Monthly Archives: June 2013

Ah, the strategy guide… In days long past, these were the only means of being able to *beat* certain games. You either owned a guide, knew a kid who knew the secrets to a game, or you struggled and died in the brutal NES era (and *maybe* got good enough to win without help). Eventually, they became less and less necessary due to GameFAQS, and then…not really much at all, as games became easier and easier. But, these guides have always meant a lot to me. Why? I don’t know…nostalgia? Completeness? The cool artwork? All of the above?

There’s just something about them that makes them special… Oh, well, for me this only applies to the NINTENDO published guides for some reason. PRIMA, BRADY? Blech, terrible. No, no. I’m talking about the “old school” Official Nintendo strategy guides. The best of the best (well, the quality dropped off near the end…).

So what is the point of this post then? Well, I’ve put together a complete list (and other facts) of every single magazine. This is going to take a long effort on my part to finish, but I hope to have details and a review of every guide published by Nintendo or Nintendo Power.

You can find a complete list of every Official Nintendo Player’s Guide on this page. Edit: Table completely filled out on 6/28/13!

And so it was. The inception: 2/9/2010. The day of glory: 6/16/2013. 6994 wins. 223140 kills. 1222 days and too many thousand of hours later…10 million ADAM!

Here’s a bunch of data that will mean absolutely nothing to someone who has not played this game! To those who have played it…behold! There’s some interesting data here.

Average ADAM a game:

• Real: 1021 ([Wins + Losses] / TOTAL ADAM)
• Adjusted: 1050 (as noted on the leaderboard)

That means my ADAM average is 29 points higher than it should be…because of people quitting games. If I’m calculating that right, that means there’s a 2.8% chance of someone ending a game before it’s over. That can’t be right…that seems way too low!

Here’s some fun (or sad…) stats:

Extra actions bucket:

• 748760 points from hacking (7.5%) (79  avg/game; 8 hacks)
• 706290 points from research (7.1%) (75 avg/game; 8 research)
• 743260 points from ADAM vials (7.4%) (78 avg/game; 8 vials)

That’s 2.2 million  (22%) ADAM from things that are optional during game play. That’s a big deal. That’s the reason why I have the top spot! If you adjust this to zero (not really realistic…), that brings my adjusted average ADAM a game down to 819…still almost better than everyone in the top ten!

Kills, captures, takedowns:

• 251520 points from assists (2.5%) (26 avg/game; 5 assists/game)
• 195950 points from captures (2.0%) (21 avg/game; not a valid stat since not all games can get captures; that said, avg 1 capture every  5 games)
• 478800 points from Big Daddy takedowns (4.8%) (1 BD kill every two games)
• 2402600 points from killstreaks (24%) (252 avg/game; 5 killstreaks [3x kills/game])
• 2231400 points from kills (22.3%) (234 avg/game; 23 kills/game)

Since my K/D ratio is 2.95, and my killstreak ratio is 2.52…that means, there’s a gap of 0.43 between what my KS *should* be versus what it is. Things like a round ending, getting a BD suit, or getting disconnected can cause this to happen. That’s a lot higher than I’d hoped it was…

Wins and Losses:

• 1398800 points from wins (14%) (147 avg/game; a win is 200 points)
• ~840000 points from losses (~8.4%) (90 avg/game; Process of elimination; losses vary in point total)

Not accounted for: ADAM trial data…for the purposes of this exercise, this is negligible. However, it should come from the “loss points” if I were to calculate it.

Here’s a bunch of other pictures to celebrate the occasion. Here’s a snapshot of the leaderboards at 6/15/2013:

 

So there it is. How much more life does this game have left? ,.. …. … You know what’s even sadder? The game has been out 1222 days. I have 10 million ADAM. That’s an average of 8183 ADAM a day. Considering my average is 1050 a match. That means I play 7.79 matches a day. Each match takes about…7-9 minutes on average? Let’s make it a round number and include all the loading, match making, etc, and call it 10 minutes a game.

That means I’ve played BIOSHOCK 2 multiplayer, on average, 78 minutes a day for the past 3+ years. Insane. That’s what it will take to become a leaderboard champion. Keep that in mind the next time you want to try that in the game of your choice. I wouldn’t recommend it. You become a slave to the game. I…I would just like the game to end now please…do I get a cookie at least? 2K, what do I get? Looking back at the data like this…wow does it seem like a waste of time! Haha…sigh..