I love detailed (and colored preferably) manuals ... too bad they just don't make them anymore. F3AR's manual is two pages. Duke Nukem Forever is about 4 ... Spyro is about 60
Game Manuals - dying off?
- Thread starter baddude1337
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Pretty redundant if the game is solid, unless it's themed or the artwork is kool (No more Heroes comes to mind). Guess it's not about info anymore, but I like it when it adds to the game in story or atmosphere.
I must say I was a bit surprised when there was no manual with ME2; I thought the store had forgot to put it in.
I must say I was a bit surprised when there was no manual with ME2; I thought the store had forgot to put it in.
Hal10k said:
Sometimes, I think you're right, but it's not always the case. IMHO, you can learn how to play most games faster by reading the manual than you can by playing the tutorial, so I really don't mind when games dispense with the tutorial.
I think the perfect example of doing it wrong is Oblivion. I really don't want to sit through an hour of heavily scripted sewer level every time I make a new character.
Although I always used to like reading them, I can kind of see why they're thinning out somewhat and deviating to the basics. If they can explain everything they need to in the tutorial, then why not save money on paper? Might seem a bit stingy, but we are talking businesses here.
Not that I'm saying there's no place for them, stuff like the aforementioned Frontier short stories (that weren't in my copy of the game, but I did get it in a cheapo compilation years later) or the hilarious little comic strips I remember there being in the Sam & Max manual (and damnit, I lost it years ago and never found it again) are all cool, but I'd still ultimately sacrifice them for a quality game. Does this make me soulless inside?
Not that I'm saying there's no place for them, stuff like the aforementioned Frontier short stories (that weren't in my copy of the game, but I did get it in a cheapo compilation years later) or the hilarious little comic strips I remember there being in the Sam & Max manual (and damnit, I lost it years ago and never found it again) are all cool, but I'd still ultimately sacrifice them for a quality game. Does this make me soulless inside?
Modern games should always have a tutorial inside of them. Heck, some even have that tutorial referable to at any time. This kind of eliminates the need for a manual at all.
However, I think this leaves more room in manuals for enthusiast stuff, like concept art and making-of information. Sure, collectors are a niche population, but if you're going to include a manual anyway (which at this point is done for little more than tradition), you may as well make it something special.
However, I think this leaves more room in manuals for enthusiast stuff, like concept art and making-of information. Sure, collectors are a niche population, but if you're going to include a manual anyway (which at this point is done for little more than tradition), you may as well make it something special.
Weird, I was thinking about this last night.
But yeah, most games these days are just a page or two with just a picture of the controller and what buttons do what.
I liked being able to get a little backstory on the characters or the world when I read the manual.
But yeah, most games these days are just a page or two with just a picture of the controller and what buttons do what.
I liked being able to get a little backstory on the characters or the world when I read the manual.
I only want game manuals in complex games, basicly things like RPGs or RTS were units/character types are different. Shooters by and large for example don't need them as controls are pretty similar in ever shooter game, and a short in game tutorial can just clear up any special movies/specifics.
I quite liked some of the stuff that was in the manuals. I think it was the Halo 3 book gave a bit more detail about the first 2 games which was handy as i hadn't played them before. By putting that little detail into the game manual it was easy enough to catch up with the background.
Some of the extra useless info is quite nice to read. Again using the Halo 3 book the fact that every weapon, vehicle and enemy was listed was quite a nice little piece of info that filled out the background a little as it's not really explained in game.
If games go the way of Mass Effect and have an in game codex that does the same role then i'm not to bothered though it would be nice to have the paper book to fill you in on the background of the game and technology, thus letting you get straight into the action rather than have to learn it in the game (a benefit to both gamers and designers.)
Some of the extra useless info is quite nice to read. Again using the Halo 3 book the fact that every weapon, vehicle and enemy was listed was quite a nice little piece of info that filled out the background a little as it's not really explained in game.
If games go the way of Mass Effect and have an in game codex that does the same role then i'm not to bothered though it would be nice to have the paper book to fill you in on the background of the game and technology, thus letting you get straight into the action rather than have to learn it in the game (a benefit to both gamers and designers.)
I'm pretty sure that they just started putting the manual on to the game disk instead of a physical copy. On steam you can find the manual under links in your library.
I quite enjoyed reading the manuals, although I haven't bought any new games recently (no physical copies of games, anyway). I think it's a shame that they are "dying out", but if people really want background info on the game a simple google search can fulfil that.
The only manual of this generation worth noting and reading was the Oblivion one, from the games I've played. AC2 made a good effort though. Before that, I read them all.
I read the manual if it's in colour, I can't read black and white when splashes of grey are all over the manual.
Well with the internet and in-game tutorials they've become a bit redundant. I usually don't bother with the manual anyway, I prefer to just jump right in.
Absolutely. I loved the manual to Earthworm Jim 2, because the writers went out of their way to make the damn thing FUNNY. No other manual I've ever seen has a page that lists the Table of Contents, the Table of Continents, and the Contents of Table.Hal10k said:
Hellz yeah, they are dying off. Being a retro-collector myself, I can go through the age of video games looking through manuals from every decade. NES and SNES manuals are especially nice. Coloured, with alot of nice pictures. The Megadrive ones are funny as all hell, because I'm finnish and they translated the manuals to finnish. The translations were clearly made by a fat american with a dictionary from the 1800's. Hilarious stuff. Nowadays, I usually don't bother to read manuals. This generation of consoles has hardly any fun manuals. Last generation had a few. The manual for "We <3 Katamari" comes to mind especially. Really colorful and awesome.
I'm pretty sure they did market research and found that no-one was reading them, so they cut printing costs and started sticking them on the disk (Valve have been doing this since Half-Life 2). Also, they can promote a green image by saying they're wasting fewer trees, shrewd dick-move though it may be...
