What I miss about these walk-throughs is that the complete lack of hyperlinks and images made finding the help you needed feel like its own challenge. I remember getting stuck in Ocarina of Time in the early 2000s, and interpreting complex directions for a puzzle in a 3 dimensional space without any visual aids was still tough. I played Twilight Princess for the first time a decade later, and the one time I got stuck I just watched a guy on YouTube solve it. Copying him felt pretty unsatisfying.
I liked that I could ctrl+f < thing I want to know about> and go right to it instead of having to jump around in a 20 minute video for a 2 minute thing.
Yes but the flip side was not being able to easily find information you didn’t have. Sure, ctrl+f made it easy to look up heart pieces, but I remember getting stuck in the forest temple and having to read through every step twice to figure out where I was supposed to go (if I remember right in think there was an eyeball switch I didn’t see).
Well, I think this comes down to personal preference and what kind if game you’re playing. It’s easier for me to scan a video to the point I’m stuck on and watch for 5 to 10 minutes until I see what I’m doing wrong than it is to read while I play until I find the passage that has the information I need. But I’m sure lots of people find it easier to pull the answers out of text than search through a video.
Yeah it’s the 5-10 minutes part that bothers me. I can read way faster than that. But to each their own. I can still typically find written guides for things, they just pale in comparison to the ones from the old gamefaqs days.
For me it’s less the reading and more the multitasking, especially in 3 dimensional spaces. I had one of those magazine sized guides for Myst, and as a point-and-click, it was simple enough to navigate. But reading along with a guide, putting it down, playing, looking again, only to realize I got turned around and went to the left instead of right 3 steps ago is what got confusing. (Having a desktop in another room that i had to get up and walk over to probably didn’t help either.) You’re right though, modern guides pale in comparison to the level of detail in those old guides.
Yeah, that’s a good way to put it. The FAQ advice felt like a treasure map you followed, which helped feel like you were still “solving” the thing since you needed to engage your brain (and it separately felt rewarding to succeed).
To be honest, watching YouTube and following along isn’t even the low effort version in 2025 - That’s reserved for just watching a Let’s Play and not even ever playing the game.
Yeah, I never watch a Let’s Play if something I want to play unless I’ve already played it. Sometimes I wind up turning them off if the game actually looks good.
Yes! I loved following ASCII maps. Even though I had thrown in the towel on solving the actual puzzle, I still got the satisfaction of solving the new puzzle that was deciphering whatever the hell the guide author was trying to convey.
Not to mention that with YouTube’s current search algorithm, looking up “CoolGame Room 7 Walkthrough” is likely to end up with results like “COOLGAME FINAL BOSS”, “COOLGAME SECRET ENDING”, “WHY CHARACTER 1 KILLED CHARACTER 2 IN COOLGAME EXPLAINED” thus spoiling the ever living shit of what you’re trying to play
What I miss about these walk-throughs is that the complete lack of hyperlinks and images made finding the help you needed feel like its own challenge. I remember getting stuck in Ocarina of Time in the early 2000s, and interpreting complex directions for a puzzle in a 3 dimensional space without any visual aids was still tough. I played Twilight Princess for the first time a decade later, and the one time I got stuck I just watched a guy on YouTube solve it. Copying him felt pretty unsatisfying.
I liked that I could ctrl+f < thing I want to know about> and go right to it instead of having to jump around in a 20 minute video for a 2 minute thing.
Heck I remember ones that had specific chapter codes so you could find that code to get to that specific chapter
Yes but the flip side was not being able to easily find information you didn’t have. Sure, ctrl+f made it easy to look up heart pieces, but I remember getting stuck in the forest temple and having to read through every step twice to figure out where I was supposed to go (if I remember right in think there was an eyeball switch I didn’t see).
Videos don’t improve on that issue though. Just makes it harder to go step by step.
Well, I think this comes down to personal preference and what kind if game you’re playing. It’s easier for me to scan a video to the point I’m stuck on and watch for 5 to 10 minutes until I see what I’m doing wrong than it is to read while I play until I find the passage that has the information I need. But I’m sure lots of people find it easier to pull the answers out of text than search through a video.
Yeah it’s the 5-10 minutes part that bothers me. I can read way faster than that. But to each their own. I can still typically find written guides for things, they just pale in comparison to the ones from the old gamefaqs days.
For me it’s less the reading and more the multitasking, especially in 3 dimensional spaces. I had one of those magazine sized guides for Myst, and as a point-and-click, it was simple enough to navigate. But reading along with a guide, putting it down, playing, looking again, only to realize I got turned around and went to the left instead of right 3 steps ago is what got confusing. (Having a desktop in another room that i had to get up and walk over to probably didn’t help either.) You’re right though, modern guides pale in comparison to the level of detail in those old guides.
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Yeah, that’s a good way to put it. The FAQ advice felt like a treasure map you followed, which helped feel like you were still “solving” the thing since you needed to engage your brain (and it separately felt rewarding to succeed).
To be honest, watching YouTube and following along isn’t even the low effort version in 2025 - That’s reserved for just watching a Let’s Play and not even ever playing the game.
Yeah, I never watch a Let’s Play if something I want to play unless I’ve already played it. Sometimes I wind up turning them off if the game actually looks good.
Lowest effort is a reaction video about it, so I don’t even need to think about how I feel about watching the let’s play video.
Yes! I loved following ASCII maps. Even though I had thrown in the towel on solving the actual puzzle, I still got the satisfaction of solving the new puzzle that was deciphering whatever the hell the guide author was trying to convey.
Exactly! It felt more like getting a hint rather than being given the answer.
Not to mention that with YouTube’s current search algorithm, looking up “CoolGame Room 7 Walkthrough” is likely to end up with results like “COOLGAME FINAL BOSS”, “COOLGAME SECRET ENDING”, “WHY CHARACTER 1 KILLED CHARACTER 2 IN COOLGAME EXPLAINED” thus spoiling the ever living shit of what you’re trying to play