Do you miss instruction booklets/manuals with games? Old school/New school rant

[Tekias2024]

It's pretty sad how every new game now doesn't seem to come with a manual, that the devs skimp out cheekily let it players need to search either a badly drawn out wiki page or Youtube users who went ahead and made a video "tutorial".

I really loved instruction manuals that came with games when I used to buy them around the 90's to 2005 when I was into anything from Mega-drive and Nintendo, right up to the Dreamcast and Xbox. I had allot of the golden consoles and quality games were presented with a lovely case and fancy manual that I would sit and read on the bus home from the games shop, miss those times.

I wouldn't mind.. but I am charged the same amount for a half finished game now a days with no manual with more bugs then a nature convention. The manuals were the core of anyones purchase then, try to trade an old game without a manual back in the day, it would cost you a few quid! We needed to and could read about the game and get the information to understand the game better with a manual, at least I did anyway.

The presentability of instruction manuals were lovely, okay, maybe I am going to far here, but nothing says effort then a lovely desighned manual, especialy when I got them color and with great extra bits of art on each page. May never see the likes of the pasts golden gaming age but what will be hard to be forgotten is just how lovely it felt to buy a game and have almost all the information in front of you.

It's just a mess now, really hate to need to search online for clear information that should come with a game, tips, advice and etc that just are not included with digital game. That extra effort goes to us poor sods who make videos showing how to play games through tutorials were not even paid to make.

Yeah the gamers in this day and age are certainly duped when buying new games...

What's your thoughts?

Also add me as a friend if you wish :)

[Ailes]

I somewhat understand you. But the transition to the "digital age" seemed inevitable. Games these days are often very cookie-cutterish, or self-explanatory. There is no real need for manuals. Should there be any they are released digitally. And why not? Whether I read something up in a printed book or on my screen I really don't mind. It seems natural that older games needed manuals, because their design and controls were subpar and further away from being customer-friendly than today.

Fans will often come up with more torough and deep look-ins thanks to YouTube and the sorts. I think this is actually a good thing. You make it sound like it's a chore, but I suppose most people do this because they want to, because they are dedicated to a game and simply love the idea of sharing insight. Steam has screenshots, artwork, guides, discussions, videos, reviews, tags, workshop - this variety of user-generated help and content you could have never expected to find in your old days.

I want the devs to focus on the games. If they have to choose between one guy writing a manual and one guy doing some additional programming I want them to hire the programming guy. I've never needed any developer-created manuals in a very, very long time.

As for packaging: I threw away all the packaging when I still had physical copies of console games. Years before I did the same with my PC hardcopies. Now I mostly have digital copies on the PC. I'm relatively fine with that, the worries of data or account loses put aside. Art I can look up on the net. I can see the appeal of having hardcopy artworks in your hand. Often there are collector's editions or the sorts coming up with that.