This is sort of a rant, but I really need to vent some steam, so please excuse me.
A few weeks back I introduced a friend of mine to a new game. He was really impressed with it and it seemed like a good match, I enjoyed it too and played through the whole game and even contributed to a wikified guide about it. I told him to just play through without regard to what happens, don't even ask for help, because that maximizes the effect (the secret being through the first play through of the game, it's ridiculously hard to win fairly, but the game throws in some helping hands to make it almost impossible to lose, so you are destined to win no matter how badly you do).
I talk to him today about his status, and he says he hasn't played it since early last week. Apparently he got stuck on a particular battle and rather than reload and try again, he immediately searched for a game guide so he would "know exactly what to do so he could win". He couldn't stop reading the guide and got spoiled, then tried the game again and got bored, and so deleted it entirely because there was no point in playing now that he knew everything that was going to happen.
I mean what the fudging fudging fudging fudge, I can't understand why someone would do something like that. Sure, I can believe that some people hate experimentation or don't like to lose, but why the heck when warned not to look up online materials would he go and do just that like a little kid? Although I contributed to that particular guide I feel vindicated because I wasn't the one who threw the spoilers up there, but honestly, had I not added in my two cents maybe the guide wouldn't have been worth scanning so he would be forced to experiment like so many other people before him were.
So yeah. Do you, the denizens of AP, use guides like wimpos, or figure things out for yourselves like real gamers?