A modern version of the Frank Zappa quote:
"Rock journalism is people who can't write interviewing people who can't talk for people who can't read."
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Their only purpose at their height was walkthroughs and cheats for games, of which many of them did provide a pretty great benefit. Especially in the pre and early internet era where you couldn't access anything like that otherwise.
They have had no use since, and any use they might have could be achieved by a random nobody on youtube doing the same task.
Back in the beginning they were the only form of contact for like minded people. In Australia in the 80's we would order from British C64 sellers from C&VG - would take months for the games to arrive - but the anticipation ...my god ...those there were the days
I'll be honest I still miss honest to god level maps sometimes. Sure you can just watch someone run through the level on Youtube now, but having that top-down map with all the items and encounters clearly marked out was nice to have, and you only really got that from magazines or player's guides. GameFAQs never could quite compete on that front.
I was a prolific buyer of game guides for that very reason. Gamefaqs has better guides for actually accomplishing tasks because its written by mostly regular autistic players instead of professionals.
But the guides are always full of easy to read maps and appendixes that are just so nice to have on hand. And usually filled with nice art to fill in the spaces and give it SOVL. Shit I used to read guides for games I didn't own, just because there was something so magical about them.
The magazine versions were basically watered down versions of that. It was rare you got one for a game you actually owned due to their random nature, but when you did it was wonderful. I still have one for Brave Fencer Mushashi I managed to snag.
I remember the player's guide for Secret of Mana being like that. It was formatted as a narrative as much as a guide, which served to help flesh out the story a bit. The artwork though, dear god the artwork was just a treat. Every chapter had a bunch of beautiful illustrations of all the various forms of the weapons. That guide just made that whole game feel like so much more than it was.
Honestly, a good guide could elevate a bland game into something way above what it actually was.
Its why to this day I usually play most games with one open, even if the guides themselves are boring text only Gamefaqs stuff. It just feels natural to do because for a time it was the dessert on top of games.