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Genuine Question: What Happened to the Instruction Manual?

zwanzig_zwoelf

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Reading is for losers, unskippable half hour tutorial sections are what's in.
Just half an hour?

The game is not good unless the tutorial is 30+ hours long.
And then you hit a final boss battle right after it.
 

SerratedBiz

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Some really dumb people in this thread.

Reading the manual was a great experience because the developers put in a truckload of work into making them well-written as well as informative. It was a way to get you learning about the lore of the game on top of getting you excited for the journey ahead, as you flipped the pages while riding the bus back home in giddy anticipation.

If you didn't read the splendid manual for Arcanum, or the FACS for the various Quest for Glories, or the content-rich manuals for Blizzard games like Diablo/Warcraft 1-2... then boy, do I feel sorry for you.

In the end, the problem is two-fold. Developers have lost the ability to write, but it must've happened in part because gamers were unwilling to read.
 

Chippy

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Some really dumb people in this thread.

Reading the manual was a great experience because the developers put in a truckload of work into making them well-written as well as informative. It was a way to get you learning about the lore of the game on top of getting you excited for the journey ahead, as you flipped the pages while riding the bus back home in giddy anticipation.

If you didn't read the splendid manual for Arcanum, or the FACS for the various Quest for Glories, or the content-rich manuals for Blizzard games like Diablo/Warcraft 1-2... then boy, do I feel sorry for you.

In the end, the problem is two-fold. Developers have lost the ability to write, but it must've happened in part because gamers were unwilling to read.

Exactly. The manual for Baldur's Gate was a great example. I didn't know anything about the Forgotten Realms, and reading the manual made me realize what I was getting into. Not just the creature bestiary, but the factions in the realms, notable characters, itemization, and the flavour/tone it set by describing the areas, shops, and inns available in the game - including the backstory of the characters that ran them.

But from a technical point of view, games still haven't got to the point where they communicate to the player what they can and can't do. And what the developer will allow them to do (like Sawyerism). I might get into writing a long post on this. In the Zx Spectrum days, there was a motorbike racing game - it didn't have enough memory to differentiate between the track and the grass/border. So you just pressed accelerate, and as so as you hit the invisible wall/track edge you didn't even lose any speed. So easy to identify there.

So bear with me here. Fast forward about 30 years and I'm playing X3:Albion prelude. There are contested/warzone sectors in space. When you're in the sector nobody attacks you. When you're out of the sector and send your ships in, every faction in the sector blows your ship to smitherees. Some poor soul asked why on the Egosoft forums, and it started a debate where autists were raging about Hitler and his war of attrition tactics in WW2 vs psychological warfare on the enemy, and how the enemy wouldn't attack enemy officers. Because of reasons, I think.

So is it a limitation of the engine, a developer decision, or a bug? Why not just release a sentence in the manual stating that factions don't want resources getting through warzones. Still doesn't make sense, but illustrates how the game works.

There are multiple examples in this game (like mining), but you need a manual as a technical frame of reference. It works the other way as well (as a poster above stated with the Syndicate example) in the sense that you need to know what the game can do.

It would also have been nice for Sawyer to explain his thinking.
 

Naraya

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On topic, what were the best manuals you know of / have seen?

I very fondly remember the manual for Guild Wars. I still have it (in 2 copies since I bought 2 copies of the game) somewhere. :) Colourful, glossy paper and beautiful illustrations.

edit: As someone already mentioned, World of Warcraft manual was also quite memorable.
 

Turuko

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you made me go search the old boxes...

like NWN was pretty fucking basic, B&W, no great illustrations only some thumbnails to show the classes, feats icons are low res
if you were familiar with D&D the only useful stuff was the DM and the online aspects
 

DalekFlay

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I only ever read manuals for "lore" really. The gameplay mechanics you're talking about are almost always explained in-game, and the rare times they are not you can do a quick Google search faster than you could ever peruse a manual looking for the answer. Nothing wrong with having nostalgia for big box releases, cool maps and 100 page manuals that were fun to look through on the shitter, but I wouldn't try and paint it as necessary for gameplay.
 

