Death of the Instruction Manual

Shalafi

Shalafi

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Nov 6, 2009
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I'm really hating how instruction manuals with games these days are all really thin both for PC and consoles, it used to be that a lot of us (if we weren't in a hurry to play our newly bought game) would open the box, and pull out the manual first thing. I still do that, and when I look at the manuals of today, I can't help but feeling disappointed.

They usually have the same arts as on the cover of the game and usually only show you the controls and maybe a few other things and then it ends.

I was opening up my newly purchased Uncharted Drake's Fortune and it seemed like more pages in the manual were for crediting the people who made the game than the actual game.

Makes me sad when you realize how all the manuals over the last 2 decades were so chock full of stuff, they were full of storylines, character art, maps you could read in the book or pull out, or all kinds of other stuff.

It kinda sucks how all that's gone compared to how we had it years ago.

I know everyone doesn't look at the manuals except for the controls if they need help with that, but for those of us who grew up gaming and are in the 25+ year old age group, we know how good it was years ago and how excited we were not only from opening up the game box, but from reading each page in the manual.

I wonder if that will ever return.

This is doubly true when we consider that a lot of us get our games from Steam which has no manuals for it except .pdf files?
 
I am happy...there are very few games I ever cared to look at the manual.
 
how could you be happy about less ? Thats just a lie. You can not care but to say you are happy about it is dumb
 
Back in the day the manuals were a form of copy protection.
When you start the program, it would ask for a certain word on a certain page before you could run the program.
 
A good manual can be cost prohibitive to produce and print. I can understand why publishers taking manuals to the point of extinction, but I still think it sucks, yeah.
 
TheResidentEvil said:
how could you be happy about less ? Thats just a lie. You can not care but to say you are happy about it is dumb
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I am happy because I threw them out anyway....this means less crap being produced and less trash. I understand some people value the additional artwork and stories that come with some manuals but I for one do not.

That is why I am happy. Thanks for responding with a useless post, you are dumb. ;)
 
I miss it too. Made it feel like they gave a shit. I remember reading the Doom manual, all the descriptions of the monsters and guns and whatnot fed my imagination when it came to actually playing the game and made that much more interesting.
 
Well, instruction manuals are kind of useless with the internet being around and all....lol
 
The lack of a manual with Steam purchases is something that pisses me off lately. I expect at least a pdf or something but there's nothing.


It doesn't matter anyway because 'they' don't write manuals anymore.

The last bunch of manuals I read seemed like they'd been written by some random guy who was just given the game with 4 days to play it and told to write a manual on what he'd learnt. :rolleyes:


Seriously, what was the last game manual you read that contained real meaty info that you couldn't just easily glean from playing the game?
 
Ok, ok, guys, let's not continue the (flaming that's about to start between infect0 and TheResidentEvil) possibility.
 
I haven't played in a game in years that didn't include a tutorial mode, which wasn't generally the case back when game manuals were thick and pretty. Even if the tutorial doesn't cut it, game publishers (who probably typically have the contractual obligation to deal with the manual) can actually make money instead of spending it by licensing to companies like Brady Games. And like it or not, those kinds of strategy guides are way beyond 90% of the classic PC game manuals of days past.
 
spine said:
Seriously, what was the last game manual you read that contained real meaty info that you couldn't just easily glean from playing the game?
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Of what relevance would the answer be?
 
spine said:
The lack of a manual with Steam purchases is something that pisses me off lately. I expect at least a pdf or something but there's nothing.


It doesn't matter anyway because 'they' don't write manuals anymore.

The last bunch of manuals I read seemed like they'd been written by some random guy who was just given the game with 4 days to play it and told to write a manual on what he'd learnt. :rolleyes:


Seriously, what was the last game manual you read that contained real meaty info that you couldn't just easily glean from playing the game?
Click to expand...
Command and Conquer Red Alert 2 was the last manual I remember being worth a damn....

Oh and my all time favorite is when the game tells you that the CD Key is printed inside the front page of the manual when in actuality its on the back cover.
 
When I was a kid I used to keep the fallout 1 and 2 manuals in my backpack for occasional fun reading. They were super well done, and totally looked like a piece of vault-tec schlock. I lived in california and some creep broke into a friends car and stole my backpack. It was pretty heartbreaking.

