Trying to get Platinum in Final Fantasy XIII without using a strategy guide or looking at YouTube? Trying to find all of those spiders and collectibles in Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Trying to find all the flags in Assassins Creed except a few and having looked for hours or days. Trying to find all the Orbs in Crackdown except for 1 or 2 and you do not get the achievement unless you find every single one. Trying to find all the battery fragments in Infamous and you do not get the trophy unless you find them all. There are so many frustrating time consuming game achievements/trophies in games. 

Back in 1995's Christmas, me and my brother got Diddy's Kong Quest. We were so excited! That was the day of no internet and when magazines came to spoil games with their guides too late. Yep, I sound like Cranky Kong already.
Anyway, the thing is that by the first days of January we had already gotten most of the DKC coins, we were surprised this time it was not about completing the game on a 101% percent, but by a 102%. And we had one coin left... a coin we could see but we could not grab. It was located in a fast and difficult water level... the thing is we spent hours of pain and death trying to grab it... We were so obsessed... so obsessed... so obsessed that during my sleep, that night, in my dreams, I solved it, I got the answer, what we had to do...
Following day, as soon as I woke up, I woke up Agustín, my younger brother and I told him about my dream. I grabbed that coin. That day was full of joy. Me and my brother had made it! We were so happy and proud of ourselves! And I was my brother heroe, at least for a couple of seconds, in that cooperative-competitive partnership we had!
Well, that's a story I'm keeping for my grandchildren. That's a story that I wouldn't keep if I had use a guide. :P

i some times use on-line guides to help me in the second play through to harvest the remaining trophies that i would like to get using that help. some bosses are also the reason i use them just because the game is testing my patience. with the so little time i have to play i can't have the luxury to spend hours trying to defeat a stupid boss. did spend 6 hours to kill radec in killzone2 (elite difficulty) but these days with the backlog that i have, can't do this no more!

I only use cheats if I get bored of a game.Adds some extra fun to it.

Doing it after one playthrough to get special items or endings is one thing but I have a friend who uses guides from the start, he reads the things that are about to happen, spoiling every detail of the story and generally spends more time peeking at papers than playing the actual game. Doesn't that defeat the purpose of gaming?
He says he "needs 100% complete" on his games. Fine, but why not play through it once first to experience what the game has to offer on its own terms?

I love buying Player's Guides with my games. After all, they're not just bare bones guides for games, but home to all sorts of neat content like artwork, enemy guides, and other easy to access information.

Heck, I'll go back years after I beat a game and go through the Player's Guide, just to "relive" the game by flipping through the pages.

So yeah, I'll definitely be getting the Batman: Arkham City, Zelda: Skyward Sword, and Super Mario 3D Land players guides... maybe even more. And you can't stop me.

Mwahahahaha!

Use a guide when you are stumped. But tbh guides ruin a game for me. I used to use cheats when I finish a game to explore the game more. So many memories...

Came to say the exact same thing.  Cheats in GTA games are so much fun.  Oh man I want to play Vice City now.

i so agree. best pic ever.

i have tried removing the stickers off the rubik's cube and still couldn't solve it manly because the class bell rang before i could finish lol?

i also did it to make sure it could be solved. then mixed the colors up and couldn't solve it lol. but one day i did solve it and haven't been able to since.

I haven't used a guide in a long time, but when I did when I was younger, I used it so I could enjoy the story without worrying about the game I was playing and how I would beat it. It really depends on the person and I don't think it is fair to say which way is the correct way to experience a game.