Pry yourself away from that black-and-white, rabbit-eared, wood-grained TV set of yours for a sec. Did you know the world of strategy guides and user-created walkthroughs has come a long ways since the days of traditional maps and the ASCII ways of GameFAQs.com?

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Guiding light

You've likely seen collector's edition strategy books whose production costs probably rival the very games they're covering. But aggressive publishers are looking to add value wherever possible, knowing full well the type of competition they're facing online. And the type of goods they're offering, you just can't find on the Internet.

Traditionally, guide publishers like Prima Games and BradyGames always had the advantage of pre-release access to the games and the developers, so gamers are always getting the most official, most accurate information possible at the perfect time: day one. "That map of the Capital Wasteland alone took a month to plot," says David Hodgson, author and creative consultant at Prima, on his Fallout 3 book. "Having it available to readers at launch made the guide more valuable."

Yet it seems most gamers still prefer the ease (and price) of free online help. In an informal poll, 73% of gamers preferred Internet sources like GameFAQs to traditional guides. The print companies, however, have no plans to fall behind the evolutionary curve. "[Prima is putting] greater emphasis on content deemed helpful that perhaps wasn't historically offered," says Hodgson, "such as Xbox Live strategy videos, interactive maps, and the like."

Physical supplements help as well. Brady's recent Modern Warfare 2 book came with The Big Fold, a laminated tri-fold multiplayer map pack that you can prop up (or hang up) and write on with a dry-erase marker. The tactical possibilities can give online players a distinct advantage -- if the mocking from roommates and girlfriends doesn't prove to be too much of a distraction....

In future Big Folds, you can expect maps with weapon and health pickups, move lists for fighting games, playbooks for sports titles, and more.

Video, images, and color...meet FAQs

While many professional websites offer full guides now, GameFAQs and Wikia Gaming are the de facto destinations for ones created by the community. Newcomer PlayHaven is hoping to crack that market by offering some of the friendliest authoring tools around -- with drag-and-drop ease, users can create full-color walkthroughs with text, screenshots, videos, and captions.

PlayHaven guides look great for being community-made, especially next to the typewriter aesthetics of GameFAQs. But it's going to be a while before search engines start ranking PlayHaven links high enough for Googlers to notice. Plus, gamers are just used to going to GameFAQs first, and that won't be changing overnight.

With the success of GameFAQs and Wikia, as well as up-and-comers like PlayHaven, it may seem like strategy books are slowly falling behind, interactivity or not.

Hodgson, however, doesn't think so: "I know it's strange, but there's still a large audience for printed books, and not just for toilet reading. Ironically, some of the information in books is easier to get to than online Wikis. Personally, nothing beats flipping through a weighty guide book, though."

Want to try out a Modern Warfare 2 Big Fold for yourself? For some reason, the company sent us three of them when we wanted to check one out, maybe thinking we have online friends to play with. We don't, so they're yours. Just leave a comment below, and we'll pick three of you at random to send these to.

The usual rules apply: You must be registered on Bitmob with your FULL and REAL name, as well as a legit email address where we can contact you at. Continental U.S. only (sorry, we're cheap!). Void where prohibited.