Current Events > Why didn't GameFaqs think of doing video guides or wikis first?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I have been lurking RDR 2 topics and see poeple link to video guides off youtube and wondered why Gamefaqs is not the place people post that stuff. I know some might say they can't search something in a video. But this topic is about why didn't gamefaqs realize this might be something people are gonna do with gaming and try to become the first to create that option for gamers.
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gamefaqs tried the wiki thing, it didn't work out
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videos are a fad

once the fad dies out everyone will want their text guides
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I would guess they just knew they weren't going to compete with Youtube.
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MC_BatCommander posted...

gamefaqs tried the wiki thing, it didn't work out

What went wrong?

AlephZero posted...

videos are a fad

once the fad dies out everyone will want their text guides

Youtube is a pretty popular site. Don't see it going away anytime soon. A lot of red dead videos alread have 100,000 views and the game hasn't even been out a week.
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@PresidentEvil
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Idk that gamefaqs would be able to support hosting videos since we didn't even get emoji or avatar support until like a year or so ago
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Do you wanna pay to host a shitload of videos?

BlueTigerLion posted...

What went wrong?

Nobody contributed. Wikia kinda has the market cornered on fan content wikis, including video games.

As for videos, video hosting is a butt ton more expensive than hosting HTML text and images.

GameFAQs didn't get on video guides early mostly because it had already been a decade old site by the time YouTube was created, and it took longer still for video guides to actually be made there.

At the end of the day, video guides are a different service than a searchable text format. I'd imagine those in charge felt that there was still value in that format, and I agree with them.
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I absolutely prefer text guides wherever possible, video walkthroughs are awful. Having to scrub bacj and forth to find the content Im looking for when Im looking for it, its just a hassle.

Ctrl + F on a well formatted faq is way easier to jump to exactly what I need.

I think GFAQs probably wants to stick to the lightweight, consistent format of FAQs, rather than the bandwidth- and storage- expensive medium of videos. Plus, YouTube took off pretty fast for that content, so GFAQs probably didnt want to waste the effort trying to catch up to what YouTube was already doing well.
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CyricZ posted...

BlueTigerLion posted...

What went wrong?

I'd imagine those in charge felt that there was still value in that format, and I agree with them.

I mean, the site is absolutely flourishing today in 2018!

Some people link youtube videos in their guide now.
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ArchiePeck posted...

I mean, the site is absolutely flourishing today in 2018!

Not sure if this is supposed to be sarcastic, but the site does all right for itself for the service it provides.
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jcmason posted...

I absolutely prefer text guides wherever possible, video walkthroughs are awful. Having to scrub bacj and forth to find the content Im looking for when Im looking for it, its just a hassle.

So do I. It's a gigantic pain to find exactly what you want in a video. There are some things are are easier to see than read about, though.
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Text guides are great if you're a wuss and you start with one and use it the whole way. It's a pain in the ass to get stuck and then just have to find where to scroll in an enormous FAQ when you could more easily find a 10-15 minute video of the exact part of you're on and watch what to do.

But fuck spoilers and ruining the first play through anyway. Don't use either of 'em. This place is for the daily poll and the forum.

Videos aren't a fad, some things are much better through video.

Wikis are mostly good for meta game info.

Text guides work pretty well still.
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Imagine what the account suicides would be if you could post videos on the main site instead of the forum.

Huh i didnt know they got rid of the wiki style faqs. I thought it would be super helpful on games like Fallout.
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GameFAQs allows guide searching (with context) for both plain text and formatted guides, so there's no need for scrolling.

Formatted guides are potentially even better with the ability to segregate by sections.

Still, at the end of the day, you're relying on the skill of the writer to write their guide well.
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If it takes you 10-15 minutes to find the content youre looking for in a FAQ, then the FAQ is either poorly formatted (with sections not correctly labeled or something) or youre using it wrong by not searching correctly.

For video guides, a 10-15 minute video is probably about 40% filled with hey guys, just here to talk about the newest build in XXXX game, where were finally excited to test out this new thing. But before we get in to that I need you to like, share, and subscribe so I can keep doing more of these videos. Then theres about 5 minutes of genuinely helpful content in the middle, and then the last 5 minutes is more time wasting about subscribing and linking to the next video this guy made, about something totally irrelevant.

Ive used a couple video guides, but the format as it exists now is far from efficient.
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Ever print out a FAQ so you didn't have to keep up the back and forth to the computer? So much ink...so many pages...

I don't get why people act like you can't just search for the specific section you are stuck in on youtube. It isn't like you are looking through a 4+ hour video. You can search how to beat (insert boss) and a 10 minute or less video will probably be one of the results.
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If they pushed vid guides years ago theyd be yuuuge
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You need money to do that. Like, lots of money. Screening them would be harder and more time-consuming too (no idea how the admin screens normal contributions but I seriously doubt that much automation can be involved with the approval process of a video).

The reason nobody has stepped up to dethrone YouTube is because the huge sum of money youd need to do that, let alone the fact that its hard to gain a userbase without already having one. Plus I seriously doubt that it would be worth putting user-submitted guides up against ones produced by industry professionals. Its different when its your job. Having written a FAQ or two I can say that its a lot easier to work on that in free time than a video is. Especially if youre not making a profit off of it.
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spudger posted...

If they pushed vid guides years ago theyd be yuuuge

Yeah.

Alpha218 posted...

You need money to do that. Like, lots of money. Screening them would be harder and more time-consuming too (no idea how the admin screens normal contributions but I seriously doubt that much automation can be involved with the approval process of a video).

The reason nobody has stepped up to dethrone YouTube is because the huge sum of money youd need to do that, let alone the fact that its hard to gain a userbase without already having one. Plus I seriously doubt that it would be worth putting user-submitted guides up against ones produced by industry professionals. Its different when its your job. Having written a FAQ or two I can say that its a lot easier to work on that in free time than a video is. Especially if youre not making a profit off of it.

GameFaqs predates youtube by several years though. So they could have beat them to the punch.
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tried it
too late
didn't make an effort to actually help others
expected he community to do 99% of the work and it failed

BlueTigerLion posted...

GameFaqs predates youtube by several years though. So they could have beat them to the punch.

Potentially, but don't forget the core conceit of each site. GameFAQs is about help with video games. YT was just created so guys could find a better way of sharing their own videos. YT started with the idea of video sharing.

GameFAQs came about well before videos were anything more than Media Player files, Quicktime, or Real Media.
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CyricZ posted...

Wikia kinda has the market cornered on fan content wikis, including video games.

this will trend down. they are driving away their userbase in droves