WHAT HAPPENED TO MANUALS?

Reading the manual on the way home from the store was half the fun.

/me lived an hour away from the city as a kid

Back in the days, reading the manual was like foreplay. It got you in the mood for the "real thing".

I'm impartial to the Manuals vs Tutorials discussion. I think both have their place. But as a Graphic Designer I loooove manuals. I, too, often make an effort to get one when buying used games and whatnot, but a few times I've had to settle for a PDF copy and haaaate those, specially if they're formatted like Word documents and are not actual scans (WTH?)...

If I ever complete a game (unlikely) I'll make sure to make manual as well, for any romantics out there who'd like to have buy a copy. xD

I seem to be in the minority here, but I'm pretty glad that we no longer use giant walls of noninteractive text with static images as the very first impression a player gets about our game. There are things that games used to do and don't any more that I think are tragic losses, but instruction manuals are not one of them.

author=alterego
I'm impartial to the Manuals vs Tutorials discussion. I think both have their place. But as a Graphic Designer I loooove manuals. I, too, often make an effort to get one when buying used games and whatnot, but a few times I've had to settle for a PDF copy and haaaate those, specially if they're formatted like Word documents and are not actual scans (WTH?)...

If I ever complete a game (unlikely) I'll make sure to make manual as well, for any romantics out there who'd like to have buy a copy. xD

This this this.
I want manuals in games since usually they have bonus art and some lore stuff they can't add into the game. I miss them ;~;

I always loved reading manuals as a way to get a feel for a game, to help get into the mindset of it before playing. I didn't tend to find the instruction very interesting, unless it was presented in a cool way (Like in Mario and Zelda manuals) or provided significant, in-depth strategic information.

In theory, I think in-game tutorials are excellent for instruction, because they let you learn while playing. With a manual, you have to delay playing, or stop and put down the game. This is inconvenient and not ideal from a design perspective. It also makes retention more difficult, because you don't necessarily have the right context to truly understand what you're being told. Learning while doing is much more effective than reading theory when you don't have the practical framework to work with.

Sadly, many tutorials are needlessly condescending, needlessly restrictive, or needlessly slow and intrusive - sometimes all three. I don't believe the existence of in-game tutorials is a problem, it's that they're often handled badly.

If you can manage to comprehensively teach the player what they need to know about your game in a fun and interesting way (either through direct instruction or by subtle guidance), without bogging down the pacing or locking out gameplay features, then they shouldn't miss the presence of a manual. Well, not for gameplay instruction, anyway.

author=Housekeeping
I'm fine with losing manuals, too. They never supplied me with any necessary information to play the game (nor should they), and I only ever read them in the car heading back home or on the crapper.

I pretty much never did either. Every now and then there were unintuitive mechanics that I wouldn't figure out on my own, but if they were important enough that you couldn't get through the game without them, I'd notice something was missing and figure it out (with the exception of weapon affinities in Vagrant Story, which weren't explained in the manual anyway.) Manuals were always written more on an "if you've never played a video game and/or are an idiot and cannot figure out a thing for yourself" basis. But I still liked manuals for the tidbits of information listed in them. It gave me a taste of the creators' worldbuilding abilities and such before I actually started the game, and even if I'm totally the odd one out here, I actually cared about stuff like the heights and weights of the characters (anyone notice how in JRPGs you could be a solidly built muscular man at about 130 pounds?)

I've read manuals during installation. It just seems like the best time to do it. Obviously, install times vary, but, I've definitely been staring at install screens for games that don't have physical manuals, and thinking to myself, "Gee, I wish I had a manual to read to help pass the time."

That's just me, though.

author=Housekeeping
Haha, yeah, and the protagonist is always some scrappy 5'8 kid.

Not even, usually. I'm a lean 5'8, and most of the protagonists make me feel like a musclebound bruiser in comparison.

When I was little and money was not a thing I ever had access too and games were only recieved as gifts, I would never read the manual. If I couldn't figure out how to play, I'd either give up and go back to it several months later, or I'd just try everything until something worked. After I started having money but still didn't have my own car, I would always hope for a manual in the box to read and look at (for console games). Portable games I would just shove into the system and play on the ride home.

As an adult, I really don't see as much need for manuals anymore, since most games now allow you to configure the controls yourself, so learning button arrangements and functions isn't necessary, and that cuts out three pages of the manual. Most game history and information is now presented in-game, since graphics and audio have improved to the point where cutscenes are pretty much required, so that's another several pages of manual gone.

The only remaining purpose for the manual is images, and a developer who truly cares about those things will include an art book, poster, figurine, etc. to the players. With RPGs, I still appreciate manuals, but if you need a manual to figure out Call of Duty: The Seventh Sequel, you should probably just stop playing.

EDIT: Somebody try calling the Nintendo Game Help Hotline and see if that still works. That used to be in the back of EVERY Nintendo manual.