FAQ Contributors - General
FAQ Pet Peeves
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| Super Slash | Posted 4/24/2008 10:00:40 AM | message detail |
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This is my list of things I have problems with: Incomplete Full Circle Guides Why do people do this? I haven't come across it much, but I have before, and I hate it. When I think a guide is complete (an example being a guide for Sonic Adventure 2), I click on it, only to find out that the part of the game I need help with hasn't been covered yet. It's annoying, and I'm convinced these people just submit full circle guides when they're incomplete to get them higher on the list. Missing Information in Lists This happens far too often in guides. When I go to look for a list of weapons or something, I look for all of the information (stats, the location, the sell value, etc.), and usually, I won't find it. I have to keep two or more guides up just to get the information I need. This might not always be the writer's fault, as they may not have had access to the information at the time, so it makes it a little less annoying. Spoilers without Warning When I'm playing through a game, or even just reading through a guide for fun, I hate to come across a really major spoiler (like "Character A dies at point B in the game"). Even if it's a guide I'm reading for fun, there's always a possibility I could play that game in the future (this doesn't apply to some games I *know* I'll never play, however). I've come across this on the boards before, too. I got Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn spoiled for me on the Brawl boards, with no warning whatsoever beforehand. -_- Walls of Text This one should be obvious. Some guides have such huge walls of text, it makes it unreadable. I've seen paragraphs that are at least 23 lines long, and I get so lost I end up reading the same sentence four times before I finally move onto the next one. By then, I will have been confused and would have to read the same sentence another time. I had a bad habit of using walls of text in some of my guides (namely Paper Mario TTYD, FF6, and Sunset Riders), but I fixed them for the most part. No Boss Strategies in the Walkthrough Okay, I admit, I am *extremely* guilty of doing this. Practically all of my guides (well, most), save for Golden Sun and The Lost Age, have a seperate section for bosses. I really regret doing this, and I honestly plan to fix it sometime in the nearby future (I just procrastinate too much). Extremely Old Incomplete Guides There's far too many of these for older games (again, see Sonic Adventure 2, and also Goldeneye and Final Fantasy VII). Half of the FAQs for older games are incomplete and will never be updated again, and such guides should be removed from the site to make room for more better, complete guides. I'm sure many agree with me on this one. Although an incomplete Goldeneye FAQ was taken down recently (it was almost 10 years old). I am guilty of this to a degree, though (my Four Sword Adventures FAQ hasn't had a true update since around the end of '04). As for boxes, "Final" versions, and Coming Soon warnings, I have no qualms with those. I'm guilty of doing the Coming Soon thing, myself. =P --- Current Amount of FAQs: 27 (7689 Total KB) Current KB FAQ Rank: KB King |
| Adamantno1 | Posted 4/24/2008 10:48:22 AM | message detail |
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I also disagree with the statement that nobody, say, plays Donkey
Kong to get through the first three levels. When I looked back and
played it, I did! It can get repetitive and often people just want to
know how repetitive it might get, or if they are missing anything after
the fifth time through. To me, the 3 levels are a walkthrough, but to
others it might not be. This may be a matter of personal playing style
and what you are looking for. It's a walkthough, yes, just like "Get all the dots to beat the level. All the levels are similiar. The end." is a walkthrough for Pac-man. But it's a horrible guide, since the objective isn't to beat all the individual stage designs once, but to get a high score. I also take it you had no idea what Donkey Kogn was like when you first played it, didn't like the game because it was too "short", and would've called it a waste of money had you actually bought it. Does that mean we need 6 guides telling people how to pass each individual level once, and not even a single line about what the actual point of the game is? A good guide to the game would've no doubt included the fact that there were only 3 different levels, just like the good Pac-man guide here says there's only one maze layout in the game, so that you know when to turn off the game and hate it for being so short. The difference between the good and the bad Pac-Man guide is that the good one ALSO gives pointers on how to do what's really the point of the game - and that's NOT turning it off after getting all the dots in the first stage. --- My nick's Adamant. I have a "no 1" that looks stupid. Would've changed it if I could without losing karma. So it's Adamant, not Adamanto or Adamantno. |
| Adamantno1 | Posted 4/24/2008 10:52:24 AM | message detail |
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Why do people do this? I haven't come across it much, but I have
before, and I hate it. When I think a guide is complete (an example
being a guide for Sonic Adventure 2), I click on it, only to find out
that the part of the game I need help with hasn't been covered yet.
