When was the last time you used a walkthrough? Honestly, I can’t even remember the last time I looked up a guide, but what I do remember is how much I wanted to look one up so badly. Elden Ring, Professor Layton, Myst, all games that I’ve stepped away from because I was so allergic to asking for help when I knew I needed it. There has always been this nagging voice in my head telling me it wasn’t okay to look up guides, but I’m here to say that I’m not letting it bother me anymore. It’s time to talk about guide guilt, why it feels bad, and why it shouldn’t.
“Right” Way To Play
Since the dawn of gaming, there have been a ton of gaming purists who have decided that there’s a right way to play a game. Being thrust into such a vast open world like Elden Ring, I remember feeling overwhelmed, and I spent most of the game having a sub-par weapon because I had no idea where all the good weapons were! It would have been so easy for me to just pull up a guide for the best build or the locations for some of the best weapons, but there was this nagging feeling in my brain, afraid that I’d be ruining the sanctity of this video game.
I believed that the right way to play games like this was to experience it organically and build your own story. But, as it turns out, there isn’t a right way to enjoy a game. The developers put this experience in your hands to play the way that you want, and no one’s waiting and watching to see if you used a guide. What really helped me through this internal guilt or shame was shifting my perspective from diluting the experience to enhancing it. For me, using a guide meant that I was getting every last bit of content I could from a game, and what could be worse than that?
As a person working two jobs along with other adult responsibilities, it's hard for me to spend too much time on video games. This is a problem because, especially recently, we’ve been eating really good. There’s an endless list of games collecting dust on my laundry list that I wish I could just pop in and experience without the fear of heavy time investment. An example is how I felt after playing Balatro for 60 hours. At some point, man craves something more than an Ante 8 run, and because of that, I had to face my reality: If I wanted to finish it, I had to trim the time-consuming and tedious parts out.
One game that comes to mind for me is God of War Ragnarok, another open-world game where you have to explore a vast world and complete a few environmental puzzles to get the most out of the experience. There’s even a secret boss (the hardest one in fact) that you can only encounter if you take the time to hunt down a few other mini bosses. There is just so much to figure out and experience in this wonderful world, and I could have done it in record time if I had just used some guides to overcome some of the more head-scratching puzzles.
Building a Community
Not only are guides actually beneficial for you, but they’re also beneficial for the game’s community. Video game forums are still abuzz with tons of guides and walkthroughs for various things about the game you love, and it’s these very guides that not only bring in new players but also keep players staying. These guides are no different from you reconnecting with a friend to ask how they got that awesome sword in Elden Ring, and that’s a feeling I don’t ever want to disappear from video games.
All in all, I think a lot is going on here, and what can be said about video games can be said about real life, too. It’s okay to ask for help sometimes, and you’re not ruining your experience or the integrity of your craft just by asking for help. In fact, that’s the entire fun part of it, too, because getting help should feel just as good as giving help. So the next time you find yourself stuck on a particularly difficult stage in a video game, don’t be stubborn and look for a guide.
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