Bradygames Gods & Kings guide is it worth the money?

I've been playing Gods & Kings recently and I feel that at this point I need a way to upgrade my gameplay and to improve my understanding of certain concepts. I consider myself not a starter at G&K but far from being a top player. Yes, it's true that there's a lot of good and helpful information around the forum, but I would like to have a single source of data that I can use whenever I feel the need for it. What can I do, guess I'm one of those helpless romantics that prefers to read on paper...

A past few days I found out about this manual, and like I wasn't able to locate any thread concerning this release, only about the Bradygames guide to vanilla Civ 5. I'm opening this one to learn about your opinion. Is it a good purchase? Or would you recomend other solution?

I too like to have a hard copy of good info. As such I tend to just print out the well written guides I find on the forums that cover the info I'm looking for. It's generally much cheaper to print out the info you want than to buy one of the guide books, especially since most guide books for most games don't add much more than what the game's manual covers. By that I mean, it might include more details of units, civs, buildings, etc., but not cover strategies and such.

It's a good idea, but the problem is updates could make it obsolete.

Unless the guides really cheap I won't buy it.. Lots of free info here and the people on this forum are quite active and really know the game. I started as a prince player and in a few short months jumped to emp. If I really focused my micro I could probably play at the higher levels but thats not what I consider fun.

Also watch some of the lets plays by some of the better players on here. If we could only convince TheMeinTeam to do a good one for G&Ks I am sure we all could learn a thing or two no matter how experienced.

You don't need a guide to play Civ.....

You do not need a Bradygames guide. You can just watch MadDjinn play (his YouTube channel is sbfmaddjinn).

Yeah, if one has a somewhat regular connection to the Internet (and one probably does if they are posting on an internet forum like CivFanatics), commercially sold strategy guides for video games are a complete waste of money.

Don't even get me started on strategy guides for multiplayer games that require an internet connection like Call of Duty.

I do appreciate your desire for a singular reliable source for game information, though. I really wish that the War Academy articles for Social Policies were updated for Gods and Kings.

Well, this isn't 20 years ago when Nintendo Power would show you how to actually beat Battletoads. All the information you could want is out here in the net.

I would never buy any printed 'strategy guide' anymore as I feel they are a waste of paper, money, and time.

nefloyd said:

Well, this isn't 20 years ago when Nintendo Power would show you how to actually beat Battletoads.

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Point of order: Nintendo Power didn't show me how to get past those annoying speeder bikes.

I don't understand how guides can still be profitable when the internet provide free and more accurate informations.

Have never bought a game guide, but I can see why one would. Guides should be definitive. The "internet" for all its opinion is not definitive. You have to wade through vast amounts of information to come to a conclusion. So you research, research, research to the point of being able to write your own guide

There are certain things in life (game guides not being one of them) where I just want a definitive, well researched opinion, rather than doing the digging myself.

You make it sound like it’s hard to find a good guide for a game. For most games, simply go to gamefaqs, find your game and pick one of the FAQ marked with a star. If there’s no star, choose among the top ones in file size. Not only is it free but the info is more accurate. I’m not kidding, the last Brady guide I bough was for Final Fantasy 7. When I redid the game last year, I used a guide from gamefaqs and realize that there’s many info missing in the expensive Brady guide. And we’re talking about a game that don’t change after it’s release!

For games like Civ, published guides are even more worthless because not only can they be incomplete but the information can be outdated quite quickly.

tonberry said:

You make it sound like it’s hard to find a good guide for a game. For most games, simply go to gamefaqs, find your game and pick one of the FAQ marked with a star. If there’s no star, choose among the top ones in file size. Not only is it free but the info is more accurate. I’m not kidding, the last Brady guide I bough was for Final Fantasy 7. When I redid the game last year, I used a guide from gamefaqs and realize that there’s many info missing in the expensive Brady guide. And we’re talking about a game that don’t change after it’s release!

For games like Civ, published guides are even more worthless because not only can they be incomplete but the information can be outdated quite quickly.

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As I said, I've never bought a game guide before. For me part of the fun is in the "discovery". I was throwing out reasons for why a guide would be appealing, even in the age we live in today.

But if OP is someone for whom the fun is becoming expert as quick as possible, I could see why he'd go with a guide....provided they weren't flawed, and the better ones weren't free. Which as you've pointed out seems to be the case!

There are some problems with GameFAQs guides.

1. GameFAQs guides take time to write and aren't always available for the first month or two after release. The printed guides are available immediately.

2. GameFAQs guides are written entirely in plain text, which can be quite tiresome to read. The printed guides usually feature graphics and colors that are easier on the eyes.

3. GameFAQs guides are often lacking with regards to maps and tables since, again, they're written in plain text. The printed guides don't have this problem.

4. GameFAQs guides require that you keep a laptop or tablet handy or that you use a few hundred sheets of paper and a lot of ink. The printed guides are already hard copy.

That said, GameFAQs guides do have two big advantages. First, you can update them to reflect patches and content updates. Second, you can use text searching to find what you're looking for quickly.

The quality of printed guides for certain games (especially Final Fantasy) has improved drastically since FF7. My FFXIII-2 guide has an overwhelming amount of detail, including things that you used to only find online such as the precise duration of various attack animations and how to best optimize your characters to take advantage of that information. It's an awesome book.

All of that said, I have no idea how good the G&K book is. I do know that the current online resources are pretty poor right now. GameFAQs has almost nothing and CFC's guides are all pre-G&K.

4. GameFAQs guides require that you keep a laptop or tablet handy or that you use a few hundred sheets of paper and a lot of ink. The printed guides are already hard copy.

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Er, windowed mode? Alt-tabbing?

nefloyd said:

Er, windowed mode? Alt-tabbing?

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Ew. Never.

Not really, Printed game guides is something i'll buy for games on consoles like for rpgs or such something like civ 5 doesn't require a game guide. Mainly because every game is different.

Kwami said:

Ew. Never.

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You'd rather waste a ton of paper or always keep a laptop around? uh, ok. What the heck is wrong with windowed/tabbing?

Here you go: http://well-of-souls.com/civ/

nefloyd said:

You'd rather waste a ton of paper or always keep a laptop around? uh, ok. What the heck is wrong with windowed/tabbing?

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No, I'd rather buy a hard copy guide or not use a guide at all, depending on the game. I use GameFAQs for quick reference (e.g. numbers), but never for anything else. The writing is generally poor and reading that much Courier New text drive me crazy.