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Visit the following links for our latest game-writing | | projects! | | | | www.facebook.com/SLFAQS | www.facebook.com/vinh3im | | twitter: @vinheim | www.youtube.com/TheVinh3im | '~.____________________________________________________________,~' ___ ___ ____\ \_ \ \ \___ \_ \ | | \_ \__ \ | \___ | / \__ \ / super_luigi16, vinheim & cheatmasters.com present... \ \ / / \ \/ / \ / __ __ \ / \_\_\_\_ | | _/ ,'\ \ \ \ \ | | / / _.--. ____ ,' _\ ___ ___ ____ \ \ \ \| |/ /_,-' `. | | /`. \,-' | \ / | | \ |`. \ /\ __ \ '-. | / `. ___ | \/ | '-. \ | | \ / \. \ \ | __ | |/ ,,'_ `. | | __ | \| |\ \ / / \ \/ /,' _`.| ,'/ / / / | ,' _`.| | | \ \/ / \ ,-/ / \ ,' | \/ / ,`. / / \ | | \ / \ \| \_/ | `-. \ `' / | || \_/ | |\ | \ / \ \\ / `-`.___,-'| |\ /| \ / | | | / \ \ \`.__,'| |`-._ `| |__| \/ | `.__,'| | | | / \ \_.-' |__| `-._ | '-.| '-.| | | / /\ \ `' '-._|/ / \ \ / / \ _______________________________________________________________________________ _____ ___ ___ |_ _| / _ \ / __| | | A B L E ( (_) ) F ( (__ O N T E N T S _____________|_|_____________\___/_______\___|_________________________.;^`:.| 1. Introduction ................................................ [vs1000] || 1. Contents ................................................. [vs1001] || 2. About the Guide .......................................... [vs1002] || 3. About the Authors ........................................ [vs1003] || a. Contact Us ............................................ [vs1004] || 2. Game Basics ................................................. [vs2000] || 1. Controls ................................................. [vs2001] || 2. Pokmon Basics ........................................... [vs2002] || a. Pokmon: An Overview .................................. [vs2003] || b. Type Chart ............................................ [vs2004] || c. EVs and IVs ........................................... [vs2005] || d. Pokmon Ins & Outs .................................... [vs2006] || e. Pokmon Battles ....................................... [vs2007] || f. Getting More Pokmon .................................. [vs2008] || g. About the Pokmon World ............................... [vs2009] || 3. Team Building ............................................ [vs2010] || a. Picking & Choosing .................................... [vs2011] || b. Synergy ............................................... [vs2012] || c. Walkthrough Pokmon Advice ............................ [vs2013] || 4. Pokmon Slang ............................................ [vs2014] || 3. Walkthrough ................................................. [vs3000] || 1. The First Badge .......................................... [vs3001] || a. Opening ............................................... [vs3002] || b. Aquacorde Town ........................................ [vs3003] || c. Vanivelle Town ........................................ [vs3004] || d. Route 1 | Vanivelle Pathway ........................... [vs3005] || e. Aquaconde Town II ..................................... [vs3006] || f. Route 2 | Avance Trail ................................ [vs3007] || g. Santalune Forest ...................................... [vs3008] || h. Route 3 | Ouvert Way .................................. [vs3009] || i. Santalune City ........................................ [vs3010] || j. Route 22 | Dtourner Way .............................. [vs3011] || 2. The Second Badge ......................................... [vs3012] || a. Route 4 | Parterre Way ................................ [vs3013] || b. Lumiose City .......................................... [vs3014] || c. Route 5 | Versant Road ................................ [vs3015] || d. Camphrier Town ........................................ [vs3016] || e. Sharbonneau Castle .................................... [vs3017] || f. Route 7 | Rivire Way ................................. [vs3018] || g. Route 6 | Palais Lane ................................. [vs3019] || h. Parfum Palace ......................................... [vs3020] || i. Route 6 | Palais Lane ................................. [vs3021] || j. Route 7 | Rivire Way ................................. [vs3022] || h. Connecting Cave | Zubat Roost ......................... [vs3023] || i. Route 8 (Cliff) | Marauille Coast ..................... [vs3024] || j. Ambrette Town ......................................... [vs3025] || k. Route 9 | Spikes Passage .............................. [vs3026] || l. Glittering Cave ....................................... [vs3027] || m. Ambrette Town II ...................................... [vs3028] || n. Route 8 (Ocean) | Marauille Coast ..................... [vs3029] || o. Cyllage Town .......................................... [vs3030] || 3. The Third Badge .......................................... [vs3031] || a. Connecting Cave | Zubat Roost ......................... [vs3032] || b. Route 10 | Menhir Trail ............................... [vs3033] || c. Geosenge Town ......................................... [vs3034] || d. Route 11 | Miroir Way ................................. [vs3035] || e. Reflection Cave ....................................... [vs3036] || f. Shalour City .......................................... [vs3037] || g. Tower of Mastery ...................................... [vs3038] || h. Shalour City II ....................................... [vs3039] || i. Tower of Mastery II ................................... [vs3040] || 4. The Fourth Badge ......................................... [vs3041] || a. Route 12 | Fourrage Road .............................. [vs3042] || b. Azure Bay ............................................. [vs3043] || c. Coumarine City ........................................ [vs3044] || 5. The Fifth Badge .......................................... [vs3045] || a. Route 13 | Lumiose Badlands ........................... [vs3046] || b. Kalos Power Plant ..................................... [vs3047] || c. Lumiose City II ....................................... [vs3048] || 6. The Sixth Badge .......................................... [vs3049] || a. Lumiose City III ...................................... [vs3050] || b. Route 3 | Ouvert Way .................................. [vs3051] || c. Route 22 | Dtourner Way .............................. [vs3052] || d. Ambrette Town III ..................................... [vs3053] || e. Route 8 (Ocean) | Marauille Coast ..................... [vs3054] || f. Cyllage City .......................................... [vs3055] || g. Route 14 | Laverre Natural Trail ...................... [vs3056] || h. Laverre City .......................................... [vs3057] || 7. The Seventh Badge ........................................ [vs3058] || a. Pok Ball Factory ..................................... [vs3059] || b. Route 15 | Brun Way ................................... [vs3060] || c. Route 16 | Melacolie Path ............................. [vs3061] || d. Dendemille Town ....................................... [vs3062] || e. Frost Cavern .......................................... [vs3063] || f. Route 17 | Mamoswine Road ............................. [vs3064] || g. Anistar City .......................................... [vs3065] || 8. The Eighth Badge ......................................... [vs3066] || a. Lumiose City IV ....................................... [vs3067] || b. Lysanadre Labs ........................................ [vs3068] || c. Geosenge Town ......................................... [vs3069] || d. Team Flare Secret HQ .................................. [vs3070] || e. Route 18 | Valle troite Way & Terminus Cave ......... [vs3071] || f. Couriway Town ......................................... [vs3072] || g. Route 19 | Grande Valle Way .......................... [vs3073] || h. Snowbelle City ........................................ [vs3074] || i. Route 20 | Winding Woods .............................. [vs3075] || j. Pokemon Village ....................................... [vs3076] || k. Snowbelle City II ..................................... [vs3077] || 8. Elite 4 .................................................. [vs3078] || a. Route 21 | Dernire Way ............................... [vs3079] || b. Victory Road .......................................... [vs3080] || c. Pokmon League ........................................ [vs3081] || 4. Post-Game ................................................... [vs4000] || 1. Postgame: The Basics ..................................... [vs4001] || a. Vaniville Town ........................................ [vs4002] || b. Lumiose City .......................................... [vs4003] || c. Kiloude City .......................................... [vs4004] || d. Friend Safari ......................................... [vs4005] || e. Anistar City .......................................... [vs4006] || f. Lumiose City II ....................................... [vs4007] || 2. Legendary Pokmon ........................................ [vs4008] || a. Zygarde | Terminus Cave ............................... [vs4009] || b. Mewtwo | Pokmon Village .............................. [vs4010] || c. Birds | Roaming ....................................... [vs4011] || 3. Waterfall-Accessible Areas ............................... [vs4012] || a. Route 22 | Dtourner Way .............................. [vs4013] || b. Chamber of Emptiness .................................. [vs4014] || c. Route 16 | Mlacolie Path ............................. [vs4015] || d. Frost Cavern .......................................... [vs4016] || e. Couriway Town ......................................... [vs4017] || 4. New Fossils .............................................. [vs4018] || a. Glittering Cave ....................................... [vs4019] || b. Ambrette Town ......................................... [vs4020] || 5. Looker Sidequest ......................................... [vs4021] || a. Lumiose City .......................................... [vs4022] || b. Lysandre Labs ......................................... [vs4023] || c. Lumiose City II ....................................... [vs4024] || 5. Supplementary Info .......................................... [vs5000] || 1. Pokmon Locations ........................................ [vs5001] || a. Central Dex ........................................... [vs5002] || b. Coastal Dex ........................................... [vs5003] || c. Mountain Dex .......................................... [vs5004] || 2. MoveDex .................................................. [vs5005] || a. Bug Moves ............................................. [vs5006] || b. Dark Moves ............................................ [vs5007] || c. Dragon Moves .......................................... [vs5008] || d. Electric Moves ........................................ [vs5009] || e. Fairy Moves ........................................... [vs5010] || f. Fighting Moves ........................................ [vs5011] || g. Fire Moves ............................................ [vs5012] || h. Flying Moves .......................................... [vs5013] || i. Ghost Moves ........................................... [vs5014] || j. Grass Moves ........................................... [vs5015] || k. Ground Moves .......................................... [vs5016] || l. Ice Moves ............................................. [vs5017] || m. Normal Moves .......................................... [vs5018] || n. Poison Moves .......................................... [vs5019] || o. Psychic Moves ......................................... [vs5020] || p. Rock Moves ............................................ [vs5021] || q. Steel Moves ........................................... [vs5022] || r. Water Moves ........................................... [vs5023] || s. TMs/HMs ............................................... [vs5024] || 3. ItemDex .................................................. [vs5025] || a. Pok Balls ............................................ [vs5026] || b. Medicine .............................................. [vs5027] || c. Hold Items ............................................ [vs5028] || d. Evolutionary Items .................................... [vs5029] || e. Key Items ............................................. [vs5030] || f. Fossils ............................................... [vs5031] || g. Battle Items .......................................... [vs5032] || h. Vitamins .............................................. [vs5033] || i. Berries ............................................... [vs5034] || j. Miscelaneous .......................................... [vs5035] || 4. Mega Evolution ........................................... [vs5036] || a. Mega Evolution: An Overview ........................... [vs5037] || b. Mega Stone Locations .................................. [vs5038] || 5. Battle Chateau ........................................... [vs5039] || 6. Closing ..................................................... [vs6000] || 1. Version History .......................................... [vs6001] || 2. Legal .................................................... [vs6002] || 3. Contributing ............................................. [vs6003] || 4. Acknowledgements ......................................... [vs6004] || || END TOC ||_____________________________________________________________________________|* USE CTRL + F OR APPLE + F IN COMBO WITH THE SHORTCUT TO JUMP TO THE SECTION * ____ ____ ____ ____\ \ / /_______________________________________________________\ \ / / \ \/ ///\\\ \/ / \ /// 1.0 [vs1000] \\\ / / \\\ Introduction ||| | / /\ \\\_______________________________________________________||| |/ / \ \| | _______________________________________________________________________________!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1.1 C o n t e n t s [vs1001]_______________________________________________________________________________!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Welcome to our guide for Pokmon X and Pokmon Y! This guide should and willcover everything pertinent to a complete walkthrough for either version of thegame, including all relevant information about the overworld compiled inchronological order, item lists, Pokmon locations, and other useful tidbits ofinformation. You can get a general idea of what is in this guide by simplylooking at the Table of Contents (TOC) on top. That TOC will also allow you tojump to said section with nifty little shortcuts. Anyway, both of us are veryproud of this guide, and we hope that you will use this resource to itsfullest--if there is anything that we can improve, please let us know! We lovehearing feedback! Without further ado, let's get on with the (Pokmon) show!_______________________________________________________________________________!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1.2 A b o u t T h e G u i d e [vs1002]_______________________________________________________________________________!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Our Pokmon X/Y guide is essentially a place to go for anything and everything/specifically/ about Pokmon X and Y. This means that we only put in what'srelevant to your experience in this game. By extension, this should makeeverything easy to find, which can be a major detriment to other informationsources (like Serebii) that try to tell you everything about everything. Anyway, this guide can basically be divided into three major sections: how-to-play (team building, controls, and so on), the walkthrough (beginning-to-endwith no spoilers whatsoever), and the supplementary info (move lists, Pokmonlocations, and so on). Each major section serves its own use and is henceformatted in its own way. In this guide, we've tried to make everything as easy on the eyes as possible.Some may view plain text as unappealing--we see it as a strength toartistically and functionally present information in a manner that allows usmore control over how you view the information. Hopefully you see this as