It's annoying, and I'm convinced these people just submit full circle
guides when they're incomplete to get them higher on the list. Speaking of Sonic Adventure 2, is there a SINGLE guide out thee that actually help you get those A ranks? They're important enough to the game that you'd think people would care, but all of the available guides seem to focus more on overly detailed guides to the really easy single player levels. Come on, that's like writing a Mario 64 guide and only mentioning where to get 70 of the stars, since that's all you need to beat the game. --- My nick's Adamant. I have a "no 1" that looks stupid. Would've changed it if I could without losing karma. So it's Adamant, not Adamanto or Adamantno. |
| Tarrun | Posted 4/24/2008 3:23:18 PM | message detail |
| Honestly, the only thing that annoys me is when
there's excessive ASCII or borders around headers. I'm not interested
in looking at pretty pictures, I want to know how to get from Point A
to Point B, plain and simple. ASCII maps or charts are fine, but not if
it's excess fluff. Otherwise, I didn't think of it at first, but having separate boss sections is pretty annoying. Particularly if it's a large file, having to find the boss section, and then find your original place can be a real pain. I think the overall point is that I want a FAQ to be simple and easy to read. I know that's the goal I aim for when I write, anyway. --- When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all. |
| ASchultz | Posted 4/24/2008 5:07:29 PM | message detail |
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It's a walkthough, yes, just like "Get all the dots to beat the
level. All the levels are similiar. The end." is a walkthrough for
Pac-man. In the case of Donkey Kong, very little changes. Pac-Man is a bit different, with later levels based on ghosts going faster and less time when you eat power pills. So the games do have to be decided on a case by case basis. There are simply many games that get very boring very quickly and provide no real further challenge than just to sharpen your technique. If a guide comes out and says, this will get you pretty far, then I don't see a problem with it. I also take it you had no idea what Donkey Kogn was like when you first played it, didn't like the game because it was too "short", and would've called it a waste of money had you actually bought it. Well, I did buy it for the Atari 2600. And everyone knew what it was like pretty quickly. I think that if someone were given Donkey Kong and played til level 24 and only then realized the levels repeated, they might be upset with the wasted time. However, if they had a guide that stated what took how long, they could judge whether the point(high score) was worth achieving. Does that mean we need 6 guides telling people how to pass each individual level once, and not even a single line about what the actual point of the game is? Well, not need, but we should permit it. If they give different levels of rigor, that may suit some people better than others. It shouldn't be discouraged. I know I read several strategy books with different takes on classic video games and picked up different pointers for the same game. And for a game that never ends, there's no real defined point. For instance, in Galaga, when I got through the 1st 32 levels, I got bored when it looped back to 33(which was #1.) The difference between the good and the bad Pac-Man guide is that the good one ALSO gives pointers on how to do what's really the point of the game - and that's NOT turning it off after getting all the dots in the first stage. Well, in Donkey Kong a guide that discusses the first three levels and offers general pointers for later, and why these instructions fit in to the general pointers would be adequate. I think I understand what you are saying, but Donkey Kong may not be the best example. Pac-Man seems better. But there are plenty of games that repeat pretty quickly, and it's good to know these are potentially the least fun to achieve a high score on. --- LEMSDAY. |
| Super Slash | Posted 4/24/2008 6:39:56 PM | message detail |
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Speaking of Sonic Adventure 2, is there a SINGLE guide out thee that
actually help you get those A ranks? They're important enough to the
game that you'd think people would care, but all of the available
guides seem to focus more on overly detailed guides to the really easy
single player levels. Come on, that's like writing a Mario 64 guide and
only mentioning where to get 70 of the stars, since that's all you need
