DotaStrategy.com - View topic - Ghost's Guide to Writing a Strategy Guide: Part 1

Ghost

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Godlike Posts: 2213 Joined: 01 Jan 2007 gold

Ghost's Guide to Writing a Strategy Guide: Part 1

Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 9:22 am

Introduction
This is the first part of a 2 part series to making a hero guide.
This was what could almost be called a joint project, basically we (folechno and I) were both working on similar projects and the details given were rather vague.
What cam out of this was 2 completely different guides that seemed to mesh together quite well.
and so with a couple of modifications to titles, became the amazing 2 part series that it is now.
Part 1 outlines the Drafting of a hero guide from picking the hero to the actual content while Part 2 is focused more around the actual guide maker on DS.

Choosing a Hero

Never make a guide because you think you have to, it is not your obligation just because you are a member on the site. Sure it is good if you do make guides but you should enjoy doing it.

First things first, ask yourself…
What hero do I want to make a guide for?

NEVER pick a hero because others want a guide on it, only make the guide if you genuinely enjoy playing with that hero, if you don’t like it, your guide will end up being inferior to all others for the same hero. Another bonus of actually liking the hero is that the words will flow better you know the hero so you know what you are doing.

Picked a hero?
If you have answered yes, you can keep reading.

Now get a few games in, take your hero where possible. Start digging, you need to find what you think makes this hero good, and where its shortcomings are, work out skill combinations and then locate the hero synergies. Take a look at team play and decide on a role your guide will put most of the emphasis on.

Planning the Contents

Planning is the most important part of writing the guide.

Ask yourself these questions…
Will my guide be very specific or will it be more generalised for the hero?
What will I add to make my guide stand out?
What am I going to write?

A hero guide should contain these 10 sections.

Introduction
Hero Overview
Skill Descriptions
Skill Order (build)
Reasons for Skills (the logic behind your build)
Item Build (what will I wear?)
Reasons for Items (why I wield 4 swords)
General Gameplay Walkthrough (early middle and late game walkthrough)
General Tips (smart usage of skills, combos and synergy with skills, items and heroes)
Conclusion (special thanks, summarise your guide, last reminders etc.)

ALL PUBLISHED GUIDES MUST HAVE THIS
Copyright.
something like this

Quote:
"<GUIDE NAME>" is intended for <ALLOWED SITES> only.

Copyright © <CURRENT YEAR> <YOUR NAME> All Rights Reserved

Every good guide has these and MORE if you have these basic 10 your guide will still have great potential. A couple of other things you may want to add to a guide are

Replays
Pros and Cons
Miscellaneous Finds
Calculations
Features (specific use of skills i.e. meathook/grapple/elunes arrow)
Intertextual references (other hero guides guides, misc guides)
Anything else you can think of
Something unique

BE AWARE:
Most people will take quality over quantity, nobody really wants to read a 1000 word essay on your chosen hero, if people see a long guide they will probably skip over most of it, writing the metaphorical essay is useless if you are going to repeat the same thing over and over again, 1+3 and 2+2 both equal 4
Try to control the amount you are writing, and if it has to be long breaking it up with plenty of pictures and diagrams is a good idea.
A blend on quality and quantity is the way to go, try to strike a balance.

Skill/Item Builds

Item and Skill builds must be tested, I know it sounds stupid but there are guides to suggestive builds based on the potential people see in the hero, test your builds in both public games and inhouse matches. When you find you are constantly doing well (performing your guides chosen role), take a look at your build and see if you can find a way to improve it.

ITEMS
REMEMBER:
Items were made to hide you hero’s cons and make all their strengths more prominent.

Organisation is the key, try to…

Have the item icon.
Have the complete item name (not just an abbreviations)
Have the gold cost next to the item.
List out every single item that is required
List the optional items (usually consumables and animal couriers).
Separate justifications and descriptions from the above

SKILLS

List each skill on a separate line from levels 1 to 25
If you are suggesting a unique build you will most probably be flamed, fear not, if you provide an abundance of relays that show you doing well in a series of different situations, your critics will be proven wrong.
Explain how and why your build works.

Gameplay Walkthroughs

Detail and Clarity are of the essence, if you see a flaw or a metaphorical hole in your argument; fill it, with truth, or a white lie (ideally truth). Describe the basic playstyle of the hero.
If you can, break it into several smaller sections (early/middle/late game) with subheadings (these can be based on level, items or game time (night/day))
Early game (and subsequently lower levels) generally require more information, last hitting as often as possible, is implied, but you may want to include an explanation anyway, if you don’t leave a link to an external guide.
You will also want to include tips, how your hero controls the lane early, how your hero fares in the big picture, do you want first blood? How do you get it?
Do you merely want to survive? If so, how?
Offer some general advise and your opinions try to be as clear and detailed as you can possibly be.

Responding to Comments
Where possible respond in a civilized manner. Never ever flame or scold others for their opinion. Instead, try to persuade them that you are correct in a dignified way, using facts and your own calculations and opinions, without resorting to vulgarities.
If they result to vulgarities, you are free to flame back, but do not cross the line, say that they don’t know what they are talking about ask “if you are so pro, where is your guide?” you can even go for the ever childish “you’re just jealous!” approach.
It is the internet, they won’t hunt you down, and they won’t rape you at a subway station.
Still manners are important.

Summary and Extra Notes.

Whenever possible, try to do a guide that has not yet been done, or offer alternative item and skill builds.
Make your guide unique.
Offer a main object of desire in the item build.
Use images.
Offer a clean and readable layout.
Stand out
Use text formatting to improve your guide.
Colours should NOT be changed excessively and should be easy on the eyes.
Write your guide for a hero you enjoy using and use well.
Quality is more important than quantity, strike a balance
Expectations on levels and items should be realistic
Be as detailed as you can throughout the guide.
Use images appropriately, but spare a thought for the people without good internet connections. Don’t be excessive unless you are making an image guide.
Try to include a replay whenever possible.
Leave spaces between paragraphs. Leave spaces if you find words are too cluttered.
PREVIEW GUIDES BEFORE POSTING. This is to ensure that the guide looks good, no BBCode errors are present and your spelling and grammar are in check.

Thank you for reading this guide, i hope you found it useful and informative, you can now move onto folechno’s Guide to Writing a Strategy Guide: Part 2

"Ghost's Guide to Writing a Strategy Guide: Part 1" is intended for www.DotaStrategy.com only.

Copyright © 2008 Ghost All Rights Reserved

CHANGE LOG
1. played around with BBCode, now has dot points to make it easier to read.
adding color to make it easier to read in next update.
eating dinner.

2. 30 seconds later i realised a left a big hole in the BBCode, fixed it, added more dot points where i left them out.

3. added introduction and links to what is now part 2 of this guide.
added section on copyright

4.fixed BBCode from last update
_________________
The zombie octopus puppet master says comply .

Last edited by Ghost on Mon Aug 18, 2008 10:34 am; edited 6 times in total