Inspired by the bus comment in a previous thread. I'll only buy a game guide only if the game is complex and big like grand theft auto san andreas, or the Elder Scrolls games. Other than that i just look to gamefaqs which is always helpful.

No, but then again, I never bought one before the age of the internet either.

I used to buy them when I would reach a particularly difficult area of a game. But they're so $$$$ I stopped.

Now I just read specific sections while at the counter in Gamestop, or I'll get the info from the Net.

Generally, no. Gamefaqs. The only ones I've bought were:
Oblivion (had coupon)
Nocturne (discount with buying the game
FFX-2 and Dragon Quest VIII (cheap as heck online)
Twilight Princess (free with coupon).
I will definitely admit a well done guide (pictures, indexed, etc) is much better than a huge text file, or at least much more fun to read, but it's really difficult to spend 15-25 bucks on a guide, especially when most games don't really require that depth.

Why would I pay money for a book that usually contains worse information than what I can get for free on the internet?

I think the only one I've ever bought is for one of the Civilization games, just because it was convienient to have all the tables and numbers in hard copy.

I still love the Doublejump ones, though I don't love them enough to buy one for, say, a Castlevania DS game. I find that a really well-designed guide for a relatively deep game that I'll play for a long time is worth it to me... and that a guide for a game that I'll play for maybe 1 hour isn't even worth the penny they're marked down to.

The only game guides that I ever bought were for FF Tactics PS version and the Pokemon Red/Blue.

The last one I ever got (I never bought one) was Zelda: OoT, I found GameFAQs just after that.

No. I play games for an interactive experience. I feel like I'm losing that if I'm playing from a guide. Might as well watch a movie or a television show instead.

Nope. Not even the past before the internet boom.

I bought one for Zork, because I couldn't find my way through the caves.

I rarely buy guides, but when I do, it's more for the Art than anything. Mostly it's for Fighting games, because the artwork is pretty good and the Soundtracks are cool.

Automatic ones, for me...on any game in these series...

Soul Calibur
Street Fighter
Guilty Gear
Darkstalkers
Tekken

And I own all of the different guides for Final Fantasy VII. Yes, including the Versus one, in perfect condition from release day, poster intact. Got a few of the old Gamefan Books guides too (they rocked, lots of good artwork). My fave guide ever has to be the Gamefan guide for Soul Edge, or the original Street Fighter Alpha one with all the sketches. Good stuff there.

I have picked up a few other guides, but it was when they were pennied out at gamestop or Best Buy, like Gears of War, the Punisher, etc...

I've never bought a guide. I did however get the Zelda: TP for free with a Nintendo Power subscription.

I rarely use a guide unless I'm really stuck on something.

I've bought a few when they were pennied out at stores, otherwise I just use gamefaqs. Game guides seem like a waste of money to me.

I never buy a guide, no.

I do bookmark online walkthrus for every game I'm playing, however. I only use them after I've exhausted everything I can think of to advance.

I don't think I've ever bought a guide, although I used them sometimes. I generally resort to GameFaqs etc. once I get stuck. The last few missions on Oblivion I did using only GameFaqs because at that point I was past 100 hours on the game and desperately needed to rejoin society in general and I couldn't do it until the game was beaten.

Guides are meh. Do you need a map to walk down the street?

I used to buy them sometimes for RPGs, so I wouldn't miss anything, but then I found myself just playing by the book, so now I stay away.

If I get stuck or lost or just too damn frustrated, I check gamefaqs but that's usually for something specific, so I still enjoy playing the game.

Ditto. I played FFX with the guide (I tried not to look at it too much except for doing all the subquests but with it sitting there it is too tempting to check for every decision or tough puzzle).

You know what doing all the subquests earned me? Killing the endboss in something like 3 rounds.

I don't hit them up much now anymore. I have a pile of them I got for cheap (sub $5) on a internet-coupon-code fiasco like Shadow of the Colossus, and I will hit them up once in a while when I have trouble.

I also like to collect oldschool and classic guides, but I've been selling them in recent years to reduce clutter. Still have my Dragon Warrior IV guide though (pretty valuable).

Other: Sometimes I do. Like if it's Mario, Link, or Pokémon.

I would occasionally buy them used if the strategy has a need for maps and other visual elements that can't be conveyed effectively in a text file (kind of like how driving with a GPS or map is nicer than just having directions). I wish GameFAQs would get with the 21st century and allow some HTML to be used in the guides.

These days, however, YouTube can provide video of how to find certain objectives, so it's easier than ever to find info without buying a guide.

There are also sites other than GameFAQs that do allow graphics -- http://guides.ign.com/ for example.

Yeah, but those are riddled with IGN's usual ads and are spread out across many pages, making them harder to save.

What I want is just some basic HTML, like different font sizes and colors, hyperlinked navigation within the document, links to other sites (these are already in many FAQs but you have to copy and paste them), and maybe some offsite images. No scripting would be allowed, and the FAQ would have to remain a single document, so any images would have to be hosted on the author's site or somewhere else. I don't think it would infringe on their bandwidth that much, and if that's really a problem they could throw up an ad or two at the top.

The DVD FAQ is a good example of a simple text document that really benefits from some HTML: http://dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html Something like that would be a lot better, and easier for authors since they wouldn't have to worry about exact line spacing and trying to make ASCII images.

Going with the "No" crowd.

There is everything and more on the innertubes.

Still? Did I ever? The answer is No - actually, I've only ever bought one strategy guide and it was for Chrono Trigger - this was before the internets, and I bought it after I heard all the different endings it had - I still have it too. Apparently it's collector's item or something...