just use the guide
I have a real fondness for GameFAQs. I never submitted anything there or used its message board functionalities, but I made (and make!) ample use of its user-written guides. Even using them today, I admire the love and care which go into formatting these guides and the extent to which they go into detail for each part of the game. It's also fun to see the author's voice peeking through in the descriptions.
I was also the kind of person who liked buying physical guides as a kid. I was real picky about which ones I would buy (rip Nintendo Power, you are missed) and I loved flipping through them to look at the art and tables. It instilled in me a love for this kind of design1 and an appreciation for how important presentation can be in communicating things.2
All this to say: I have never been shy about using guides. The extent to which I use them varies from game to game, but I find them an incredibly useful tool for getting past tough spots, theorycrafting3 character builds, finding that one collectible that refuses to be found...they rule, honestly, whether they're a professionally-printed book or a GameFAQs doc.4
(I don't like video guides very much though. Sometimes useful in a pinch, but it's not very convenient to find a specific thing in a video.)
I don't know what the current temperature is on using guides, but in the past I've gotten the impression that making use of them is a "failure" in some way, either on the part of the game or the player. And I think that's silly! Not everyone is going to come at a game for the same reason, and different types of things may stump different types of people. There is, really, no shame in using guides, hints, whatever you have at your disposal.
But don't let me decide for you. You can always choose for yourself if a particular part of a game is worth investing some research time into, and you can control how much or little you look up5. You can also try other strategies: take notes, draw maps, whatever helps you achieve your goal with a game (whether that's having fun, experiencing art/a narrative, some mixture of that). But if you've ever gotten stuck on something, felt frustrated at how to solve a problem or dissatisfied with the solution...
Just use the guide.
Which marketing tried very hard to kill. Biggest mistake of my LIFE.↩
Side note, Dr. Fatima's video on data viz and the Challenger disaster is real nice. Good data visualization matters!↩
Speaking of, Gamer Corner Guides has some of the most useful tabled content for the Final Fantasy series and it was a lifesaver many times over.↩
The one exception: the Final Fantasy guides with PlayOnline integration. WAIT SORRY SOMEONE HAS RESTORED THE FFIX SITE?!↩
Accidental plot spoilers aside.↩