I agree that some of the old manuals were great (but there were a lot of crappy ones as well), but there are some real problems with including manuals in games:
- Most people don't read them (and didn't even back in the day).
- You have to be organized enough to have final screens and mechanics and everything else worked out long enough in advance of shipping that you can print them. Remember some of those old manuals that had inaccurate or clearly out of date info in them?
- Distribution is moving to digital, making them even less relevant. On the other hand, this does make the 'far enough in advance' less of a problem if your manual is all digital.
- It's a less and less hardcore audience, who won't read the manual and if they need a manual to figure your game out will just toss it aside and try the next thing.
- The whole 'you open up the box and there's just a small sheet of paper and your product, which you turn on and go' thing is Apple chic. It's a nice thing for Apple, but everyone loves chasing Apple without actually understanding why they do things.
Not disagreeing with your love of manuals, but I think you need to accept they're dead except as premium bonus items like a packed in cloth map. These days you buy the collectors' edition and it'll have your art book which mostly serves the same purpose.
- Most people don't read them (and didn't even back in the day).
- You have to be organized enough to have final screens and mechanics and everything else worked out long enough in advance of shipping that you can print them. Remember some of those old manuals that had inaccurate or clearly out of date info in them?
- Distribution is moving to digital, making them even less relevant. On the other hand, this does make the 'far enough in advance' less of a problem if your manual is all digital.
- It's a less and less hardcore audience, who won't read the manual and if they need a manual to figure your game out will just toss it aside and try the next thing.
- The whole 'you open up the box and there's just a small sheet of paper and your product, which you turn on and go' thing is Apple chic. It's a nice thing for Apple, but everyone loves chasing Apple without actually understanding why they do things.
Not disagreeing with your love of manuals, but I think you need to accept they're dead except as premium bonus items like a packed in cloth map. These days you buy the collectors' edition and it'll have your art book which mostly serves the same purpose.