Weren’t chess invented as a means of entertainment (well, a profound one)? I mean its an old game, but I’m not sure what it teaches exactly. Maybe it teaches people that you just need to grasp the basics and then continue applying them? Easy to learn, hard to master, as they say.
Cause and effect thinking, pattern recognition, memory.
I’m not saying that they aren’t used for entertainment, clearly they are, I’m just saying that isn’t always the sole purpose of a game. Instruction, especially the instruction of children, would easily have been a large part of the roots of gaming in general.
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Hm, this appears to apply to GD as well.
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and there are, chess guides 
I used to play chess in school and compete in it, you can bet I studied many books and videos about it.
Once upon a time I used to be pretty good at chess. My father taught me what all the pieces did when I was like 5 but I never really played “played” until late teens I think… but I already knew how to play because I knew what everything did.
Haven’t played in some years now tho. I imagine I’m incredibly rusty.
… and as for “early gaming” I don’t find it hard to imagine at all that some incredibly long time ago before recorded history, that some mother was creating a game on the fly to teach a daughter something valuable, or a father to teach a son something equally valuable… about the life they had to lead - both to pass time and to help the child hopefully take something from it, learn from it.
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I’ll elaborate on that since I pioneered the concept of beginner build as it is now.
It all began in AoM.
Initially the whole idea was a faction gear setup that can farm items easily. The game didn’t exactly rain legendaries upon you back then, blue sets were kinda garbage, MIs did exist but because there was no bias system it was hard to get a good one. Also no set transmuter. A zero gear setup was therefore making very much sense. Especially since the balance wasn’t that good back then, some skills were literally noob traps that you couldn’t had farmed gear with that makes them viable later in the game.
As the game evolved the lucrativeness of such setup started to fade out for obvious reason. But as I listened to feedback to my guides over time I realized that people do want them detailed so that they can “follow” them. I agree with you that there’s much joy trying to make something of your own and explore the game on your own, but as people seem to still have demand for my guides I continue to make them, focusing more on levelling as opposed to farm setup for endgame.
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Beginner guides will continue to exist as long as there is a demand. Which there is a healthy amount of. I played D2 for years but GD has enough corner case mechanics that would have made me give up halfway through. Having a guide to understand what proper progression feels like is invaluable for most people starting out.
Preferring to figure things out for yourself is fine but trying to force your view on how the game should be enjoyed is not.
Just like how hardcore is just an option. Now imagine if hardcore was the default setting in GD without the option to turn it off.
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Taking pointers is a good thing. I watched quite a bit of Mr. Protoss’ build videos, but not until I had hundreds of hours in game and a dozen of lvl 100 characters. And I can’t call his builds all this “beginner friendly”, but yet he does a good job explaining why he picked this and that.
Give them some basic info, leaving the rest to figure out on their own. If they happen to have GOOD questions like “does RATA apply to WPS skills”, then by all means enlighten them. But not the stuff like “how do I kill Crate, I’m 2 days ingame???”.
I’m just afraid for potential GD sequel becoming a button-mashing rail-driven parody of a game because of “majority of playerbase finding the game too complex”. I believe in Crate, though. GD is literally one of the best games of at least this decade. Why? For me it’s because it’s engaging and doesn’t hold your hand. A lot of great mechanics too. I don’t want them too be oversimplified because someone didn’t bother to learn the basics.
So what is wrong with guides then? You say it over and over again that people need to learn the basics, but at the same time you are allergic to guides.
I believe in Crate as well and quite honestly I fear this potential consequence little as I don’t think Zantai or medierra believe in that. Some QoL isn’t a bad thing and I’m sure we would see plenty of it in a sequel, hopefully, but I don’t really believe they would be inclined to go overboard with the notion. They understand there is a market of players out there who don’t want noobville and who aren’t being served anywhere else.
I just don’t see members of the community creating beginner guides as being any sort of catalyst for such a consequence. One does not equal the other.
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Crate will be fine. If anything, Zantai will probably bring over and buff Grava and Mad Queen for the sequel just because he thinks the game is getting too easy.
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Z A N T A R I N
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Basics are in game, literally. In the beginning I wrote that (on Reddit specifically) there’re post of people asking for a build/guide while playing the game for a few hours. Can’t at least try to figure the basics? I can understand people not knowing about shotguns, because it isn’t stated anywhere in the game. They’ll come to the forums and ask why they were oneshot by Zantarin. That’s a totally legit question.
Or like Corpse Explosion skill in D2. How should you know it deals half physical and half fire damage? You don’t. You’ll only discover this by some miracle, but that’s because D2 doesn’t provide any info. And the info it does provide, isn’t necesserely accurate.
GD is a different story. It has a list of character stats, descriptions, damage breakdown for skills, Codex with some really basic tutorial stuff, and even a BIG BUTTON in main menu named “Game Guide”. So people are not fine with reading information already provided by the game, but okay with reading walls of text on forums then?
I wonder how those guides came to be without people having a guide in the beginning. I guess they just played the game and did their own research?
I then think we have a completely different view of what basics is 
There is no information about how resistance reduction works for instance which I consider to be a very basic mechanic that you need to know about and master to make good builds. 5
Afaik, no one has told anyone NOT to read the information in the game… and again, this is not on the guide makers end but rather on the users end.
Trust me, I can get anal too when people ask stupid shit without even trying to use what is already there.
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Maybe? But if I’m to relate to IRL, then I have some “guides” to share with others too. Just a couple of days ago I explained a guy on the forum (not GD forum of course) how to reanimate his usb flash drive. That’s because I understand that this information can’t be grasped head-on by a tech-newb. It’s also the reason why we go to a doctor when we don’t feel too good. What’s basic for one, ain’t exactly basic for the other. But GD is just a game. A great fucking game.
And some people take their gaming time very seriously because time is limited.
And that’s why they prefer to waste it on reading a guide?
If they in the end can save dozen - hundredes of hours, yes. That is why I have followed guides for my other hobbies as well, to save time and frustration.
And I have probably spent more time in Grim Tools that in Grim Dawn…
Why are you wasting time writing on the forum? Just play the game