Alienman

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Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Codex Year of the Donut Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
The Close Combat manual was a damn history book, with descriptions and pictures for all weapons, tanks, etc. Was pretty darn good!

Anyway, I remember manuals went out of fashion after the release of the 360. There was a big push by EA (I think it was them?) that manuals were bad for the trees - oh no not the trees! So those things had to go. I doubt EA cared about the trees though, but they could probably save a buck or two on the manual printing and well, from there we are now in the dark dystopian future with no boxes nor manuals.
 
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Roguey

Codex Staff
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Many games continue to have manuals. You have to opt into downloading them.

Original Sin 2 has a 10 page manual. A two-page letter from Swen, a disclaimer with a health warning, an explanation of game modes, three pages devoted to companion descriptions, troubleshooting/technical support, and two pages devoted to controls.
 

lightbane

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Just half an hour?

The game is not good unless the tutorial is 30+ hours long.
And then you hit a final boss battle right after it.

Extra points if said boss contradicts what you've been taught in the tutorial and/or requires a specific build to pass you have no way of knowing without checking an external guide. As well as fucked up save locations due "technological limitations".

Reading the manual was a great experience because the developers put in a truckload of work into making them well-written as well as informative. It was a way to get you learning about the lore of the game on top of getting you excited for the journey ahead, as you flipped the pages while riding the bus back home in giddy anticipation.

The Homeworld manuals were awesome. Same for most of Shiny games' ones, especially the Sacrifice one
 

Eyestabber

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download.blog


One manual to rule document them all!

Also, a lot of devs nowadays just rely on the assumption that fans with too much free time will write a wiki or smt. Why bother documenting things when you can rush to bronze working and sacrifice fanboys for some sweet free hammers??
 

Dodo1610

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Look at old internet forums no one even bothered to read them, so removing them was a sensible decision. Aside from that, i wish that strategy games or simulation devs would make real tutorials again back in the game every game had multiple that explained how the game works these days you get told how to move the camera and figure out the rest for yourself.
 

Wyatt_Derp

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Look at old internet forums no one even bothered to read them, so removing them was a sensible decision. Aside from that, i wish that strategy games or simulation devs would make real tutorials again back in the game every game had multiple that explained how the game works these days you get told how to move the camera and figure out the rest for yourself.

What's your Twitter handle, friend? Perhaps we can share colors or shapes in funny ways that make us smile.
 

Norfleet

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Original Sin 2 has a 10 page manual. A two-page letter from Swen, a disclaimer with a health warning, an explanation of game modes, three pages devoted to companion descriptions, troubleshooting/technical support, and two pages devoted to controls.
In other words, absolutely useless.
 

Alpan

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Grab the Codex by the pussy Pathfinder: Wrath
We're living in an age of games-as-a-service, routinely rushed game development, and humongous day zero patches. It is not inconceivable for game manuals to get axed in the clusterfuck.

Also, the average lifecycle of a game is much shorter now, compared to the late 90s or early 2000s. Most people don't finish games, and only spend a few weeks on one before seeking out another game or move on to Netflix or whatever.

Both points lead to the same conclusion: Ain't nobody got time for that.
 

luj1

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A better question would be what happened to physical copies. I loved the physical manuals for Diablo, Morrowind, NwN, etc. I suppose the internet is to blame.
 

Eyestabber

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There's also the fact that games got dumbed down for the console audience so the manual became pointless. Just press the button and something awesome is gonna happen, no need to...like... read words and shit.
 

DalekFlay

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A better question would be what happened to physical copies. I loved the physical manuals for Diablo, Morrowind, NwN, etc. I suppose the internet is to blame.

Internet in a technical sense, but mainly consumer preference.
 
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Codex Year of the Donut
manuals were good for the flavor information in them, not for the actual documentation of game mechanics which should be in the game itself
 

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