Poll: Game manuals

[Necrofudge]

It's sort of a shame, but I never really cared about or used game manuals and neither does anyone I know. This may be the whole problem. Who's going to write up an entire textbook manual if everyone is going to either :
A. figure out the game on their own
or
B. go to the internet for answers.

 

[Nouw]

I always read it first, no matter what.

For me, the bigger the better. I was disappointed with the Starcraft II manual for being an Installation Guide and Story Book. Where's the info for the game HUH?

 

[bulbasaur765]

Back in the 90s I used to read them for backstory and character profiles. I still read them today, except now it is also for understanding game mechanics and etc.

 

[PhunkyPhazon]

They make for good bathroom reading, but they're pretty useless for most games nowadays. And hell, some publishers don't even TRY with them anymore. Just look at the ones Activision makes, they pretty much just show the controls, some basic info on basic gameplay elements, and then end it. Hell, sometimes the information isn't even correct.

So yeah, instruction manuals are not what they used to be. At all. But I have to give kudos to the publishers who actually DO put effort into them. The booklets for Dragon Age and recent Harvest Moon/Rune Factory games are actually very thick and informative.

 

[The Wykydtron]

It really annoys me how Ubisoft and Activision (maybe EA as well) just throws about a paragraph of backstory and the controls into the manual. Gears' manual is awesome, it has a foreward written by Cliffy B for gods sake!

 

[x0ny]

Sometimes, only even before the first playthrough PSN asks me to patch my game, so I let it patch, and I amuse myself with the manual.

 

[Faladorian]

I read 'em if i dont understand something, but mostly just when im bored

 

[Nexoram]

I read them as soon as i can, or if the installation is taking a long time on my PC I'll whip it out and devour no homo xD.

 

[Raziel_Likes_Souls]

Man, yeah, I read them all the time. But it wasn't until I got Okami and Persona 4 until I remembered what manuals used to be like.

 

[Bravo 21]

Yes, i read them. Ive since gone to being more digitally distribution oriented, but i used to love reading manuals. They were interesting, would give me that little edge, sometimes, and they take up time while the game is loading.

 

[Syndarr]

I love game manuals. I buy almost all my games used these days, but I refuse to buy a game if it doesn't come complete with manual, box art, etc. It is pretty disappointing when a manual is just two pages detailing how to put the disc in the console or whatever, but I haven't seen that happen too often. Maybe I'm just not buying the right (or the wrong) kind of games.

Oh yeah, also disappointing is game manuals with terrible spelling and/or grammar. Bard's Tale for PS2, I'm looking at you. e_e

 

[LandoCristo]

I used to like how reading the manual for some of my beloved Ps2 classics (Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, Sly Cooper) was like reading another part of the story. The manual wasn't so much like calling up a help-line as it was like a tutorial section. The manuals were themed properly for the game, often held comical jokes or useful advice not found in the game, and were just fun to read. When I got grounded I would go through and read all the manuals again because I wasn't allowed to actually play the games.

Seriously, where did that all go?

 

[AgentBJ09]

I read game manuals all the time.

The fact that they're getting smaller can be both good and bad, but I see nothing wrong with a manual that is thick. I still have the enormous manuals from Hexen II, Roller-Coaster Tycoon, Civ IV Gold, and both Diablo titles, and I still flip through them at times.

Actually, here's what game companies, especially RPG developers, should do: Get inspiration from the Gold Box games and make manuals a part of the experience of the game. If you look back at the classic TSR Gold Box games, they had a book included that contained background information and plot hints for the game.

And yeah, I know that was to save disk space since those games used 5-1/4 or 3-1/2 floppies, but in a way, I think this could make manuals more useful, and act as an anti-piracy method.

 

[Zhukov]

I read every manual I get. Dunno why though. Mostly out of habit.

That said, I get most of my games through Steam these days, so manuals are pretty rare.

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

I mostly just sniff them....
But I do enjoy reading the better ones.

 

[Ultra_Caboose]

I still look through most of my game manuals when I get them. I still have some of my NES, Game Boy and SNES manuals from my childhood and I love to read the story details and character/enemy bios in them. Hell, the manual for Final Fantasy 1 had one page of genuine instructions, followed by over 70 pages of a walkthrough through the first third of the game, complete with a full list of all of the game's magic spells.

Of course the manuals these days rarely have that kind of splendor to them. The last really interesting manual I remember reading was for Halo 2, especially since the normal edition had a "human" manual and the special edition had a "covenant" one.

 

[Pseudopod]

I still like and care about manuals, but I almost never use them for controls and don't read them before playing. I like them most for having interesting text and artwork that enriches the games universe in a more tactile format. A good example is the Cubivore manual, with this awesome diagram. [http://resetglitch.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/cubivore1.jpg] Sometimes game manuals have reference guides to more complex mechanics that are useful, too. Lately, it seems like more manuals are bare bones and I buy a lot of digital games without manuals, but I love good manuals when I get them.

 

[Tron-tonian]

May I just say:

Falcon 4.0

For those of you too young to remember, it came with a printed manual on how to operate an F-16 Falcon. A *complete* manual. Massive.

These days, you get a piece of paper telling you you're only being leased the software and what the buttons do. If you're lucky.

/My lawn is snow-covered, I doubt you're on it.

 

[ReservoirAngel]

I don't read them but I do quite enjoy sniffing them.

 

[PeePantz]

I'll flip through it if I just got the game and I'm on the way home. If I'm stuck with something and figure the manual might help, or I forget little commands that are assigned to the d-pad, I'll check back.

Oh, I'll thoroughly read them in the bathroom when there's nothing else to read.