User Manuals are disappearing!

[Xprimentyl]

Sign of the times, my friend. Hell, I remember that same feeling of disillusionment when Sega Genesis games stop coming in hearty plastic cases in lieu of thin, easily crushable cardboard boxes and when their manuals stopped coming in color in favor of black and white!

They did? To my recollection, that didn't happen in the EU, or at least not around here. Plastic clamshell cases down to the Mega Drive's very end. Notable exceptions like Sonic & Knuckles notwithstanding, which did come in a cardboard box, probably because the weird cartridge shape would've required a custom plastic case and I guess Sega didn't feel like shelling out for that.

Yup, sure did, right near the end of the console's life. I had a bunch of game cases that, after a few months trading between friends and whatnot, looked like a three-quarters empty soft pack of cigarettes.

 

[Maximum Bert]

I used to love a good manual one that I could carry about and read while I was having my breakfast or out and about or on the john etc. Wasnt long ago that I printed off the manual to a game called Fantasy general and absolutely loved the detail they put into it. It was a real companion piece to the game not just a dry instruction manual thing.

A lot of game manuals were pretty bad with little effort put into them but some were amazing and its unfortunate that they have not only been on the decline for so long but are now almost extinct.

 

[gsilver]

The Baldurs Gate 2 manual was sacred when I was playing it.

And things like The Book of History in Ultima 4 did a lot more as a physical item than a wall of text in-game ever could.


...can think of a recent manual that was any good. More complex games come with.a PDF, but that's not the same.

 

[Rangaman]

Just a question: Is it true that Super Mario Galaxy 2 came with a DVD explaining how to play the game? If it did, I am speechless.

Yes, it did. And a user manual. And in-game tutorials.

OT: They've become redundant over time. The only real purpose is expanding the lore ala The Witcher 3. Though I think that if we aren't going to write manuals anymore, maybe we should stop with the full-size DVD/Blu-Ray cases.

Spoiler: Perhaps return to this size

 

[Igor-Rowan]

Snip

About the cases: Basically what I'm saying, they want them to look like DVD cases so gaming looks more mainstream, but even DVD and blu-ray cases have no reason to waste so much plastic.

About the DVD: Where do I start with this one?
1. I get it that a 3D platformer has somewhat complex controls, especially with the Wiimote, but a 25-minute video explaining how to play it?
2. The Wii can't play DVDs, so what's the point?
3. The people who picked this up likely heard of Galaxy 1 and/or play that as well, so why wasn't this done with 1 rather than 2?
4. Saw it on Youtube after your comment, European and Japanese only, no wonder I never heard of it. I can see why they did that with Europe, but why Japan?
5. The case came with a manual, a pamphlet with the controls, the DVD, plus in-game tutorials?! And here I thought Mario & Luigi: Dream Team's tutorials were overkill (6 unskippable back-to-back, that would have been so much better to put that in some sort of manual for those who hadn't played the series yet).

 

[DeliveryGodNoah_v1legacy]

With most games utilizing the exact same control scheme, mechanics, and the fact that all the story is actually in the game itself, i'm not sure what the point of manuals would even be at this point.

With games still attempting to become more like "movies", the writing is becoming more complicated (in some cases) and voice acting more prevelant, I'm not sure how much mini-lore these games could put in a manual.

Artwork would be nice though. I'm still quite pleased with game cases that have reversable covers.

 

[Metalix Knightmare]

Good riddance.

Manuals became obsolete once developers learned how to make decent tutorials and user interfaces that incorporate things like tooltips.

I take it you weren't an NES fan, were you Zhukov?

 

[Zhukov]

Good riddance.

Manuals became obsolete once developers learned how to make decent tutorials and user interfaces that incorporate things like tooltips.

I take it you weren't an NES fan, were you Zhukov?

I have literally never touched a NES.

 

[Metalix Knightmare]

Good riddance.

Manuals became obsolete once developers learned how to make decent tutorials and user interfaces that incorporate things like tooltips.

I take it you weren't an NES fan, were you Zhukov?

I have literally never touched a NES.

Man, that's rough. See, the old manuals always had more to offer than just controller layouts. They would have artwork from the games, the story was usually in them (Not enough room on the cartridge usually), some hints for helping new players get started, little pages to take notes on so you could remember the tricks and strategies YOU worked out, and so on and so forth.

