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Editor's note: I used the Fallout 3 wiki extensively during my time with the game. After that, I've hated dealing with FAQs. Do collaborative gaming wikis spell doom for the traditional FAQ? -Brett
FAQs are so Web 1.0. In a traditional FAQ, the writer is the sole custodian of knowledge and his word is the definitive voice. The way forward is the democratic, collaborative wiki. Wikis allow all of us to contribute, whether we know everything about a game or just a more efficient way to complete a single side-quest.
For a 100-hour game like Persona 4, a walkthrough would be a huge undertaking. Even with help, one person would have to edit and write up the community's contributions. A wiki, on the other hand, splits the job between all of us, with no one person shouldering the burden of responsibility or standing on a pedestal above the rest.
The best wikis even compile histories, dossiers, and information irrelevant to completing a game but interesting to browse. For instance, The Vault, by far the best wiki for the Fallout series, has a timeline of events that spans centuries, and entire pages on factions that don't even appear in any Fallout game, like the European Commonwealth.
Almost every game and series gets its own wiki. Most of those are hosted by Wikia, the company started by Wikipedia Cofounder Jimmy Wales and Board of Trustees member Angela Beesley. Wikia works similarly to Wikipedia but allows gamers (or gardeners, Harry Potter fans, parodists, etc.) to read, edit, and create articles far more specific than anything Wikipedia will allow.
This specificity means it's far easier to find relevant information in a wiki than a FAQ — just put what you want in the search box. This is especially useful if you want a particular item or are wondering about a particular party member's strengths and weaknesses. Hitting CTRL+F may eventually get you somewhere in a walkthrough, but you'll have to work to find what you're looking for. And manually searching through a book? That's for losers.
The Borderlands wiki can help you find all the ultra-rare pearlescent weapons.
While printed-and-bound strategy guides, written and laid out by professionals with help from a game's developers, have the edge over the Internet presentation-wise, they can't incorporate video — the easiest way to show anyone how to earn an achievement or find an Easter Egg. For that reason alone, printed strategy guides must be on their way out. Frankly, I'm surprised they've lasted this long, with free information available to everyone on the Web.
As for those old .txt FAQs — the only thing I'll miss is the ASCII titles.
. ### ### ##### ##### ___. .__ __ ___. ##### ##### _ |__ |__|/ |_ _____ _____ |__ ##### ##### | __ | __/ / _ | __ ### ### | _ || | | Y Y ( <_> ) _ ####### ####### |___ /__||__| |__|_| /____/|___ / ######### ######### / / / ######### ######### .com ######### ######### ######### ######### # ##### # # ##### # ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ##