The Lost Art of Game Manuals

[Spak]

It may just be that I'm a bitter young adult, but I used to sit down and read through game manuals as a kid, since they either had tips and tricks that could help you in-game (although not too many because that's Prima's job), humor that the technical writers put into the manual to make it easier to get through, relevant plot information and character bios that you wouldn't get in the game, or some really cool art that you couldn't find anywhere else. I know the main reason for that is because half of the people aren't even getting a physical copy and nobody ever reads the README file, but it's a shame that modern-day game manuals look like this:

Spoiler: UMH3

By the way, that is the last page of the manual. The entire thing is 4 pages long, if you don't include warranty and warning information. In my opinion, that's just pitiful. It's all basic "here are the controls, now start the game so you can try and figure out stuff," and if you've played Monster Hunter, you'd think that this game should need a decently long manual for you to grasp all of the concepts. If you compare that to games that give invaluable information on game strats:

Spoiler: F-Zero GX

Neat little concepts to get you more interested in the game:

Spoiler: Pikmin

(To be continued in Post #2 to dodge the SWF picture upload limit, if that's OK with Minato.)

 

[Spak]

Villain background and neat art to get you immersed in the story:

Spoiler: Metroid Prime

Or a big honkin' 193 page book on all of the mechanics, story, classes, how to effectively use the UI, etc.:

Spoiler: Neverwinter Nights 2

Then the newer gen seems severely lacking in this area. Am I alone in this, or do you guys think that the digital age has taken away the beauty of a well-crafted manual as well? What are some of the manuals you remember being great, and ultimately what characteristics do you think define a good manual?

 

[radio silent]

Being someone who likes to collect games, I can certainly appreciate the value of a manual. It's not even that I actually read manuals much anymore, since games generally teach you enough (too much, at times) on their own, but they make a game feel a lot more complete. They give some heft to the case, too.

Thinking of it from the perspective of a publisher, though, it just doesn't make sense anymore. I imagine it saves quite a bit of money (not to mention paper) to just make a digital manual for you to look at on the system itself. Still, it's kinda sad opening up a case these days, being met with just a disc/cartridge and maybe a promotional card of some description.

 

[Synnett]

That was my first complaint when I bought my first 3DS game. I was greeted by a mundane, white folded paper. No manuals in sight, I was pretty disappointed to see that it was an electronic manual, even more when I saw that it was empty of any interesting content. Smash 3DS had this kind of poster manual, which was nice, but every other games had nothing.

Manuals used to be a requirement back in the days, and it added to the excitement of getting a new game.

 

[Plunder]

1. the internet got gud

2. cut costs

Unfortunately in-depth manuals and novels for inserts are gone forever pretty much. I'm a big GB and NES collector, really love the flavor art inside most of those manuals since they were completely unique and different from the obvious pixel art of the games. It was actually someone's job to make that specific art and others to plan out the manuals, a lot of the content is still only available in the manuals themselves, even with how all encompassing the internet is these days.