It's pretty sad that manuals have gone out of style in leiu of the super small, more or less empty boxes we see on shelves now.
 
I've enjoyed every GTA manual that I can remember. Laid out like tourist guides, which is exactly how you feel when you start the game in a brand new city.

I can remember the old Fallout Manuals too, so much humour and creativity in them. Understandable that kids these days don't give a shit about the manuals, they've never really had good ones.
 
I liked Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade because it came with a fake Grail Journal complete with coffee stains.
 
spine said:
The lack of a manual with Steam purchases is something that pisses me off lately. I expect at least a pdf or something but there's nothing.


It doesn't matter anyway because 'they' don't write manuals anymore.

The last bunch of manuals I read seemed like they'd been written by some random guy who was just given the game with 4 days to play it and told to write a manual on what he'd learnt. :rolleyes:


Seriously, what was the last game manual you read that contained real meaty info that you couldn't just easily glean from playing the game?
Click to expand...

BOTF Birth of the Federation. Original EQ

ya been awhile But in both cases theyw ere well doen and extremeley helpful
 
all Steam games still have pdf manuals...you just have to right click the game...as far as their usefullness that is debatable...most games nowadays have an early level which essentially acts as a tutorial for learning the game mechanics and layout
 
I never read manuals to play games. It was, to me, more fun to find out on your own how the game works. That's just part of my personality.
 
I really wonder how many people actually did read more than a few pages from the manuals. Theres only been a few games that I ever did and I don't personally know any body thats said they did.
 
One of the best Manuals/Booklets that came with a game was the ones with American McGee's Alice. The doctors notebook about her was so well done. I still have mine around here somewhere. I need to dig it out and enjoy it some more.
 
The only thing I miss more than thick manuals with my games is a map of the game world! I play a lot of RPGs, and this was always something that I enjoyed having.
 
last one I really like was the witcher enhanced edition. that was a PC game, not a console port with dvd-size booklet. included a fairly long excerpt from the book that inspired it which led up to the opening cinematic and explained a lot. also included the soundtrack CD (meh), a cool idea was the included "inspired by" music that was inspired by the game. and of course a fairly large map that is still on the wall behind my computer ( along with a Sins of a solar empire poster and a batman dark asylum poster) I still read my Jane's Fighters Anthology manual which includes all types of combat manuevers. the Flight Simulator 2000 has a pretty decent manual and who can forgetthe falcon 4.0 binder?

on the opposite side you have additions and manuals which do nothing to increase the experience of the game. my biggest gripe is Spore:galactic edition. I bought it because of all the hype and excellent packaging. pored over the hardcover artist conception book, loved the hard plastic case. then I booted the game and was so let down. It is a great way to play with modeling for kids but I have Maya and 3d studio max. the gameplay got old real quick...

I do miss the days of manuals and "depth" to games. if no manual then at least do some type of intelligent viral marketing such as valve is currently doing with portal...
 
The manuals of the olden days are more akin to the materials included in today's "Special Editions" that cost more.

This makes more sense from a business standpoint, charge the same and not include a manual for all those that do not care for one. Those that do care about that stuff can choose to pay more for a special edition of the game that has it included.

It's always a little scary to pay the same amount of money, hell, more money, and receive less than you used to. Fortunately for me, I never cared that much for manuals. Thinking back to some of my favorite games, I did read them and feel slightly nostalgic.
 
well, the RPG manuals were definitely the most entertaining and some came bundled with maps that you could tack on your wall or put someplace on your desk or table, and you'd find yourself consulting the map and imagining what it would be like to explore those yet unexplored areas on the map but you see them already!

made you feel like you were in your room and never left it at all in your life and someone handed you a map and told you, there's a whole wide world out there, go explore it.

That was the shit, that's mainly why I'm reminscencing.

They need to bring some of that back.

CJRP makes a good point about special editions being bundled with special manuals or booklets
 
I remember the games that made you look something up in the manual to continue.

Pre-printed manuals are now useless imo. A pdf file is sufficient and/or a tutorial level. The rest is just figuring it out, which is part of the fun.
 
phide said:
Of what relevance would the answer be?
Click to expand...

I see where you're coming from, and for most games I agree, but some games would benefit from a decent manual.


