Bring back the instruction manuals!
Posted: July 15th, 2011, 12:00 am
A lot of games are now being released without instruction manuals, including the new NCAA College Football 12. This is largely being done under the guise of being environmentally responsible, despite the fact that these manuals are small, easy to produce, and the paper is bio-degradable.
When I bring up this topic, a lot of people would say "who cares"? It's true that you can still play the game without the manual. But there are many reasons why a manual is still a good idea.
First of all, any kind of on-line help sucks. Whether you're using Microsoft Word or playing a video game, wading through menus to figure out how to do something is a huge pain in the ass. In many cases games use tutorials to explain the controls, but do you really want to replay a 15-minute tutorial just so you can remember how to stiff-arm a defender?
Next, gamers who were around in the 80's and 90's probably remember when it was fun to read the instructions. Some of them had interesting background stories or colorful illustrations that got you psyched up to play. Some PC games actually came with books that you were proud to own. Who can forget the humor in the Donkey Kong Country (SNES) manual? I love the color coded "game variation" charts in those old Atari 2600 manuals.
Manufacturing instruction manuals isn't hard, but putting one together does require some effort. You need writers and artists and graphic designers to make it look professional. More important, you need to have them coordinate with the developers so the manual does not delay the release. I suppose EA finds it cost efficient to fire these people instead of going through the trouble.
It's a shame because games of today need manuals more. On the main menu of any game there's usually a list of modes, and you don't have any idea what half of them mean until you try them. The sports games in particular could benefit from a good manual, since they tend to be more complex.
And please don't tell me "I'd rather have no manual than a bad one", because then you're totally letting the publisher off the hook. It's bad logic. If they are going to charge full price, you deserve the full package. If they wanted to knock off $10, I might be singing a different tune, but we all know that's not going to happen. You'll get less but pay the same amount.
Enough of my rant. Let's hear your thoughts.
When I bring up this topic, a lot of people would say "who cares"? It's true that you can still play the game without the manual. But there are many reasons why a manual is still a good idea.
First of all, any kind of on-line help sucks. Whether you're using Microsoft Word or playing a video game, wading through menus to figure out how to do something is a huge pain in the ass. In many cases games use tutorials to explain the controls, but do you really want to replay a 15-minute tutorial just so you can remember how to stiff-arm a defender?
Next, gamers who were around in the 80's and 90's probably remember when it was fun to read the instructions. Some of them had interesting background stories or colorful illustrations that got you psyched up to play. Some PC games actually came with books that you were proud to own. Who can forget the humor in the Donkey Kong Country (SNES) manual? I love the color coded "game variation" charts in those old Atari 2600 manuals.
Manufacturing instruction manuals isn't hard, but putting one together does require some effort. You need writers and artists and graphic designers to make it look professional. More important, you need to have them coordinate with the developers so the manual does not delay the release. I suppose EA finds it cost efficient to fire these people instead of going through the trouble.
It's a shame because games of today need manuals more. On the main menu of any game there's usually a list of modes, and you don't have any idea what half of them mean until you try them. The sports games in particular could benefit from a good manual, since they tend to be more complex.
And please don't tell me "I'd rather have no manual than a bad one", because then you're totally letting the publisher off the hook. It's bad logic. If they are going to charge full price, you deserve the full package. If they wanted to knock off $10, I might be singing a different tune, but we all know that's not going to happen. You'll get less but pay the same amount.
Enough of my rant. Let's hear your thoughts.