Video Game Manuals - Do We Still Need Them?

Last edited by Floex on Mon Mar 21, 2011 10:26 am, edited 3 times in total.

From time to time I see the subject come up about how manuals arn't what they used to be, fast forward to the present to see they are little more than glorified bit of bog roll. This got me thinking back to the 'good old days' and what manuals used to be like. Then it hit me, what a waste of time manuals actually are, especially these days. Now, I adore video game artwork which something like Okami I strive to find a book with highly detailed pictures so again there is nothing in the manual I need to see. The controls and help should be on the disc, artwork can be placed in a book, for detailed information I buy a guide book, where does the manual fit into modern society?

Video game manuals: A discussion

Game Manuals: Useful for reading on way home, or on the loo.

It's a lost art, frankly.

NickSCFC

I used to read them cover to cover in the old MegaDrive days, have too many games and not enough time for them now.

Floex wrote:From time to time I see the subject come up about how manuals arn't what they used to be, fast forward to the present to see they are little more than glorified bit of bog roll. This got me thinking back to the 'good old days' and what manuals used to be like. Then it hit me, what a waste of time manuals actually are, especially these days. Now, I adore video game artwork which something like Okami I strive to find a book with highly detailed pictures so again there is nothing in the manual I need to see. The controls and help should be on the disc, artwork can be placed in a book, for detailed information I buy a guide book, where does the manual fit into modern society?

Video game manuals: A discussion

Coasters.

I think this topic needs a poll

I used to read them cover to cover(not Mega Drive or Saturn ones as they were gooseberry fool) but NES, Game Boy, SNES, PlayStation and N64 ones were full of pictures and interesting tips/sugestions or story. I remember reading that the blocks in Super Mario Bros were actually the people of the Mushroom Kingdom transformed. So I guess Bowser got Mario to commit genocide :shock:

That was not in the manuals, surely? :lol:

I used to love the Donkey Kong Country manuals, as written by Cranky Kong, there was flair there that the MW2 pamphlet just can't hope to match.

I also got giddy when the Pokemon manual was called a Trainer's Guide :oops:

made it all seem that bit more real.

Nowadays however the manual is rarely ever read, unless I buy the game and have ages before I get home to play it in which case I will flick through a manual as a bit of extra hype drive, but I can't think of any recent standouts.

Some times its obvious that they really shouldn't have bothered - the MW2 one being a particular example especially the section detailing online play. The manual for White Knight Chronicles is also extremely poor with no real coverage of the ins and out of the Georama section. I miss manuals like the one that came with Baldurs Gate with tables at the back.

I was thinking something similar, the GoW3 manual is pathetic, I remember the good old days of Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator, which came with a MASSIVE book that basically told you how to fly a WWII single-engine fighter.

I love well produced manuals, but I can see why they're becoming increasingly rare. Time was, when a game just expected you to get stuck in and learn everything yourself. Now, though, extended tutorials and hand-holding make manuals unnecessary.

I can't remember the last game where I actually had to refer to the manual to learn the controls. It just doesn't happen anymore.

Manuals always used to have a hilariously gooseberry fool bit of fiction at the start, to build up the world the game took place in. I liked them.

Final Fantasy XIII's manual is sublime. Flies in the face of the 8 pages of black and white games ship with nowadays.

I think a big problem is that the games themselves give you all the information that a manual used to via tutorials and the like. There are very few games these days where there is any point in reading the manual when most of the same information is in the game itself.

Just remembered my favourite of all time - F19 Stealth Fighter on the ST. Came with a massive manual and aircraft identification manual and maps. More games should ship with maps.

I remember Turok in the N64 had a comic in the manual and everything. These days you mostly see to get a five-page manual with epilepsy warnings, the controller layout and bugger all else, all in black and white. Having said that, I got my copy of Fragile Dreams this morning, and it's full colour with character descriptions and everything.

PostRe: Video Game Manuals: A Discussion by **Cal** » Fri Mar 19, 2010 1:44 pm

pyxl-8 wrote:Final Fantasy XIII's manual is sublime. Flies in the face of the 8 pages of black and white games ship with nowadays.

Hardly comprehensive is it, though? Not really of too much use for those willing to dive into the game's complex levelling mechanics. If charts and lists are your thing as a JRPG player wishing to understand the minutiae of every possible weapon, spell, etc...it's pretty much compulsory for true FF fanatics to buy the tome-like player's guides.

Cal wrote:
pyxl-8 wrote:Final Fantasy XIII's manual is sublime. Flies in the face of the 8 pages of black and white games ship with nowadays.

Hardly comprehensive is it, though? Not really of too much use for those willing to dive into the game's complex levelling mechanics. If charts and lists are your thing as a JRPG player wishing to understand the minutiae of every possible weapon, spell, etc...it's pretty much compulsory for true FF fanatics to buy the tome-like player's guides.

Exactly my point. Alot of the comments have been about 'as a child', even if we had all those things mentioned today I still don't believe I would read the manual more than once

That's because today's manuals is gooseberry fool... How many of them are just 8 or 10 pages?

Useful with RPGs

Floex wrote:That was not in the manuals, surely?

Drove home at lunch to get the instructions and here it is:

Once upon a time, the peaceful Mushroom Kingdom was invaded by the Koopa, a
tribe of turtles famous for their dark magic. These terrible terrapins
transformed the peace-loving Mushroom People into stones, bricks, and
ironically, mushrooms, then set their own evil king on the throne. In the wake
of the ghastly coup d'etat, the beautiful Mushroom Kingdom fell into ruin and
disrepair.

With Mario using mushrooms too that makes it even darker :lol:

Video Game Manuals - Do We Still Need Them?

Video Game Manuals: Still Relevant?

Who is online

Affiliates