Never the first playthrough, but I don't mind at all for subsequent ones, especially for bitchy missables that I don't think I would have found out by myself. Honorable mention to Persona 4, which I only played once but forced me to use a guide for some shitty aspect of the game's story.

I usually try to do the first playthrough without any guides or walkthroughs. The second time I might use one to find all the secrets and stuff like that.

I haven't bought a paper guide since I discovered gamefaqs about 20 years ago. Assuming you count online stuff though...

I prefer to complete a game once, and then go to a guide and see what content I missed. Strategy guides are really useful for that stuff. The other thing is that if I really can't figure out where to go for the next part of the game, then I'll look that up too. The one thing I never look up in a strategy guide is ironically a strategy. I'd rather just die in Dark Souls a lot and figure it out on my own instead of having a guide tell me.

I stopped buying guides a while back. Not really worth it considering I only use guides for character optimization/builds, finding hidden stuff or navigating through tricky choices that will greatly influence a play through. I just use the net when I need to.

 is as a general rule I don't like to spoil the game and like  to find out for myself. however I do find myself recently, looking up hints and videos on strategies for taking down difficult bosses like spider brain in Doom or looking up faction choices and perk choices in Skyrim.   understanding how some of that works the first time around for me anyways was a bit much

Silver lining is that throwing him into the TV guarantees your favorite character a happy ending.

I was thinking more of the elevator doors that refuse to open. xD

I used to love guides, I had quite a few about 10-15 years ago, I used them for games I really enjoyed and wanted to replay perfectly. I even used to try making my own guides, still have some of them stuffed away back home. In case I ever wanted to know what day of the year it is in Wild Arms 3, the solution to some puzzle in Breath of Fire, my optimal GF distribution and abilities to learn on FFVIII, or specific setups for challenge runs through Paper Mario, I had it all written down with maps (badly) drawn. I didn't use them as much as I intended though, making them was more fun than actually using them.

But I prefer not to use guides/wikis these days, unless I really have no idea what to do (FFXI is about the only game I regularly consult guides for). The way I play games has changed and now I'm not so bothered with getting everything or doing things optimally, I'd rather just play games my way and discover things naturally.

My stance is this. Games these days which focus on a percentage are designed purposefully to be unbeatable without using one. No one is the world is going to 100% a GTA game (and by that, I mean find and do every thing in the game) without a walkthrough. So if you're trying to get 100% in something like that, I say have at at.

Now, if it's just about beating something and you can't find your way through? Then it's cheating. You're basically giving up and the moment you look at a guide, you have invalidated your right to say you beat it... because you didn't. YOU didn't beat it by yourself... you needed someone else's help. There's a difference.

Also, and this slightly off topic, but if you beat an old game (like something on SNES classic or a stolen ROM) with save-states? You also didn't beat it. You cheated.

The official pokemon guide for pokemon R/B/Y made the experience so much more magical