well.Anyway, much of the information in this guide is presented from our ownexperiences, though some of it may be derived from other sources and presentedmore clearly. This guide is also assembled with the help of a variety of people, mostimportantly those who directly contribute to us via email, FaceBook, PM, orwhatever other method you can think of. Regardless, we find guide-writing to bemore of a collaboration between author and audience, so be sure to get in touchwith one or both of us if you think we can improve this guide. Some various guide-wide indiosyncrasies you may see are SL's affinity forPok- balls, vin's affinity for hating Pokballs, and our constant banteringusing these little carrots (!): Yo, vin, we're doing these, right? This guide is being assembled in plain text formatting (.txt) with variousword processors such as NotePad and MetaPad._______________________________________________________________________________!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1.3 A b o u t T h e A u t h o r s [vs1003]_______________________________________________________________________________!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!This is our 15 minutes of fame in this guide, so please excuse our short self-promotion/feeling-sappy sequence! \ vinheim \ Hey guys how's it going? vin here bringing you a In-depth walkthrough for thehighly anticipated Pokmon game for the 3DS, Pokmon X & Y. This game brings ina ton of new features that you'll be enjoying throughout the game. Officially,I've been writing since 2004, but only started posting my guides until 2006,reason why is that I was still unexperienced with computers and ended up losingall my info because of virus problems. The guides that I lost go from 2 Golden Sun guides, 1 for Dragon Quest 8 forthe PS2 and a part of Tales of Symphonia. I write for a wide array of games,going from shooters to RPGs, whichever game I like, I just write for it. I gotinto co-writing with Bkstunt, who is an awesome writer and a wonderful person.I now get a chance to write with another awesome guy, and that's superluigi.We've talked a lot lately and this guide got us even closer :). So yeah, tag along as we bring you hopefully the best guide you can find forthe game, which is a blast to write and we have fun in the process. Cheers :)CHEAT SITES; INCORPORATED WITH GUIDESAs for cheat sites in general, there's not much more to be found besides just cheats. There's one major exception to the rule, being Supercheats. The guideswritten here by prolific authors have a few nice additions, including video (andsometimes screenshot) support. Not all guides are of the same quality, butthere's a solution for this problem we'll soon land at.VIDEO TALKTHROUGHS; TOO FEW BENEFITS OVER TEXTVideo talkthroughs have a few benefits, the biggest being that the author no longer needs to write everything down into words when creating the talkthrough.This doesn't benefit the user looking for help, and they are only helped in very specific contexts by this format, which lends itself perfectly for "findinghidden objects", and I dare say it lends itself for this purpose only. It worksgreat if you see someone walk straight to an item you were looking for and thatyou struggled to find when reading through text. As such, videos are a greataddition to text, but not as a replacement. Why not? For one, videos don't havea proper search function, and can never describe handy statistics, such as acomplete item/equipment list as featured in most role playing games (but verythinkable in adventure games as well, where this can take the form of a tablethat compares gunfire power for example). The viewer also needs to deduct strategies from the video and comments of the author alone. This can work for astraight A-to-B walkthrough or for beating a boss, but it's a pain when theauthor decides against exploring optional parts when you wanted to do just that- or vice versa. An other disadvantage is that videos contain spoilers. Youmight be able to click away the video right before spoilers come up, especiallyif the author warns you in advance, but you can imagine this is a stressfulsituation. A last drawback of videos is that they're time consuming to watch,so it's almost like you're playing the game twice; once by someone else playingit for you. Videos can still be, it has to be said, an excellent addition to text when they visually show something text has difficulties with to describe,but they have little value beyond this feature.FAQS: DO THESE TEXT DOCUMENTS REALLY HOLD THE FUTURE?If someone would ask me if there is still a need for text-based documents (FAQs)in a few years, I'd wholeheartedly tell them yes, but I'd also tell them thatthings are in need of a little tweaking. FAQs suffer from less problems thanother formats because they're well organized, rapidly downloadable, quicklysearchable by using [tags] and Ctrl + F, they're printable, easy to save onto your hard disk, and they have all information stored in one place. There's onlyone 'problem'; the big differences in quality between FAQs. Some guides remainunfinished, some are finished but have a very poor layout, and only a handfulcan be considered pure quality. Now I know (of course I do), these authors allwrite in their spare time and we should all be thankful for whatever theycontribute - no arguing there. What would you expect from free