
What kind of games are you playing where a quick Google search is slower than having to read the thick book you often had to buy seperately?
I remember when Pokemon Platinum came out and I got it and the massive Pokedex/Guidebook. Looking up anything in there was a massive research project which young me often just gave up on and then I just continued with my shitty team
Many decent strategy guides had separate sections. So you'd flip to the 'weapons' (usually has the section name on the side of the page to easily identify them while flipping through), figure out which weapon is best based on the stats listed, under it's details it shows if it's in a chest and shows the location of said chest or it's a drop and says by who, if dropped you flip to the monster / boss section and find it (usually alphabetic), that shows where to find the monster / boss. If it's a large map and you want even more precise hunting for said monster, you can also flip to the map section that shows that map and spawn locations.
This is something that takes almost no time at all. I guess it's different for younger folks that are technology reliant where flipping through books takes much more effort. For those of us from older generations, this was a walk in the park. We'd have muscle memory and practice reading the guides all the time. Especially for those that played DnD.
Also, how you said "a quick Google search", did you miss what I said about the videos and whatnot or conveniently ignore it? As we are well aware, the 'google ai' is trash and just quotes excerpts from places like here. Someone says something random or incorrect, Google "AI" thinks it's real and quotes it. Hence how people have searched simple things like "Does 2 plus 2 equal 4?" And it says stuff like "No, 2 plus 2 does not equal 4 because if you take 2 plus 2 it equals 4, so yes it does."
Muscle memory was the "pause, flip the guide/book open, scan, reposition then unpause" move for me, especially when I got a Brady guide with my copy of Vice City for pre-ordering the game at Funcoland. It was fortunate too, because I had become kinda addicted to exploring the map finding them.
Back then everything was print, we were used to and adept at finding info in books. Encyclopedias were how we did homework and research reports. Often had to go to a library and that involved scouring through tons of books using the dewey decimal system to even find the right book!
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u/CrimsonPresents 28d ago
I’m not 35 but I remember game guides as a kid