Video game booklets

[Masamunemaster]

I have been wondering for a while now, why have they stopped putting books in with video games. I loved having a little book with the info for the characters, the controls, and even the story.

[Pike]

I don't know why they stopped doing this but it truly is terrible.

>that feel when you were a kid and you read the manual on the way home from the store

[Quindiana Jones]

I would always read the manual cover to cover before even playing the game. :crying:

[Formalhaut]

I would always read the manual cover to cover before even playing the game. :crying:

Because kids hate to read these days. Even today, I read manuals from cover to cover. What I have noticed is that manuals are getting shorter and shorter.

It's a shame really.

[Quindiana Jones]

Now they're typically just the legal jargon. Now backstory or information on the characters, worlds and equipment in the game.

[Faris]

:( It was cool to read character profiles and facts that weren't touched upon in the game itself.

[Formalhaut]

:( It was cool to read character profiles and facts that weren't touched upon in the game itself.

Does anyone remember VII's booklet, what with random facts like Birthdays, astrological sign, height, blood type and all that.

Fully expected a full sexual history as well.

[theundeadhero]

The reason is money. It costs less.

[Shauna]

>that feel when you were a kid and you read the manual on the way home from the store

I picked up Xenoblade Chronicles today, and it had a proper manual and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this thing on the bus home. Not often I get to do that these days. :(

[escobert]

The reason is money. It costs less.

Yup every cent counts!

[Bolivar]

They'll officially tell you that with the rising cost of game production, it makes sense to make colorless manuals, barebones manuals, and cases with a bunch of the plastic missing. I like to say people just don't care about putting that extra little TLC in their products anymores.

[Raistlin]

>that feel when you were a kid and you read the manual on the way home from the store

This! I would always open the game immediately and start reading the whole booklet. I miss that excitement.

[chionos]

Ah, the video game booklet. I used to keep a stack of them in the bathroom for poopy time.

>that feel when you were a kid and you read the manual on the way home from the store

Pfft, kid? The last time I bought a game with a legit booklet, I was 28. I made my wife drive home (which, literally, never happens) so I could read on the way.

[Jowy]

>that feel when you were a kid and you read the manual on the way home from the store

This! I would always open the game immediately and start reading the whole booklet. I miss that excitement.

Agreement on both accounts. Never wanted to ruin the manual by writing notes in the back though!

[Chris]

It is horrific that they've stopped making these. Half of the excitement was reading those damn things.

Screw this smurfing world. :(

[Futan]

I think part of the reason is back in the day, the games themselves didn't really have stories and you had to read the booklet for the story. Then as technology progressed, they remained as a remnant of those days until they forgot why they did it or, like others say, cost cuts. :-/

[chionos]

I think part of the reason is back in the day, the games themselves didn't really have stories and you had to read the booklet for the story. Then as technology progressed, they remained as a remnant of those days until they forgot why they did it or, like others say, cost cuts. :-/

I wonder how much it actually cuts costs. A few pages of paper vs minutes, sometimes hours (ugh!), of in-game animation, programming, etc. to do the same thing.

You're probably right about them being holdovers to some degree, but that doesn't mean they should have ended!

[Futan]

Honestly, publishers are right up there with telecom companies to me in scumminess. So I wouldn't be surprised if they just wanted to save that dime. :| But then again, they would have to pay people to write, print, and bind them. But still that's not much in the grand scheme of things.

[Mirage]

:( It was cool to read character profiles and facts that weren't touched upon in the game itself.

Does anyone remember VII's booklet, what with random facts like Birthdays, astrological sign, height, blood type and all that.

Fully expected a full sexual history as well.

Spoiler: Blood type is sexual history in japan

[Quindiana Jones]

It's just effort that they can't be arsed to put in. "Savings" as a reason for it is demonstrably false in most cases, as the companies who could do with cutting costs are not the ones who spearheaded the campaign into laziness.

[Faris]

The reason is money. It costs less.

Yup every cent counts!

They lose an opportunity get some ad revenue. Oh well!

[The Man]

I think some of it has to do with the fact that a lot of the info that would go into the manuals back in the day now just gets programmed straight into the game. A lot of games not only teach you how to play them these days but give you pretty blatant hints about what needs to be done to complete them. I don't necessarily think the change was for the better - half the fun with some of the old games was figuring out all the little secrets for yourself. Of course, the style of gameplay during the 8- and 16-bit era was so radically different (and, let's be honest, on the whole, less complex) that maybe it's no surprise games walk you through the steps of learning the gameplay these days, but regardless, it does seem like we're missing something these days. If nothing else, the colourful artwork that was often included in game manuals is sorely missed.

[theundeadhero]

A few scraps of paper, paying creating people to design it, artists to draw pictures, writers to write words, producers to actually make it, and whatever else you like.

[Scotty_ffgamer]

I always loved the booklets when I was a kid just as a way to go back into the world even when I wasn't playing the game. This was also the main reason I liked to get strategy guides as a kid. I enjoyed reading some of the jokes and random information they would put into some of the booklets. I remember sneaking games from home to elementary school just to look through the pictures in the booklet at times.

I will say that now, I don't really care that much about the booklets. That could just be because they don't seem to have as much in them, though. I'll still look through the booklet immediately after getting a game, but I don't really think about it when there is no booklet.

[krissy]

:( It was cool to read character profiles and facts that weren't touched upon in the game itself.

Does anyone remember VII's booklet, what with random facts like Birthdays, astrological sign, height, blood type and all that.

Fully expected a full sexual history as well.

i loooooooove this booklet
i still have it
the coveer fell off long ago due to strenuous reading as a kid

[Quindiana Jones]

My copy of FFIX was bought without a booklet, so I borrowed a friend's so I could read it.

Never gave it back. :radred:

[Aulayna]

The reason is money. It costs less.

This.

This is also why manual-less games tend to have a manual in game now.

It sucks - but well the quality of manuals has been going down hill for years now as it is and most were just "hey this is what the buttons are, this is how you use your console, this is who to contact if the game doesn't work, glhf." Some of the in-game ones are actually incredibly detailed these days.

But yup I do miss the old 16/32 bit days and PC games of that era too where the manual would contain so much lore and stuff - good times.

[Masamunemaster]

I always remembered going through every manual when I was trying to decide what to play next. There was never anything quite like having about ten to fifteen books and reading the story in every one of them.

[theundeadhero]

I still have my NES Legend of Zelda manual from back in the 80s,

[Slothy]

But yup I do miss the old 16/32 bit days and PC games of that era too where the manual would contain so much lore and stuff - good times.

Alpha Centauri. Can you say just shy of 250 pages? Because Firaxis apparently could.

[Mirage]

People are talking about the 32bit days in the past tense now? What the hell?

[Masamunemaster]

I still love playing the older games like they were brand new, and if I was old enough to get them I would still have the books from them.