guides? But ifit's easy to make things better, why not give it a try?On a side note, I wouldn't think the solution lies in the new html guides thatGameFAQs now features. It theoretically allows for a few decent features,especially if authors would choose to include screenshots that enrich theirwritten text (but a danger lies in abundance). Better yet would be placingvideos at parts where text lacks in its descriptive function as argued for inthe previous paragraphs. Having a few videos to show difficult item locationswould be great. Besides these benefits, the format is no longer easy to print(not a disaster), it is arguably not as easy to search through compared to acompact text document, it is a pain to save onto an external space such as ahard disk or USB stick, and for some reason they're not as easy to organize astext. Besides this, it takes more time for both writers and administrator(s) tocreate this format. If anything, this format reminds mostly of the unsuccessfulsuperguides at mycheats, the difference being that everyone can contribute tothose.TEXT ENHANCED WITH PICTURES?Random screenshots as used in the semi-free guides on IGN and Gamespot don't addmuch value for the reader, and the only purpose they serve is as eye candy.Picture support, as one could call it, derives its purpose from *supporting*the reader in getting something done in the game. One of the main purposes tosupport a reader is to tell them where they need to go, or to show where aplayer is headed towards. As a rule, screenshots don't lend themselves wellfor this purpose. They're too static and can only show a limited frame ofinformation currently going on in the game. Maps on the other hand are muchmore abstract, and can show readers a wide variety of (item) locations, as wellas giving a general overview. This is the biggest drawback of text documents,and although text maps can be functional, picture maps are easier to use.Fortunately, it's very easy to upload a picture map to GameFAQs and integrateit in a text guide as a link. The main point here is that pictures generallydistract from the actual guide material. Eye candy is nice, but you'll getenough of eye candy while playing your games. GUIDE WRITERS UNITE!The solution is already partly being executed by some authors who co-author witheach other, but it'd be interesting and easy enough to take this to the nextlevel. You'll unlikely have found yourself staring at a few different FAQs,wondering which one to pick. Perhaps you randomly chose one, perhaps one of anauthor who sounded familiar, or perhaps you looked for recent updates and thesize of the document, or maybe you clicked on all of them and made yourdecision after briefly browsing each. In any case, several authors all decidedto make their own version of a FAQ. Some of them don't cover much more besidesthe walkthrough, others write complete guides, and still others make an attemptat fully uncovering every aspect of the game. While there's something to sayfor writing everything all by yourself - you get your own credits and you *can*have fun while writing - it is worth asking the question whether or not you'reactually contributing something that hasn't already been done before; do guidesexist with better informative text that are faster available than yours, arebetter searchable, more concisely and clearly written, perhaps more beautifullylaid out? Because if they do, realize that the only good reasons to continuewriting for such a game are either because you want to practice your writingskills (a completely legitimate reason), or because you think you can do betterthan the best existing guide available (legitimate, but sometimes difficult toattain). A final, alternative point of view could be to take "a differentapproach", which always comes down to either using more or using less humor, ordescribing more or less spoilers, simply because "other approaches" don't exist:The video game you're writing about demands a certain structured approach withlittle variation possible. Do realize that even with a "different approach", themost important goal is still to write just as qualitatively as the bestavailable stuff already launched elsewhere. Also keep in mind that the author(s)of the most qualitative guide might've chosen to use a fair share of humor andkeep spoilers to a minimum (arguably a favorable combination for the majority ofreaders). Even when there's no information available at all on a certain game,which is common when games have just been released, it can still be importantto keep the highest possible quality in mind, simply because someone else mightoutdo your guide soon.While I realize that some of the above might sound radical in the ears ofcertain writers, I think it also sounds very logical. If you compare the amountof visits of a high-quality guide to a merely decent guide you'd notice adrastic difference between figures. The star system already differentiates - andrightfully so - between guides to make qualitative ones stand out. This is oneof the best features GameFAQs has implemented in a long time, and it would begreat to see it continue down that road to underline and stress the importanceof high quality work. I wouldn't want to argue that guides should no longer beposted if they are of less quality than others (although it would be good tohave an unwritten rule that unfinished walkthroughs do not get posted if