to beat the game. Kirby's FAQ gives you tips for the A Ranks. --- Current Amount of FAQs: 27 (7689 Total KB) Current KB FAQ Rank: KB King |
| Sashanan | Posted 4/24/2008 9:33:44 PM | message detail |
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Well, in Donkey Kong a guide that discusses the first three levels
and offers general pointers for later, and why these instructions fit
in to the general pointers would be adequate. This is pretty much how I've been doing it in my Commodore FAQs. In the case of a game where the levels loop, they usually up in difficulty for the second loop and sometimes keep doing so for the 3rd, 4th et cetera, so I've been writing up level explanations and strategies for the first cycle, then for subsequence cycles I include notes on what's changed and, where appropriate, additional strategies. I do often run into the problem of what to write, though. Only so much you can tell the reader when what they really have to do is play it 50 times and get the timing down. On some games, notably Galaxian, I simply don't have the reflexes to put my own strategies to use. :S --- First you draw a circle, then you dot the eyes http://www.mastagus.com/sash/collection/collection.html |
| Warhawk | Posted 4/25/2008 8:15:10 PM | message detail |
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5. Uncompleted Guides marked as completed Head over to the TimeSplitters FAQ page to see what I am talking about. Two of the four "complete" guides are lacking certain Challenge Levels. With these missing Challenge Levels, it is not complete, thus should not be advertised as such. I remember looking through the ones for Silent Hill 2 and noticed there were a couple that were posted not long after the game's release in 2001 but not were updated when I looked through them almost a year ago. One guide was only up to like the hospital and another that wasn't up that far yet in the game, I'm like what's the point of having guides that only offer at around 1/3 of the way done with the walkthrough section and haven't been updated in 6 years. --- Arrive.....Race Hard.....Leave |
| jelly soup | Posted 4/25/2008 9:26:13 PM | message detail |
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On incomplete guides, I hate when people upload item lists for games
that have constant updates and the FAQ never reflects this. This goes
more for Online/Web-only games and MMORPGs. Take a gander at the indepth section for Neopets. Most of the guides way out of date. In fact, and this would take knowledge of the sites history to know this, many of those guides were out of date when they were posted. --- What is an FAQ? A miserable pile of facts and questions. "Work is the best antidote to sorrow." - Sherlock Holmes |
| The Admiral | Posted 4/25/2008 11:37:58 PM | message detail |
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Since we're on the subject of pet peeves, "uncompleted" is not a word.
I think it's come up at least half a dozen times in this thread already. --- - The Admiral |
| PeTeRL90 | Posted 4/26/2008 12:01:42 AM | message detail |
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Incomplete is the word you're looking for. I was wondering when someone was going to point it out. --- Total Files/Complete FAQs: 55/39 http://club.ign.com/b/list/custom?&lid=100018&owner=PeTeRL90&mode=vown |
| peach freak | Posted 4/26/2008 12:08:07 AM | message detail |
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Coming Soon! - I do this all the time, but unlike many other people, I address this as fast as possible. Spoilers - I try to omit the endings from my guides, but I'll usually provide details on in game cut scenes. --- Manny Ramirez: .356 AVG, 6 HR, 20 RBI He is the best. Do not mess with him. 496 HR and still climbing! |
| peach freak | Posted 4/26/2008 12:11:26 AM | message detail |
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Version Histories - Most of the time I keep these at the top, but when they're extremely long, they get scooted down to the bottom of the guide. Version Numbers - I recall once using "beta" as a version for my Sonic Advance 3 guide. Everything but the walkthrough was complete. My version number is based on how many levels are completed in the guide. So if there are 20 levels and I've covered 9 of them, it would be version .45. After the guide is complete and I add more content to my guides, the version number is a judgement call from me. --- Manny Ramirez: .356 AVG, 6 HR, 20 RBI He is the best. Do not mess with him. 496 HR and still climbing! |
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