07-23-2004, 04:57 PM
Well, consider:
1) Target audience must be new to the game.
2) New people to the game mostly appear shortly after its release.
Therefore...
3) It makes economic sense to publish the strategy guide with the game, to catch the optimal number of newbies.
4) It takes time for solid strategy to become apparent from the point the game is completed.
5) Modern games are rarely finalized more than a month before going gold.
Therefore...
6) Strategy testers have little time to play the finalized game (even without considering patches) before being required to finalize their guide.
7) With insufficient time to formulate effective strategy based on experience with the finalized game, their strategies are going to be (almost literally) half-baked at best.
So, to compensate for half-baked strategy, they fill them up with their best guesses, obvious junk, and mission walkthroughs.
If games went through a longer gestation period, and developers took advantage of that, we'd have better guides. Better game design would also help immesurably. But "market forces" (read: laziness) means we'll never get to see that in our lifetimes.
Jester
1) Target audience must be new to the game.
2) New people to the game mostly appear shortly after its release.
Therefore...
3) It makes economic sense to publish the strategy guide with the game, to catch the optimal number of newbies.
4) It takes time for solid strategy to become apparent from the point the game is completed.
5) Modern games are rarely finalized more than a month before going gold.
Therefore...
6) Strategy testers have little time to play the finalized game (even without considering patches) before being required to finalize their guide.
7) With insufficient time to formulate effective strategy based on experience with the finalized game, their strategies are going to be (almost literally) half-baked at best.
So, to compensate for half-baked strategy, they fill them up with their best guesses, obvious junk, and mission walkthroughs.
If games went through a longer gestation period, and developers took advantage of that, we'd have better guides. Better game design would also help immesurably. But "market forces" (read: laziness) means we'll never get to see that in our lifetimes.
Jester