At what point do you 'give up' and look for answers online?

You know what I'm talking about. You're stuck on a puzzle, boss battle, or just don't know where to go next, say "Eff this," and jump on gamefaqs or something for the answer. And of course there are some games, like the Souls' series, that thrive on an online community that helps each other out. But when I'm playing a game and it crosses the line from challenge to frustration, i'll jump online and get the answer so I can move on and enjoy what I'm playing. I feel stupidly guilty doing this, like I'm "cheating," but it's better than wandering a level for 45 minutes looking for a door.

So, what's your breaking point with a game's challenges? Will you go online at the first sign of trouble, or bash through the problem til 2AM on a workday?

Almost immediately. I'm a chump like that.

I've found that I've become less tolerant of getting stuck as I've gotten older. It doesn't take me too long to get frustrated and look up the solution. Of course, it rarely happens nowadays anyways, seeing as how all games are pretty straightforward now.

When I go back to older games, it definitely becomes an issue though.

I really try to give it my best shot. But when I start getting frustrated and want to throw my controller at the tv I'll look up online. No use in getting mad over a stupid game.

It depends on the game, doesn't it?

I feel pretty stupid when playing Point&Click adventure games and I'm almost certain that I would not have finished one without guides. But if I'm stuck because of a bad design, I don't even feel guilty googling to progress further.

I don't think I ever have looked up a walkthrough for any game before beating it - I have used guides to reach 100% completion and that kind of stuff, but never for getting through the game the first time.

I have OCD tendencies, so unless I'm stuck for over ~3 hours I won't check the Internet.

A lot of times I'll lose interest in a game before I give up and check the Internet.

I don't think I have been 'stuck' in a game since I was a child tbfh.

I don't like reading guides for puzzle games like Layton etc, since I feel like I need to decipher the solution by myself. On the other hand if its an action game and I can't figure out where to go or what to do I usually try to figure it out on my own for about 20-30 min before consulting a guide.

It depends. For a game like Portal, I would never look online for help even if I end up stuck on a puzzle for ages. On the other hand, for games that just throw in random puzzles to break up the action, I probably wouldn't mind at all going straight to google since that's probably not why I'm playing that game.

I just did it for Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne ... I just hate the japanese tendency of punishing exploration by making you go back to the entrance of a level D:. So this happens rarely and if it does , I must be on a "non breaking my head" kind of mood

Depends how eager I am to see the ending.

@AlexW00d said:

I don't think I have been 'stuck' in a game since I was a child tbfh.

... right.

Depends on the type of game but usually pretty quickly.

Usually after 10-15 minutes of failed attempts do I look towards the internet for assistance.

When it comes to my college homework, it's more of a question of "at what point d i give up looking for answers online and attempt to do the problems myself."

@Video_Game_King: also how close to launch you're playing!

I usually tend to avoid faqs and such unless I'm absolutely stuck with nowhere to go. Actually, I also use them if I really don't want to spend all the time I have 100%ing a game that I don't want to spend more than the necessary amount of time doing so, if that makes sense?

I'll give up and come back to it later on. If I'm still stuck, then I'll cave.

If I spend like an hour stuck in a room or on a puzzle, I look online.

@MysteriousBob said:

Depends how eager I am to see the ending.

@AlexW00d said:

I don't think I have been 'stuck' in a game since I was a child tbfh.

... right.

Yeah, right. It's kind of hard to get stuck in modern games.

@Grimluck343 said:

Almost immediately. I'm a chump like that.

Same here. . . if i can't figure it out within my initial try i will usually go online. Unless it's a game like portal where the puzzle part is the whole game.

When I've lost patience with the game. It doesn't matter if it's challenging or not, if I want to get it over with, I go to GameFAQs. Most recently, I did this with FFXIII. I had maxed out the crystarium and upgraded all weapons as much as possible, so getting through wasn't an issue. However, I was so sick of the game that I pulled up a FAQ to make sure I was as efficient as possible.

My usual reactions are either "Duh" or "I would NEVER have figured that out."

It depends if I'm planning on reviewing the game and what kind of game it is. For example, after about an hour of nonsense in Symphony of the Night, I used a FAQ to complete the game. But I will spend a month trying to beat The Legend of Zelda before resorting to a FAQ if I have to!

After the third time she tells me "you just don't get women!" and storms off.

In the past, I kept a FAQ journal. Before I looked up an issue, I wrote my problem through. When I had looked up the answer, I wrote the solution.

Yeah, it definitely depends on the game, and if you can blame getting stuck on bad game design or something. But i do remember one puzzle in AssCreed2 that was giving me fits. 30 minutes straight of banging my head against it i looked up the solution. Oh the shame, the shame I tells ya.

If it's clearly a lack of execution on my part, I never go for outside help. But if it's an issue of not being able to figure out what to do, be it puzzles (unless there is a clear logic and I'm just not figuring it out), bosses, or just advancing in the game, I seek help quick because I consider that a failing of the game and I don't feel like I should punish myself for bad design.