Take the last 3 hitman games for example; love 'em to death, but they annoyed me because the precise requirements necessary to achieve the Silent Assassin rating wasn't explained in the manual. You just had to try to do your best and hope the game liked it. Then some guy in a forum painstakingly worked it out through trial and error and found there were indeed precise requirements like you can only fire one shot, only have 1 alert go off etc etc.

If the damn manual had just made this clear then the user would know exactly what was required and wouldn't carry on another 20 mins or so with a mission if they'd known they'd blown one of the requirements earlier on.


Why wouldn't you want the user to know this information?
 
spine said:
The lack of a manual with Steam purchases is something that pisses me off lately. I expect at least a pdf or something but there's nothing.


It doesn't matter anyway because 'they' don't write manuals anymore.

The last bunch of manuals I read seemed like they'd been written by some random guy who was just given the game with 4 days to play it and told to write a manual on what he'd learnt. :rolleyes:


Seriously, what was the last game manual you read that contained real meaty info that you couldn't just easily glean from playing the game?
Click to expand...

Civ 4

Some companies still know how to make a manual.
 
PoisonedPawn45 said:
The only thing I miss more than thick manuals with my games is a map of the game world! I play a lot of RPGs, and this was always something that I enjoyed having.
Click to expand...
Thankfully we still see a good deal of that. Oblivion, for instance. That's not a "recent" game, but fairly recent. Pretty good map. The Witcher's another one -- an actual cloth map in the Enhanced Edition (didn't pick that one up because of TAGES, though).

Publishers have lost sight of the importance of quality packaging altogether. A mediocre game can become a special and unique experience given the right packaging. Again, I bring up Oblivion: fairly mediocre game. Collector's Edition package? Absolutely fantastic. Bought two. Fallout 3 upped the ante (and it's a better game to boot). If they want to throw in the nice manuals with the $10-higher collector's editions, that's okay with me -- I just like being given the option.

spine said:
I see where you're coming from, and for most games I agree, but some games would benefit from a decent manual.
Click to expand...
No, I'm with you. I believe I read through your post too quickly and didn't get the right idea about where your question was coming from.
 
I don't know what I would have done if Street Fighter 4 didn't come with this manual I can look at while I learned to play.
 
I too miss them but, I think I know why they are diminishing. with so many in game tutorials it's some what easier to show someone what they should be doing I guess.
 
Syndicated_Death said:
I too miss them but, I think I know why they are diminishing. with so many in game tutorials it's some what easier to show someone what they should be doing I guess.
Click to expand...

you're absolutely right, things have been trending that way for the last few years, I can see how that's a lot more gamer friendly for some games, and those games that incorporate this usually reduce their manual to nothing more than a brief introduction and a button layout for the controls, and little else.
 
The Witcher had a nice manual.

Collector Edition games usually have the better manuals, concept art, etc. now days.

Any body remember the Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Night manuals? Those were small novels, and I read them during study hall back in the day lmao. Nerds ftw.:D
 
Syndicated_Death said:
I too miss them but, I think I know why they are diminishing. with so many in game tutorials it's some what easier to show someone what they should be doing I guess.
Click to expand...

Good manuals were never about teaching the gameplay or controls (except for sims), to me they were more about filling in the story, background and lore of the gameworld. If you have Warcraft 3 or TFT, it's great just to read the story and intro of any of the races.
 
they keep cutting corners and giving us less. the original everquest came with a cloth map, back then you actually had to use it because it was the only image of the world you had. no in game maps, no maps online.

or remember the old copy protection that just had symbols on page numbers, and when you loaded the game you had to pull out the manual and enter in the symbols on the page number each time you launched the game.
 
gesicht said:
or remember the old copy protection that just had symbols on page numbers, and when you loaded the game you had to pull out the manual and enter in the symbols on the page number each time you launched the game.
Click to expand...

Lol I liked the old game manuals but that just sounds annoying :p.
 
spine said:
The lack of a manual with Steam purchases is something that pisses me off lately. I expect at least a pdf or something but there's nothing.


It doesn't matter anyway because 'they' don't write manuals anymore.

The last bunch of manuals I read seemed like they'd been written by some random guy who was just given the game with 4 days to play it and told to write a manual on what he'd learnt. :rolleyes:


Seriously, what was the last game manual you read that contained real meaty info that you couldn't just easily glean from playing the game?
Click to expand...

688(i) Hunter Killer, and that was a while ago
 
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