Are you the type of gamer that looks up content guides while playing?

colonel_burger

I'll confess, for the last few years while gaming (wow while i played it, NWN2, other RPGs) I felt compulsion to check up quests in areas I entered to ensure I didn't miss content.

However, this time round through BGEE, I am going to totally refuse to look anything up.

While it's unnecessary for me to look up content relating to vanilla BG/BG2 (as I've memorised most of it through repetition) I am really looking forward to discovering content myself, without a wowhead pointer

Back when I first went through BG and BG2, I didn't really have access to decent Internet (Australian Internet FTL) so I was somewhat forced to mash my way through it. I'm looking forward to getting some of this again

Mortianna

I do it only for the Easter Eggs and when I'm getting rabidly pwned.

Khamill

Yep! It happend before and had to abandon the game:/The harder the challange, the more determined I am.

Lemernis

First time through I'll rely on memory.

Mainly I'll be paying attention to the new NPCs, their interactions with one another and old NPCs, and the Black Pits adventure. And of course the new zoom feature.

If there are some new easter eggs salted in the game's old areas, I'm sure it will be hard to avoid being spoiled about them in these forums! No biggie, though.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Quartz

Yeah, with BG:EE first playthrough or two I will refrain just as you are.

After that it's fair game. I like to play through the games first without any guides, and then I can do a more thorough job of things and all that business.

Although I think I will likely look up Dorn, Neera, and Rasaad's locations but that's it. That's it, I SWEAR.

Djimmy

I don't use walkthroughs but sometimes I look at item descriptions. I do it even when I am not playing any game. I love checking items, Cromwell recipes, Cespentar recipes etc... all the time.

etagloc

honestly, for me it really depends on the game.
in a nice story based game like bg, i almost never check that stuff on my first go unless I am really stuck.
one eks... is in bg 2 at spellhold were you have to trust Saemon Havarian, my paladin was like HELL'S NO!.
which made me miss out on a "Large" chunk of the game on my first go. But that really only made it better on my 2 playthough,.. wow did i really miss that...

but in games like Wow "gief me all the spOILS!"#¤

Zwiebelchen

I played through Baldur's Gate II and TOB without a guide and I'm pretty proud of it (especially watchers keep, which has some pretty tough puzzles). Over the years (and probably 10 or 15 more total playthroughs with all kinds of characters and npc combinations) I found every single thing that is worth to know about the game on my own (Even some hidden stuff like the twisted rune or the mind flayers in the sewers).
For BG1, to be honest, I used to look up some locations on http://www.forgottenwars.com/bg1/index.htm - which is awesome because of the interactive map in the upper left corner which allows you to quickly find anything on each map that is worth knowing.
I think the reason for that is, that BG1 had some issues that made playing it really annoying at times. For example the stupid mass respawns inside dungeons ... at some points of the game, I simply wanted to play through the dungeons as fast as possible simply because I got tired of all the stupid goblin killing.

And let's face it:
NO MAN ON EARTH will find the ring of wizardry without looking it up. Heck, I looked for it for almost 30 minutes even when I knew the general location of it (I knew which tree it was supposed to be, but still didn't manage to find it for 30 minutes)!

The_New_Romance

I hate it, but I just can't help not looking up stuff - the most I can bring myself to is to limit myself to looking up sections I've already been through, but somehow there's *always* spoilers around no matter what, which leads to unpleasant psychological states. Grrr.

Metal_Hurlant

I've never looked at games guides on the first couple of playthroughs.

The only time I look at game guides is when I've finished a game and out of curiosity want to see the things I've missed. Then I usually find out that there's an easier way to finish the game, especially with OP items hidden all over the place. eg. Ring of Wizardy outside the Friendly Arm Inn.

ajwz

I will typically never look through a guide on my first play through, but after that I feel it can often help enrich the experience of subsequent runs, finding out tactics and situations you might have missed, and comparing your take on character design to someone elses.

I certainly never looked at a guide for BG or BG2 until about 4-5 years after they cam out but this is mostly due to the growth of the internet as a tool for this sort of thing.

Permidion_Stark

I'm hopeless at riddles and puzzles (basically, anything that involves thinking) so I quite often have to resort to a guide for that kind of thing, especially in the lower levels of Durlag's Tower when I can't work out how to open the doors. I like Dudleyville best: http://www.forgottenwars.com/bg1/index.htm

sandmanCCL

I write my own guide for others to use.

Can't wait for BG:EE so I can get back to assembling what I hope will be the most comprehensive Baldur's Gate guide on the web.

gfm50

No guides!

Cuan

For me personally, I dont see the point of playing a game if you are just gonna read guides on how to do everything... why even play the game?

I tend to read guides after playing a game for a good long while. I played BG for about 3 years before ever reading a guide about it.

sandmanCCL

Cuan said:

For me personally, I dont see the point of playing a game if you are just gonna read guides on how to do everything... why even play the game?

I tend to read guides after playing a game for a good long while. I played BG for about 3 years before ever reading a guide about it.

I can see why some people wouldn't want guides on CONTENT, but guides explaining the ins and outs of the complicated character creation process are pretty helpful even to more experienced players.