I give up when I know what to do, but don't know where to go. Or I know where to go, but not what to do.

Depends how much I like/dislike what I'm stuck on.

I don't do it unless a game is so vague that I'd have never progressed otherwise. This usually happens with older games. In fact, the last game I did it with was Alundra. It wasn't one of the puzzles. It was just a section of the game where I had no indication of where to go next. Really don't like it when that happens. I don't feel bad for looking up things in instances like that.

You know, this is a great question. If I do have to look up a hint/solve online I feel like a cheater sometimes, but like some have said here - I'll fucking die 100 times and THEN look it up first.

It depends on the game, if it is anything predating the Nintendo 64, I will most likely have to use a guide to get through the game at all. Otherwise I only use a guide if I get to the point where I am about to ram the controller through the television screen.

Doesn't really happen that much in modern games for me.

In older games, though... generally about ten to fifteen minutes if I'm impatient, thirty to forty if I'm feeling calm and collected. I know, I'm a chump

Whenever I become overly frustrated or feel the that challenge in question is unfair.

That doesn't mean I give up at the first sign of resistance or that I won't sit and try and work through it though. I just don't see a point in banging my head against a wall if I've really tried everything or feel like I'm being cheated in some way.

Depends on the game and situation. I'll look up alchemy recipes or alternate quest completion methods in Skyrim before I'll look up boss fight tactics in Dark Souls. And I'll look up basic information (ie how humanity works in Dark Souls) before I look up recipes or alternate routes in quests. Or with some games with many short windows in rapid succession, I'll use a FAQ periodically throughout just to make sure I don't miss out on something while doing something else (Persona 4 for example).
 
It takes me a while before I get to the point of looking up tactical strategies or solutions. Discovering those are half the fun a lot of the time.

I'll play for a while and try everything I can think of. Sometimes I'll sleep on it and figure it out during the next play session. If I still can't get it, I'll look it up. If it's for open world games like Fallout or Skyrim I'll usually search when I am too lazy to do it myself.

Like a minute

Depends on the game and how annoyed I am. Usually I'm able to easily do most puzzles and stuff like that. But I remember how annoying the one in Andrastes temple when playing Dragon Age was. I was playing an RPG and not an Puzzle game and I absolutely do not enjoy it when my game flow is interrupt with stuff like that. So I gave up on it without even trying and looked it up.

Pretty quickly.

This hasn't really happened with any modern games for me, but i play a lot of old games and i want to play the game, not be stuck at one part forever and never play it again.

Looking up a FAQ isn't cheating, especially if you only use it for one or two parts of a game.

One that comes to mind is the Warhouse puzzles in Tales of Vesperia. I didn't even try them without following a youtube guide, cos fuck those puzzles.

I guess it all comes down to whether or not I'm enjoying it...sometimes challenging is well designed, and sometimes it's not.

It depends if I think the problem is with the game's sense of logic like with phoenix wright well then I don't hesitate to look shit up. But if it's a fair problem and I'm just missing something I'll figure it out.

I give myself sometime to think things over at least 15-20 minutes. I also look at FAQs on non-linear games because I have to know all my options and I might miss something important (ex. ending altering items/events) and I'm usually not patient enough to restart a game just because of that.

Never. I will put a game down for days at a time and then come back to it with a fresh perspective, but I refuse to use guides. Modern games are pretty nice in that there is almost always a logical solution (something that cannot be said for the games of yore). The only game I've been stuck on for a significant amount of time is the last level of Zack and Wiki, but that's mostly due to lack of effort. I just never picked it up again after my girlfriend became too frustrated.

If I fail a challenge 3 times, then I go to the internet.

Unless its SSX, where I never check the internet.

I never look up how to solve puzzles online, which has lead to many instances of me dropping the game and picking it up months later. For other games where I'm stuck in a repetitive combat challenge, I look up the best way to wreck those dudes.

It depends.

If it is a poorly thought out puzzle tacked onto a game because the developer didn't meet their shitty gameplay quota yet, then almost immediately. (This applies to about 99% of puzzles in non puzzle games.)

If it is a puzzle game, then maybe once or twice in my life.

Whenever frustration overwhelms fun, this happens quicker when I feel like it's something the game isn't telling me that I should know (lack of objective etc.) rather than when I know I just haven't figured out how to do a puzzle or something. I don't feel guilty doing this, it allows me to continue games and have more fun.

Depending on the game, I have very little patience for exploration. So if it's something I have to find, or I don't know where to go next (stuck in a room) then I'll look online.

I used to never do it, but lately I've been pretty bad at it. In the most recent Professor Layton game I would have the puzzle guide up and I would click on the puzzle guide before its even up on screen.

Thats when I decided I shouldn't play those games.