This is in response to the article on Not Cheating, by Jeremiah Kauffman. Not to be contrary or anything but...
Cheat! For the love of $deity, cheat!
I completely and utterly agree that the most painful thing is to see the answer to a puzzle and wonder, "Could I have solved that on my own?" BUT, after spending hours on a poorly made puzzle in an otherwise fantastic game, one which involved pushing a random switch after talking to someone halfway across the world, and going into a sidequest that turns out to be mandatory, I concluded that some puzzles just don't deserve to be solved.
Seriously, I know it's disappointing and humiliating to admit defeat, but do you really get such a sense of satisfaction after wasting hours of your life to solve a puzzle with no reward other than being able to explore more? How much more satisfying to spend the time exploring, thus playing a shorter, but more interesting game?
I have had puzzles whose solutions left me with more of a dejected feeling, like "I can't believe I was supposed to figure this out on my own." To quote an example, why Ozma? Why Draw Points? Why Pirate Penguins?
When the going gets tough, I say cheat! It's a game, the goal of which to have fun, and unless pressing every tile combination in the room over a span of 3 hours is fun, there's no reason to waste time with puzzles that, while solvable by trial and error, don't really make sense.
Chrono Cross's Pip was much more fun after learning how he worked. Legend of Mana's weapon system was slightly fun, but only after "cheating" to find out how others have made the stuff. Cheating can be good: while someone has to waste their time, it saves others the trouble of doing so. And sometimes, without checking the faq you'd never know half of the rich gameplay a game has to offer *cough*Chrono Cross*cough*
For the puzzles which are unclear, random, and more trouble then they're worth, I'm entirely grateful there are faqs. Unless like in multiuser games it hurts others to cheat, I stand for the right to have fun.
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