astarred guide already exists for that game), as it also encourages writers tostart in 'the business'. The point here is that everyone would greatly benefitif authors started to work together in an efficient manner.ENDLESS AND OPTIMISTIC, YET NOT IMPOSSIBLE GUIDE WRITING IDEALISMWouldn't it be great to have one (perhaps two) excellent - no, nearly perfect -guide(s) for whatever game you desire? Or at least for the most popular titles?The problem with raising the bar this high is that it starts to take very largeamounts of time to write such a guide, and few authors are in the favorableposition of having endless amounts of spare time (or are willing to devote somuch of their spare time to the writing of FAQs). Another problem with strivingfor extraordinary quality is that the community at least partly consists ofyounger writers who are still working on improving their guide writing skills.If authors would form teams that work together on certain guides, they'd notonly be sure that people would love their cooperative work, it would also savethe authors a lot of time and they'd still have made a beautiful piece of workin the end. This is the approach that the better official game guide companiestake. They work in teams, and it shows. Have people focus on a certain aspect ofthe guide and beautifully shape the guide together, literally. In FAQ writing,this could easily be put to practice. Someone could work on the walkthrough,perhaps coordinating sections with someone else if their writing styles match(which is no necessity by any means). Another author could provide ASCIIartwork, still someone else could help work on side quests and parts thatrequire optional exploration, someone could be working on assembling item andequipment lists. Such a team of four to five people can easily be credited atthe top of the document, revealing their (alias) names in all pride and glory.WHAT IS THE ULTIMATE GOAL OF GUIDE WRITING?The same idea could be applied to all online guide writing, and it would greatlyimprove the overall quality of what's available. Ultimately it would findsponsoring and receive some donations from the community, but even without thisit can make a great leap towards reaching the ultimate goal of guide writing:To not only help someone from A to B, but to really *enhance* someone'sexperience of a game in every possible way, giving people the option to fullyexplore and enjoy a videogame. You can watch linear movies, you can read linearbooks, but you must actively explore a video game, and in some cases, only ahigh-quality strategy guide is going to help you do just that. It would beunfair to demand from gamers to purchase such a strategy guide for every gamethey buy. Ideally, the future of video game guides would have prolific authorsovercome their ego and team up to shape perfect text-based strategy guides.Readers could in turn show a little more praise when truly deserved... Now whatare some ways to improve and promote quality?INTRODUCE A FAQ OF THE YEAR CONTEST; OMG, GOLD STARS!?A few great ways that could help promote authors to work together in order toreach higher levels of quality (and faster, too) would be to not only hold aFAQ of the Month contest, but also a FAQ of the Year contest (or alternativelya FAQ of the Season, but that sounds kind of lame). There are too few monthlycontributions to really judge quality alone (game popularity and thus guide demand also plays its role), but a yearly competition on top of the FotM contestcould really push author(teams) to the limit. Although it'd be nice, it doesn'teven need to involve prize money - I bet many guide writers would commit murderto have a gold star featured next to their own or team's name for that matter.A GUIDE WRITER CONTEST INSTEAD OF THESE REPETITIVE CHARACTER AND GAME CONTESTS?It could also greatly help to put authors a little more in the spotlights. Asimple poll could do wonders alone, not to imagine a "favorite author" contest,putting the building bricks of GameFAQs in the spotlight for once - the authorsof FAQs themselves - instead of the repetitive character contests that are nowbeing held yearly. A trial would be nice at the very least; contributors reallylike these contests, as the writer's board has shown repeatedly year after yearfor over a decade now. It'd also motivate aspiring writers to give it a shot oftheir own - there's nothing to lose.On a different but related note, an other possible way to easily motivatequalitative work under authors would be by showing the amount of stars - whichimplies recommendations or FotM prizes - on the author's forum account, similarto how Karma is displayed.GIVE SOME, GET SOMEThe idea is that when the quality of text guides jumps, the time is ripe for thecontributor recognition to rise as well, and quite frankly, it's been wayoverdue for a long time. The only thing that currently fuels guide writers arethank-you emails (or the general idea of helping people). With little extraeffort, the shrinking community of veteran guide writers can get a new impulseand new goals.JOIN OR START A DISCUSSION ON GAMEFAQS OR FACEBOOKWe've got a long way to go, but it should be possible to push guide writing astep in the right direction, starting here. Things like this don't take offwithout discussions, so spread the word and let GameFAQs know about this. You can also join the discussion on my facebook page, located at