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<blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 5013614" data-attributes="member: 58197">First of all, if the goal is to snag new players, why is it called a &quot;Strategy Guide?&quot; Shouldn't it be called &quot;Welcome to D&amp;D&quot; or something? I don't know about you, but I don't generally go leafing through strategy guides to games I don't play.Second, the <a href="http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Product.aspx?x=dnd/products/dndacc/253820000" target="_blank">description</a> sounds like the book is going to be full of build advice - in fact, it outright says it's about optimizing your character.Third, and most importantly, I'm not talking about newbie-level advice versus advanced-level optimization. There's advice that's simple and accessible... and then there's advice that's just bad, and it's quite common to try to excuse the latter by claiming it's the former.Published strategy guides often give bad advice, because they're written by the designers*, who tend to get the game they meant to make confused with the game they did make. Furthermore, they have a natural reluctance to see/acknowledge the stinkers in the design. It takes gumption to publicly admit that some of the stuff you published is bad (even though some of it always is), and it takes finesse to state such a thing without narking off your customers.[size=-2]*Or they're written by an outside firm, whose writers have never played the game and rely on whatever the designers tell them.[/size]</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Dausuul, post: 5013614, member: 58197"] First of all, if the goal is to snag new players, why is it called a "Strategy Guide?" Shouldn't it be called "Welcome to D&D" or something? I don't know about you, but I don't generally go leafing through strategy guides to games I don't play. Second, the [URL="http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Product.aspx?x=dnd/products/dndacc/253820000"]description[/URL] sounds like the book is going to be full of build advice - in fact, it outright says it's about optimizing your character. Third, and most importantly, I'm not talking about newbie-level advice versus advanced-level optimization. There's advice that's simple and accessible... and then there's advice that's just [I]bad[/I], and it's quite common to try to excuse the latter by claiming it's the former. Published strategy guides often give bad advice, because they're written by the designers*, who tend to get the game they [I]meant[/I] to make confused with the game they [I]did[/I] make. Furthermore, they have a natural reluctance to see/acknowledge the stinkers in the design. It takes gumption to publicly admit that some of the stuff you published is bad (even though some of it always is), and it takes finesse to state such a thing without narking off your customers. [size=-2]*Or they're written by an outside firm, whose writers have never played the game and rely on whatever the designers tell them.[/size] [/QUOTE]

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