Current Events > Is it better to put effort into making guides on Youtube than on GameFAQS?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I haven't really checked the game boards until recently and started noticing Youtube having guides for all the major games while nothing on GameFAQs.

Like here is a random MK1 tutorial to play as Geras already up on Youtube. Is there more incentive for Youtubers to create guides than people on GameFAQs?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFn78VmRqjk

When I need to look up how to do something in a game I search for it on Google and then almost always click on a video displaying it rather than a text file describing how to do it.

Yeah it's the next generation of guides, also a lot less effort not having to describe everything in text.

I haven't used a text guide in forever

If I have a tech question about a game, I'll google it with reddit on the end. Someone will inevitably be talking about the same thing.

For reviews or guides or lets plays, I go to youtube.

I post on CE because it's the only forum-forum I'm on anymore and has been this way for a better part of a decade. Hell, I talk about games on Gamefaqs less than anywhere else on the internet.

If someone has a channel and creates a shit ton of views there is the possibility of monetary compensation. You get nothing from gamefaqs and its a low traffic website where your work is being mostly wasted these days. Its not the 90s anymore.

archizzy posted...

If someone has a channel and creates a shit ton of views there is the possibility of monetary compensation. You get nothing from gamefaqs and its a low traffic website where your work is being mostly wasted these days. Its not the 90s anymore.

Yea OP is a smaller channel. A bigger MK channel can get 300K views on their guides like this one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGIazIb_zjw

Just using Mortal Kombat as the example since it is the newest game out. But has happened to other games released this year. Sometimes it takes months before a guide is made here.

Yes. Visual guides are way better than text.

Yes because someone will actually see it eventually.

Agree with the replies, video guides with a visual walkthrough are much more ideal.

The_Wheelman1 posted...

Yes. Visual guides are way better than text.

Not always. Depends on the purpose.

I think there is always a place for both kinds of guides.

Text guides serve better for checklists when hunting down collectibles, explaining game mechanics and features to you, and overall a better way to track your progress when aiming for 100% in a game.

Video guides are better in the sense that they can show you exactly how and where to get something.

But I can tell you, in my experience, I find it much better to follow a text guide. With videos, they rarely ever get right to the point. If you follow a 30-40 minute video, you gotta go through the whole video to find exactly what you need. With text it makes it much faster to narrow down.

Video guides do have their place, but text guides still offer something else, often making it faster to be able to find something at your pace rather than speeding through some long video.

Text > video

For accurate concise info.

Video > text

For money.

Text guides just aren't being made as much any more, so we are stuck fast forwarding around a ranty bloated video.

Or picking through Reddit debris.

Just_a_loser posted...

But I can tell you, in my experience, I find it much better to follow a text guide. With videos, they rarely ever get right to the point. If you follow a 30-40 minute video, you gotta go through the whole video to find exactly what you need. With text it makes it much faster to narrow down.

Depends on video but YouTube has a chapter system. The choose your main video I linked to in this thread has it. So if you wanted to learn about Kenshi for example. You can just go to that chapter in video.

Kombucha posted...

Yeah it's the next generation of guides, also a lot less effort not having to describe everything in text.

That's not the only thing. The FAQ requirements are ridiculously strict compared to how it used to be when the site opened so I found there was no point in writing one if it was going to get rejected for some asinine reason (the last straw for me was being asked to make a full guide on a game when that was out of scope of what I wrote).

A well done wiki is probably the best.

But on a wiki, how can I get likez and build muh subz????

Notti posted...

Text > video

For accurate concise info.

Video > text

For money.

Text guides just aren't being made as much any more, so we are stuck fast forwarding around a ranty bloated video.

Or picking through Reddit debris.

The problem is you're looking up entire video walkthroughs. Most games will have videos dedicated to a specific part

The time I did have with Pathfinder: Kingmaker was a lot easier thanks to a guide here.

What folks forget about Youtube is that enough people have to be playing the same game you are to actually find enough about it. That goes double for previews.

To answer the topic question, depends on you have the cutting edge video capture software and devices (and want to add commentary). That is a whole other thing then.

Definitely youtube.

No one is making a living doing text guides for this site.

Argue whether or not you prefer text or video all you want, but it's easy to see where the money is.

Irony posted...

The problem is you're looking up entire video walkthroughs. Most games will have videos dedicated to a specific part

Nah, sometimes there just isnt a "short" video, but when there is and you find it, 99% of most "short" videos can be boiled down to much quicker to digest and parse paragraph.

Very rarely do you get a good content creator who will make a 30 second video getting to the point, no outro no intro no hawking their merch and socials, rather than a 4-5 minute one.

BlueTigerLion posted...

Is there more incentive for Youtubers to create guides than people on GameFAQs?

To answer this specific question, yes, there is more short-term incentive to create on YT than on GameFAQs, which is a bummer because GameFAQs used to have an incentive system but the owners have let that languish.

I'm sure you all don't need me to describe my preferred type of guide, to make or look up.

At the end of the day, if we're talking quality, then both types of guides have value, varied depending on the game and what it needs. This is to say that no matter the format, a guide is only any kind of quality due to the effort of the creator.

That said, for the purpose of getting views or engagement, quality is not the short-term metric, but instead speed and SEO.

And that is true for both text and video. I will never output with the speed of the major "guides" sites out there, where they put each topic on a completely separate page and with a bunch of fluff text for the purpose of SEO.

itachi15243 posted...

Definitely youtube.

No one is making a living doing text guides for this site.

Argue whether or not you prefer text or video all you want, but it's easy to see where the money is.

I think a part of the bias toward text guides from those users is we are on GameFAQs. I imagine those on Youtube or Twitch might have a different view where these people are getting their views.

I prefer text. Ctrl + F and find what I need right away instead of listening/watching bullshit I dont need.

Tenlaar posted...

When I need to look up how to do something in a game I search for it on Google and then almost always click on a video displaying it rather than a text file describing how to do it.

I do the opposite

YouTube give you revenue, GameFAQs stopped giving bounties.
So yes.

I prefer text, but I can see why people prefer making YouTube guides

Dat_Cracka_Jax posted...

I do the opposite

Of course. You have an account on a text based guide site. So I get a lot of people are saying they prefer text guides. Topic was more directed at the people who make them. Since they aren't doing it for the major games as fast as they used to. While Youtube has a bunch of walkthroughs and guides already up for Mortal Kombat 1, Lies of P, Starfield, etc.

BlueTigerLion posted...

Of course. You have an account on a text based guide site. So I get a lot of people are saying they prefer text guides. Topic was more directed at the people who make them. Since they aren't doing it for the major games as fast as they used to. While Youtube has a bunch of walkthroughs and guides already up for Mortal Kombat 1, Lies of P, Starfield, etc.

How was my post any different from the one I responded to?

Notti posted...

Nah, sometimes there just isnt a "short" video, but when there is and you find it, 99% of most "short" videos can be boiled down to much quicker to digest and parse paragraph.

Very rarely do you get a good content creator who will make a 30 second video getting to the point (no outro no intro no hawking their merch and socials no blather) rather than a 4-5 minute one.

This may be changing, but I haven't checked on a lot of games.

Armored Core 6 has terrible text guides but fantastic short YouTube guides. Finding hidden stuff in that game is much better suited for showing rather than telling. I'd have to skim through a bunch of poorly worded guides or just watch a video where they get straight to the point and showed me.

The type of guide I use is entirely dependent on what type of help I'm looking for and what type of game it is.

An RPG type game is way more likely a text guide is going to be the best way to figure it out, but a more action game where I'm trying to find every collectable or something, a video guide is 100% the way to go.

I think there is solid reason for both existing.

Error1355 posted...

The type of guide I use is entirely dependent on what type of help I'm looking for and what type of game it is.

An RPG type game is way more likely a text guide is going to be the best way to figure it out, but a more action game where I'm trying to find every collectable or something, a video guide is 100% the way to go.

I think there is solid reason for both existing.

Word for word this.
Using a text guide to find every treasure in an Uncharted game is maddening. Clicking through an hour long video to find out where I need to to go in an RPG is equally maddening.

Depends.

If your video is front loaded with dumb thumbnails, plugs for other channels, Raid Shadow Legends, or personal stories, no. I can skip all that in a guide.

Guides should be guides. If you show exactly what your title says, good.

Jiek_Fafn posted...

Armored Core 6 has terrible text guides but fantastic short YouTube guides.

That happens because html guides are out if style, so people don't concentrate on them. Either writing or reading.

I'm talking more theoretically.

Html, 0-3 pics, is often enough.

Make a guide on gamefaqs. Link youtube videos.

Make youtube videos. Link guides in the description.