i was doing my usual daily perusing through steam looking for deals and noticed that the dragon ago origins prima strategy guide is $25. WTF who the hell would pay that kind of money for an online strategy guide. especially since you can find better more accurate info online for free. this just boggles my mind and i have to wonder how they stay in business. at least if you buy the books at the store you actually get a book so its slightly less of a rip off.

I know I haven't, for the reasons you've stated. It's a shame, if they were around $5 I would actually consider it for some games, but $25 is ridiculous.

The only reason I would buy a strategy guide is so I could have it open when playing rather than having to resort to the internet. I really don't understand why anyone would buy it, but people must or they wouldn't be selling it via steam.

I regularly buy strategy guides for large games that I know I will be putting a lot of time into, but buying an electronic copy for the full price of the paperbound version? That's ridiculous in my eyes. I buy them for the ability to look for hard to find items, expanded bestiary, artwork, etc, and the ability to look at all this without leaving the couch. If I've got to get up to use the computer to look for info, why not use the hundreds of free sources available on the web? It just doesn't make any sense.

Buying strategy guides for modern games is rather pointless because a wide database of information is available on them. A lot of games have their own wiki from DOOM to Starcraft.

Older games -- specifically handhelds are harder to obtain information about. I'd suggest purchasing a guide in this situation.

Only time I ever buy them is because I Want something tangible to hold, look through and read. It's nice seeing everything organized with color, nice images and I like to be able to just si tback and read them.

I'v read through my old FF& and FF9 guides like 3000000 times lol.

When I was younger and wasnt familiar with the internet I'd occassionally buy the guides for games I wanted to get 100% in, such as Metoid Prime, Golden Sun etc. Nowadays I just use the internet.

Frankly in today's online world I find most of those guides to be worthless. Basically everything in them is on the internet eventually. The other day I saw a Sci-Fi+Fantasy Bookshop selling the Burning Crusade Guide from Brady Games for AUS$84! And the book is out of date thanks to patches anyway. :mellow:

There is a svcker born every minute that is why. Like how can you pay $25 at a store for a physical copy that actually uses paper so you can understand to pay so much. But for an online guied where no paper is onvoled? WTF? Guess there is a svcker born every minute. Unless they mail it to your house, then I understand the price. But for an online or PDF guide? No fracking way. (watching too much Battlestar Galagtica.)

I prefer printed guides, thanks.

This, and especially since DA:O has been out forever and a day already, everything is known about it, and all the info is sitting on various webpages.

I rarely buy guides andif so it is only for games I really enjoy or if there a collector's edition printed. I would not buy a Prima one from Steam when I can find information elsewhere for free as stated a few times now. But sometimes a book is handy especially back when I only had one not very powerful PC and could not Alt+Tab out of a game to check things.

I bought two guides for OB, one for me, and then when I introduced my g-son into the game. I got so tired of him asking me questions.

then I bot him the OB version for PS3, so I could get my computer back.

I always buy the guides, even if they sit there forever gathering dust. I'm glad I have them.

That's one of the most ridiculous things, I think. As long as you don't have a PDF capable e-reader. I'd buy a guide to have it handy while I play a game, not to run over to my PC, have the laptop next to me, or minimise my games to look at it. That's not what I spend my money on, that's what I use Gamefaqs for.

I was confused when I first saw them added on Steam too. It seems rather pointless. All the information you need can be found on the internet for free, and with Steam's ingame browser you don't even have to leave the game to get it.

A physical copy might be worth having just for the sake of collecting, but a digital one? At that price? No. With the same money you can buy several awesome older games on Steam.

No, I haven't, and I never will.

You see, I have access to this nifty thing called the internet. If I get stuck in a game, I google it, done. That was fast, not to mention free (More or less, disregarding the cost of the internet service obviously).

If I don't want to move from my PS3/Xbox360 to my computer then *drumroll* I bring it with me! Yes, my primary PC is a laptop and it is glorious in it's practicality and ability to play games fairly well.

So no, I don't but Strategy guides, and I don't know why anyone does. Obviously there's a market for it though.

Pretty much everything has been stated that I would state about these guys.

1. I want something in front of me and in a "Tangible" form while i'm playing the game. This way I don't have to flip back and forth between windows to look at it as well as making sure it doesn't obstruct my view.

2. There are databases setup and websites that are out there for our convenience such as wiki sites and/or FAQ sites.

Last strategy guide I believe I ever bought for myself would be the one for Star Ocean the second story on the PS1. Wanted to find more stuff and learn about more things so I bought this one. Never bought one after that due to the sheer amount of information that is online at the moment.

The last strategy guide I had was for a collection of NES games.

It boggles me how there's still a market for them in this day and age. Especially for things like WoW, those guides become completely irrelevant within a year or so.