I Am Phillip Marcus, an author for the Dark Souls 3 official guide. AMA!

1) Not something I can really answer in detail, other than to say I thought the DS guides were really good long, long before I ever came anywhere near getting involved in this project. So nothing specifically other than hoping we don't disappoint people.

2) That'd be a whole separate AMA. I actually did my first work in 99, so that'd be 17 years ago now. HAIL TO THE KING BABY. These days, it's generally about having some form of social media presence. ~We are watching~.

For my part, when I'm looking for an assistant or extra bodies for a project, I've requested and recruited people specifically because I saw them post on a forum, make videos on youtube, stream on twitch, etc. And no, not the biggest. I care about passion and quality, not subs or volume (they aren't mutually exclusive mind, I've worked with big tubers and esports folks, I've worked with unknowns, the majority have been great people and hard workers).

As for Prima or other publishers, you'd have to contact them directly using normal channels. Show your interest, show your skills. Are you a writer, an artist, a video or stream content maker?

3) Varies greatly. In the case of DS3 specifically, obviously dealing with translation time lag creates an extra barrier (true for any international project of course), and sometimes we might be fighting to cover patch changes on known material as it shifts. As far as providing material though, From/Namco/Frog have been nothing but generous. If we know what to ask and they can provide it, they have.

4) This one I answered a bit below, see: https://www.reddit.com/r/darksouls3/comments/4dhf5f/i_am_phillip_marcus_an_author_for_the_dark_souls/d1r50bb

Ultimania guides rock, I love when designworks stuff gets translated by fans, they have a very specific and interesting culture around guides in japan. In the US, as you said, they're generally not as popular, a lot of gamers are outright hostile to the concept of 'needing' a guide, rather than looking at them as companion material. I addressed the 'why buy a guide' question earlier as well here: https://www.reddit.com/r/darksouls3/comments/4dhf5f/i_am_phillip_marcus_an_author_for_the_dark_souls/d1r0etw

Generally wikis are looked on positively, any community videos are as well, and if a human face is put on a guide, it can be (a good example of that would be FGC folks working on Street Fighter books or similar). It's easy to look at a book as a corporate product (which it is), without seeing the people working on it directly (which can be hard if they don't come out and say so firsthand).

/r/darksouls3 Thread Parent