I didn't understand how AD&D stats worked til I got down to creating my own guide. I discovered there is practically no difference between 17 and 18 strength, for example, so my non-fighter characters never bothered to go beyond 17. Didn't know there weren't any benefits going beyond 16 CON either outside of warrior classes. Also also found out Charisma has barely any impact on your game.

Those types of things are not readily apparent even after playing the game. People coming from 3e back to AD&D feel confused why their 14 strength means nothing.

Zwiebelchen

sandmanCCL said:

Cuan said:

For me personally, I dont see the point of playing a game if you are just gonna read guides on how to do everything... why even play the game?

I tend to read guides after playing a game for a good long while. I played BG for about 3 years before ever reading a guide about it.

I can see why some people wouldn't want guides on CONTENT, but guides explaining the ins and outs of the complicated character creation process are pretty helpful even to more experienced players.

I didn't understand how AD&D stats worked til I got down to creating my own guide. I discovered there is practically no difference between 17 and 18 strength, for example, so my non-fighter characters never bothered to go beyond 17. Didn't know there weren't any benefits going beyond 16 CON either outside of warrior classes. Also also found out Charisma has barely any impact on your game.

Those types of things are not readily apparent even after playing the game. People coming from 3e back to AD&D feel confused why their 14 strength means nothing.

Well, at the end of the game manual (at least the euro-boxed original version of Baldurs Gate II, dunno about the trilogy stuff), there are tables about the stats where you could have known all that. I don't see why you would need a guide for that.

Chippy

I'm a bit of an ironman - if you die it's all over - gamer, and IE games reflect how well they are put together in that if you die it's usually because you're being careless. If there are quirks in games that have unforseen "pandoras box" consequences, I'll look it up though. Or if the game just changes the gameplay (like in Deus Ex:HR with each boss) then I'll look it up.

sandmanCCL

@Zwiebelchen:
The tables in the manuals are wrong in a lot of cases, and even then don't do an adequate job explaining most of the game's mechanics.

Zwiebelchen

sandmanCCL said:

@Zwiebelchen:
The tables in the manuals are wrong in a lot of cases, and even then don't do an adequate job explaining most of the game's mechanics.

Maybe. But in case of strength and constitution, they are correct.

Fake_Sketch

I used to read guides in the past, now it feels wrong. Ill just check the NPC starting places as I dont remember them and I dont want the game to screw the lvling.

Dee

I used to check guides for the easter eggs (diamond in the knot, ring of wizardry, ring of protection, etc.) but with the BG2 engine, now I just use Tab.

I'll also read people's reviews of the NPCs, in case I've missed something about a character that's worth knowing.

Wanderon

Applejuice please...

For the most part I've always felt that games where exploration of the world and discovering what it has to offer whether that was traps or treasure enemies or freinds were meant to be played more or less blind and that was meant to be part of the challenge the game offered and at the same time part of the overall experience.

It would seem to me to be a no-brainer to figure out this is probably the case with D&D based games - I've never played PnP but from what I know about it I doubt the DM is going to provide anyone with a list of where the important NPCs might be found or what needs to be accomplished before the premiere items in the game are discovered. LOL

Back in the days when BG was released and games still came with decent manuals that would give you a deep enough look into how the mechanics work and what to generally expect I never bought or downloaded any guides altho I would often come to the forums to discuss character builds and strategy - hopefully in a non-spoiler manner.

Today I often buy guides just to get the information one should be able to get from the now missing manual (class descriptions, weapons, armor, general tactics & mechanics of combat) but almost never even look at any of the quest related stuff at all or if I do it's not until long after I have explored most every nook and cranny on my own.

One exception for me is puzzles - I mostly find them annoying and after an attempt or two depending on my present mood I may just wander off and look up the solution so I can move on.

Awong124

I always use a walk through. I hate feeling like I might have missed something.

Dee

@Awong124 See, my solution to this is just to uncover the entire map before moving forward.

Awong124

@aosaw it's not just missing stuff on the map. It's also stuff like special dialogue options or secrets, etc.

Atlantic

Killing Firkraag after c.20 attempts makes it all the sweeter! As for the vanilla BG maps, I like to think that there's still something out there which I haven't discovered yet

Gilgalahad

Never use them. I don't play games to replay them over and over consecutive times. I play one very thorough playthrough and move on to something else then at a later date I might replay it using different classes/companions etc.Beating some critter(though it may take 2-3 tries depending on the foe) or failing to find something on my initial runs is extremely rare.

CaptRory

It depends. I'll always use it on a second or later playthrough to make sure I don't miss anything. Often I'll use a guide on the first just so I can see a list to see if I'm missing anything. Games can take upwards of 80 hours to complete, I know if I miss something the first time I might not ever see it.

Lekian

I am probably of the elder old school gamers when guides and walkthroughs did not even exist, I have grown playing games in that way.

I can remember finishing Police Quest 1 from Sierra with no guides, but I never finished the sequels.



Guides really only started to appear in an easy way when Internet became available. Back in the early 90´s the only cheats or guides you could find where in magazines.

Although I must admit that it is sometimes very frustrating not being able to continue with the game at the pace I would like. IMO, I also feel nowadays games lack the difficulty of games from the past.