Little gamefaqs rant

[Gamerforlife]

For those of you who have ever used this site, does it ever annoy you to see a popular game have like ten different faq/walkthroughs available? It's always annoying for me when I'm looking for info because I don't even know where to start. Inevitably there are always a few faqs that are unfinished too, which is even more annoying because it's like there's no way to tell the complete ones from the incomplete ones.

What really irritates me is the absurdity of it when I see all those faqs. If there are already three faqs for a game, why put up another one? Why are so many people in the world content to do EXACTLY what others have already done instead of doing something unique? Instead of putting up the sixth or seventh faq/walkthrough for a game, why not do something to stand out from the crowd and do a specialized guide covering something specific instead? Now, of course I know that there usually ARE faqs available for most popular games that focus on a specific part of the gameplay, but there are still always four or five morons who put up general faq/walkthroughs when there are already enough of them available.

Would it not be more efficient for a gaming community to simply pool all their knowledge into one general faq/walkthrough instead of cluttering up the site with more faq/walkthroughs than necessary. These days I tend to just completely ignore faqs and go straight to the forum. Why? Because forums will often have one sticky topic that covers all major aspects of the game so it seems like I waste less time going to the forum than I do trying to go through the numerous faqs. If we can have this kind of efficiency with a particular game's forum, why can we not have the same efficiency with the faq section?

What's funny is that when someone asks a specific question on a forum, you'll still occasionally have some obnoxious person who says, "we have a faq section for a reason you know". Really? Well, which one of the fifty faqs available should the person have read then? Seems faster just to go to the forum and ask a question there.

Anyone else feel the same way? I just can't stand going to a popular game's page on gamefaqs and having to wade through six different faqs before I finally find one that is complete, thorough and well written. Sometimes I wish there were harsher standards for what kind of faqs get accepted on that site. I think it would greatly cut down on all the clutter.

[Reverend]

I agree. It can get pretty frustrating. The only time I like the multiple FAQs is when there are separate ones for different characters.

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

I for one like having multiple faq's, it gies them all a lot of uniqueness and individuality with all the different writing styles along with the different ways to complete or 100% each game.

EDIT: Also isn't there an indicator for which faq's are complete or not? Anyhow even if an faq is incomplete it won't kill you to hit backspace and click on one of the other 3 or 4 listed there.

[Gamerforlife]

I for one like having multiple faq's, it gies them all a lot of uniqueness and individuality with all the different writing styles along with the different ways to complete or 100% each game.

EDIT: Also isn't there an indicator for which faq's are complete or not? Anyhow even if an faq is incomplete it won't kill you to hit backspace and click on one of the other 3 or 4 listed there.

Yes, it will kill me to hit backspace and click on one of the other 3 or 4 faqs, because to me that is just a waste of my time

You appreciate the uniqueness and individuality of all those faqs, my experience if different. Usually, I'll see about five faqs that are incomplete, unorganized, or full of spoilers or just bad attempts at humor, and then if I'm lucky there will usually be one faq that is complete, thorough, organized and gets to the point without wasting my time with useless commentary or paragraphs describing a cut scene that I can see for myself. I just wish when I got to a page, that was the ONLY faq available so I wouldn't have to waste time going through all the other mediocre ones. Again, I'll go back to my point about how so many forums now have a sticky topic, which is thorough, straight forward, to the point and covers everything you need to know. I see this efficiency in forums but not the faq sections on Gamefaqs.

I guess you and I are different. I go to the gamefaqs for info, not to enjoy different writing styles. I don't go there for artistic appreciation, I go for answers.

[dlmvii]

FAQs with stars on the left are the highest rated...But who cares if there are a bunch of guides? People want to write them (for free!), and people can choose which they like better. Many people have very different styles of guides that they do, so you have more choices. I really don't think having a large number of guides is something worth complaining about...

[Crabmaster2000]

Im sure a lot of the FAQ authors just write them because they love the game. Why else would you spend hours upon hours involved in something like that. I for one have written game reviews for games that have been review hundreds of times.

If you really want to do something it probably doesnt make a difference how many others have done it before.

And I also like having different writting styles to choose from. Some are just better organized, easier to read or humorous. Im sure others look for different things when they want to read a FAQ.

[GSZX1337]

I personally never understood the point of starting your own FAQ when you can just contribute to someone else's FAQ (which would probably do more good).

[Gamerforlife]

This is interesting, I see some of you really looking at this in a complete different way than I am, which is fine. That's what makes discussion fun

Again, I find the whole different writing styles thing interesting. I don't see "styles", I see faqs that are complete, thorough, organizd and efficient and ones that aren't. It's pretty black and white from my perspective. And if someone has a faq that meets that crieria, I believe that others should contribute to it rather than cluttering up the site with additional faqs that aren't needed.

Also, and I know this sounds cold, I just don't care about someone's love for a game. If there are one or two good faqs already available, then the gaming community doesn't NEED anymore, unless it is something specialized focusing on a specific area of the game that hasn't been covered in detail by any of the available faqs. When you go to classic gaming's hardcore gaming 101 site, there aren't five different articles for every game. That would be pointless. Gamefaqs should have a limit on general faq/walkthroughs. If someone is obsessed with writing another faq and covering the same ground that the already available guides already do(which seems pointless and silly to me, but I digress), they can go write a guide for some other site. When a forum has a sticky guide for something, it's usually the only guide available and that's just the way it is. Frankly, I prefer that. Everyone agrees to pool their info into that guide and you don't have five other pointless topics covering the same thing. In fact, that's pretty much what mods do on every forum, try to cut back on redundancy.

I hate redundancy. It's just ridiculous to me to see ten general faq/walkthroughs for a game when you really only need one, maybe three at most(for those people who are obsessed with the idea of having more than one to choose from). THAT'S IT. Anything more than that is just excessive and unnecessary unless you are bringing something new to the table(specialized guide)

Well, that's my opinion anyway.

[BigTinz]

wat?


They are submitted by the public....why would you just want one?

[Haoie]

You should be glad people make an effort.