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Genuine Question: What Happened to the Instruction Manual?

Chippy

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I'm a bit of a nerd. I know nobody else does, but I read the fucking gaming manual. Or I used to until they stopped printing them and selling physical games. Thanks Greta.

I can pretty much work out games now, but there's just stuff that may slip under the radar. Take Kingmaker for example: where's the list of Barbarian powers that made it into the game? "On the wiki fucktard!" I hear you answer. Yes, but is that being updated all the time per patch?.

Remember when the NWN manual gave you a list of all the feats in the game?. I'm playing X3: Albion atm, and there's stuff I'm trying to do; but there's so many of theses games in the series, and so many assholes trying to help on the internet with guides, and then factor in the official bonus packs that added stuff...and you've got no chance.

They added a mining feature in the bonus pack. Ok, great. How does it work?. The Steam game page has: discussion, guide, support, community tabs. Ok - show me the manual. Show me the instructions for how to use the features you just added to the game.

Why are features that the previous game had missing in this one? What feature have you added to this one?. All that stuff.

/End rant. But the world is in decline. Somebody has to keep a record of this stuff for future generations.
 
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I don't miss them much. They were really nice for old-school games (like Fallout), stylized and such, but nowadays? I would say for that special game you love as part of some Gold edition, why not.

But I would prefer for devs to actually have the manual inside the game - New Game, Load Game, Manual, Options, Exit. Make it nice, updated and available anytime. No alt-tabbing, pdf, Steam community, wiki, etc. If you do not understand something, hit Esc and click Manual, search and learn. Nice, simple and does not get you out of the game.
 

Unkillable Cat

LEST WE FORGET
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Codex 2014 Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy
Manuals became mostly redundant with the arrival of better game design. A large chunk of a manual is about explaining the game and how it works. This can easily be integrated into a decently-made game to the point that it feels seamless. An optional tutorial has proven to be the best method.

Only one role of the old-school manual is still relevant and may be needed today, and that's as a source of reference material: A list of in-game feats, abilities, skills, units, enemies, weapons, etc. There are games that need this, and it should both be available and be kept up-to-date. Obviously it's redundant to ask that a manual be re-printed every time it's updated so having it digital is a more preferable solution, like a simple PDF file bundled with the game.

The problem with manuals either being useless or outdated can be blamed on only one source: Incompetent devs. It's their job to provide the documentation and keep it up-to-date, not the fans. Most games shouldn't need a wiki to begin with, but it's the case of the ones that really badly need one that this becomes so obvious.
 

Unkillable Cat

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Codex 2014 Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy
I've been playing games since 80's.

The only manuals I've ever read were the Fallouts (for the cooking recipes) and Frontier: Elite II (since it came with a novel).

In Star Control 2 you can zoom in and out on the starmap by using the + and - keys.

In Syndicate you can self-destruct your agents by pressing CTRL+D (as long as they have a Tech 2+ Torso upgrade).

In both Ultima Underworld games you activate the Tracking ability by pressing F9.

These snippets of info are only found in the manuals, they are never referenced in-game.

And let me tell you: There will be too many veteran Codexers who swear by some/all of these games (because they played them when they were new(ish)) who will read this post and realize they just learned something new about their favorite games.

Because they didn't RTFM.

(Kudos to them if they own up to it.)

On the topic of novellas in manuals: They occurred regularly up until about the turn of the millenum because technologial restrictions prevented the games from including the narration/extra material within themselves. Other games I recall that included novellas were Starglider 2, Xenomorph, Hired Guns and Stonekeep, just to name a few. Ultima games naturally came with extra manuals just to get all the relevant lore and backstory across to the player. In all these cases they couldn't get the game to 'get you in the mood' so they had to use the tried and tested method of having people stare at strange symbols on processed tree corpses so that they would hallucinate vividly.
 

Beastro

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I've been playing games since 80's.

The only manuals I've ever read were the Fallouts (for the cooking recipes) and Frontier: Elite II (since it came with a novel).

Manuals were fun to read back then to get you psyched and sucked into the game before you played.

Sometimes I'd bring a bunch to bed when I was little and go through em for the fun of it.
 

Gerrard

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Remember when the NWN manual gave you a list of all the feats in the game?
Yeah, and it had a bunch of errors because the manual was sent to print before the game was finalized.
Information like that should be available within the game itself.
 

Dexter

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I liked/loved manuals back in the day and read some of them like the Ultima Online or WarCraft 3 one at length and was enthused by the pretty pictures, graphs and everything, but in 95% of cases it's better to explain how something works in the actual game instead of printing it in a manual, because 98% of the people who buy your product won't bother reading it, they want to start and play a game and not spend an hour reading how it might work, especially in an environment where they have thousands of games available to them at the click of a button. So I can't say I miss them that much.
 

Norfleet

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Games these days are too dumbed down and popamole to need them. And no veteran sea dog needs a manual, anyway.
 

J_C

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To be honest, I don't really miss the manuals. When I buy an old game on GOG, which has a hefty manual included, I only skimp through the manual to check out the controls, and the basic gameplay. And these things are included in the ingame tutorials of modern games. Maybe it's decline from me, but games take up a long time anyway, I don't want to waste more time to read dozens of pages about lore and characters.

Back in the days, when installing a game could took almost an hour, manuals were a great way to get familiar with the game while it installed. Nowadays it's much faster, and most of the information you need is included in the game. So meh, I don't need them.

Obviously if I don't understand something I reference the manual, but it happens rarely because I'm h4rdc0r3!
 
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Haba

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I've been playing games since 80's.

The only manuals I've ever read were the Fallouts (for the cooking recipes) and Frontier: Elite II (since it came with a novel).

In Star Control 2 you can zoom in and out on the starmap by using the + and - keys.

In Syndicate you can self-destruct your agents by pressing CTRL+D (as long as they have a Tech 2+ Torso upgrade).

In both Ultima Underworld games you activate the Tracking ability by pressing F9.

I figured out all of the above without manuals (my Syndicate didn't *ahem* ship with a manual). Hell, I learned to play games and operate Workbench when I didn't even speak English.

Of course later on manuals became a convenient way to check some detail or another, if necessary, but actually reading them from cover to cover... nah.
 

Curratum

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People learned how to design games that don't rely on reading external material to teach you how to play, is what happened, you backward, rose-tinted-glasses-wearing fuckwads.
 

abija

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Publishers don't feel the need to "pad" the perceived value and there are many ways to expose that information digitally. From pdf to in game encyclopedias and even extreme handholding tutorials.
 

JarlFrank

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Tooltips > Manuals when it comes to explaining how the game works.

But manuals were cool for the flavor stuff in them.
 

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