What happened to game manuals?

[Formalhaut]

So, because I like harping on about it I'll use it as an example. I bought DmC: Devil may Cry the other day, and I opened the game box to read the manual, as you do. You know, get the controls, some backstory, some tips etc (I've never played any of the series you see)

Imagine my disappointment when I got the manual which was literally a two page spread of the controls, and that's it! Nothing else. Now, call me a traditionalist, but I like my game manuals. I read them all the time when I first get a game. Luckily, I ordered the DmC Strategy guide (for I never play a game blind) and that's fine, but it is irking.

What DmC did was forgo a manual, and instead have tutorials littered throughout the early section of the game. Their good, I guess.

So what do you prefer, do you like:

• A comprehensive game manual?
• A in-game tutorial, many of them even?
• A mixture of both?

Discuss the demise of the game manual, and what your preferred method of "teaching" is when playing a game.

[TrollHunter]

Meh, i only liked them for the posters that often came with them.
Most of the time character descriptions and the like were in the game so i saw no reason to read the backstory first. I dont miss game manuals.

[Shoeberto]

Big games cost like at least $30 million USD and all that paper adds to physical printing costs, especially if it's high resolution, full color, and glossy. They cut them out because it's cheaper to give a small insert and have online manuals. I miss them too though.

[Bubba]

This reminds me of an awesome post of Vivi's ages ago. Hang on...

The FFVI manual is tattered and worn. Held together by staples which strain to do the job of maintaining order and discipline amongst pages who've long since passed from bright eyed and firm bodied youth and succumbed to the rigors of time and old age. They refuse to waiver in their duty, though the pages sag and are filled with the wrinkles and folds which belie their years of use. The cover is long since lost, but those pages hold. They know their purpose and they fulfill their responsibilities so long as they still hold the message they were entrusted to give to whoever made the effort to open them.

Small hands held and turned those pages before dark brown eyes filled with wonder at what secrets could be discovered within. Eyes which looked on the works they contained with the wonder only a child could muster, following the loose flowing brush strokes that simultaneously defined the characters without limiting them. The colours and shades mingling and running together in ways which seemed to have no borders at all, letting them and the world they inhabited flow from the page to fill an imagination with this amazing and complete world filled with characters, places and beasts every bit as wondrous and magical as what those pages tried to convey in their limited fashion.

The hands which held those pages aren't as small now. There's less wonder in those brown eyes. But those pages remain ever vigilant. Waiting for the times when those hands reach out to them, that they may bring some measure of wonder to one who has himself succumbed to the same effects of time and is wearier than he used to be, if only for the briefest of moments.

I miss instruction manuals.

That took me far too long to find...

[Mercen-X]

• A comprehensive game manual?
• A in-game tutorial, many of them even?

Though I have fond memories of reading those lengthy manuals (I usually skip the parts about basic function, controls, and in-game features and got right to the summary of the game's premise), I don't really care.

In-game tutorials can be helpful, but for god-smurfing-sake make the bastards OPTIONAL!!!!! There's nothing I smurfing hate more than having to repeat a slow-assed repetitive tutorial when I already know what the smurf I'm doing. That's why I approve of the tutorials at the opening of the game (especially as an optional level like in Steambot or DoC). Typically, I prefer they do not appear anywhere else.

[Denmark]

In-game tutorials can be helpful, but for god-smurfing-sake make the bastards OPTIONAL!!!!!

infinitely quoted for eternity

[Del Murder]

Vivi's post from that older thread pretty much nailed it. I used to read the game manual cover to cover before I even started the game. I loved them.

That being said, I'm kind of used to the in-game tutorial these days and it feels a little odd when a game doesn't have one. Some games do it more obnoxiously than others, though.

[Quindiana Jones]

Vivi's quoted post is from a thread I made on the same topic. I miss them too. The lack of a manual shows a lack of concern for the consumer, and a lack of heart in the game. Strategy guides are too... clinical to ever replace them properly.

I'm fine with in-game tutorials, as long as they're done in the Dark Souls way.

[Skyblade]

Never had a manual completely read to death, but I have had a strategy guide I did that too.

FFVII. The poor little strategy guide is in tatters. No cover, front pages fallen out, tears, dog-eared pages, wrinkles, water damage. That poor book. I've memorized most of it (including places where it's wrong that I've made mental notes correcting it that will stay with me for the rest of my life). Oddly enough, I didn't have access to the guide during the first year I had the game (during which I beat FFVII probably twice), and yet I still utterly demolished it. It was a good, fun guide.

I love manuals too, though. The artwork, the stories... Fun stuff. Fire Emblem Awakening also came with just a cut out fold open page. But at least it had the Art Book as a preorder bonus.

[Pete for President]

In-game tutorials can be helpful, but for god-smurfing-sake make the bastards OPTIONAL!!!!!

infinitely quoted for eternity

Yes. YES. TRUTH!

I used to read the game manual cover to cover before I even started the game. I loved them.

Did this too.

I'm fine with in-game tutorials, as long as they're done in the Dark Souls way.

True. Unfortunately Dark Souls is the exception instead of the rule.

I really despise in-game tutorials that undermine your gaming knowledge and in terms of usability design; gaming patterns. It just feels ridiculous when a game tells you the left analogue stick is for walking. I mean come on. I know they want their games to be fool-proof but there are tons of ways to work around that without bothering the experienced players.

[maybee]

I used to love game manuals ! I used to use them for bedtime reading when I was little because I was a odd and strange child.

[Old Manus]

>That feel when you're PAL region and your manuals were an inch thick so they could be written in every language at once

[black orb]

Big games cost like at least $30 million USD and all that paper adds to physical printing costs, especially if it's high resolution, full color, and glossy. They cut them out because it's cheaper to give a small insert and have online manuals. I miss them too though.

>>> Cheap bastards, mass printing is dirt cheap and if they dont want to waste money on their ugly-glossy paper then use recycled one..

[Quindiana Jones]

It's worth noting that that's a reasonable excuse only for a select few developers. In fact, it's often the poorest developers that give the best manuals, because they actually give a trout about what they've created.

[DMKA]

So, because I like harping on about it I'll use it as an example. I bought DmC: Devil may Cry the other day, and I opened the game box to read the manual, as you do. You know, get the controls, some backstory, some tips etc (I've never played any of the series you see)

Imagine my disappointment when I got the manual which was literally a two page spread of the controls, and that's it! Nothing else. Now, call me a traditionalist, but I like my game manuals. I read them all the time when I first get a game. Luckily, I ordered the DmC Strategy guide (for I never play a game blind) and that's fine, but it is irking.

The last game I bought, Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, didn't even have a two page spread. Not even a card or anything. It's just the disc in the case. There's an actual instruction manual, but it's provided digitally via the PS3's XMB.

I appreciate a good manual, and as a kid I remember reading them all the time. I think I read through the FFVII manual more than all the others combined.

In recent years I hardly ever look at the manuals though, since just about every game has mandatory tutorials built into them now.

So yeah, it's not something that particularly bothers me. I would appreciate making the game cheaper if you're going to skimp me on things like manuals and case inserts though. In Sly's defense though, it's the only new game I've bought this gen that was released brand new at $39.99. I doubt the lack of a physical manual had anything to do with that though.