Heck, this wasn't limited to the NES era. This went on to AT LEAST the Xbox/PS2/Gamecube era. I remember the special edition of Halo 2 had it's manual written from the perspective of the Covenant, including their thoughts on the weapons.

Basically, they used to be a LOT more than the tutorial you've written them off as. As you might imagine, seeing all of this lost with a "good riddance" makes my eyebrow a tad twitchy.

 

[Zhukov]

Good riddance.

Manuals became obsolete once developers learned how to make decent tutorials and user interfaces that incorporate things like tooltips.

I take it you weren't an NES fan, were you Zhukov?

I have literally never touched a NES.

Man, that's rough. See, the old manuals always had more to offer than just controller layouts. They would have artwork from the games, the story was usually in them (Not enough room on the cartridge usually), some hints for helping new players get started, little pages to take notes on so you could remember the tricks and strategies YOU worked out, and so on and so forth.

Heck, this wasn't limited to the NES era. This went on to AT LEAST the Xbox/PS2/Gamecube era. I remember the special edition of Halo 2 had it's manual written from the perspective of the Covenant, including their thoughts on the weapons.

Basically, they used to be a LOT more than the tutorial you've written them off as. As you might imagine, seeing all of this lost with a "good riddance" makes my eyebrow a tad twitchy.

Yeah, I remember the old manuals. Other platforms had them too.

Doesn't make them any less obsolete.

When I want an art book I buy an art book. A proper one, not some cheap glossy little thing made to fit in a game box.

I don't think I even need to point out why having story content in a little book is pointless these days. Besides, anything written by a game developer is unlikely to be worth the paper it's printed on or the time it takes to read it. I remember reading lore in Warcraft manuals. It was utter dross.

If I want hints I'll consult The Google.

If I want to write something down I'll use... oh I dunno, maybe any piece of paper whatsoever.

 

[DoPo]

Good riddance.

Manuals became obsolete once developers learned how to make decent tutorials and user interfaces that incorporate things like tooltips.

I take it you weren't an NES fan, were you Zhukov?

I have literally never touched a NES.

Man, that's rough. See, the old manuals always had more to offer than just controller layouts. They would have artwork from the games, the story was usually in them (Not enough room on the cartridge usually), some hints for helping new players get started, little pages to take notes on so you could remember the tricks and strategies YOU worked out, and so on and so forth.

Heck, this wasn't limited to the NES era. This went on to AT LEAST the Xbox/PS2/Gamecube era. I remember the special edition of Halo 2 had it's manual written from the perspective of the Covenant, including their thoughts on the weapons.

Basically, they used to be a LOT more than the tutorial you've written them off as. As you might imagine, seeing all of this lost with a "good riddance" makes my eyebrow a tad twitchy.

You do know that all this information can be put in-game, right? There is no need to print it on paper for it to exist. All artwork can also be in-game. And some games do that - they give you an art gallery, others give you an in-game encyclopedia or a codex or something that has other information.

As for gameplay stuff - the hints from the manuals were OK at best but not that great at the best of times. Sometimes they were ever so slightly out of date because they were written and something was changed in the game or they missed some information be it on purpose (because it was assumed to be obvious) or by mistake, or they might be outdated with a patch/expansion, or they might simply be written from the perspective of the developer, when players find out that other tactics work better. At any rate, even then, that's usually the purpose of a tutorial and, if not, there is a very big wealth of information for how to tackle games - there is an entire website that was created with this in mind called GameFAQs (and I'd argue that some of the player-written stuff there is a lot better than what was presented in a lot of manuals), but there are a lot of other alternatives, too.

I don't see a reason for a paper version of the information you covet - it can, and probably should, all be in-game. Why do you need a physical book for it? And before you say "I like being able to touch it" or something to that effect, I'm not talking about personal preference - if it's the actual content you want, then the format should not matter.

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

I miss them too. I bought Hyper Light Drifter recently and was pretty disappointed there was zero in the way of a manual, or a tutorial, or a basic explanation of who I am and what the hell I am doing. This really never got explained by the end either, and sure I can look on the wiki for this stuff but when Dark Souls is practically drowning me in exposition by comparison you've not done your story any favors.