HOUSEKEEPING'S PROFILE

I think you're underestimating the tangible quality of a manual, Shinan. This kind of thing has a sense of ownership that people cherish--especially those who enjoy collecting. I'm fine with not having a manual, too, but that sense of ownership is why people would fight you over that point.

Haha, yeah, and the protagonist is always some scrappy 5'8 kid. Every manual made me feel like a hulking, fat American.

Someone earlier in the thread mentioned how they'd get pumped up by reading the manual on the drive home, which I'll admit I did, too. The playstation version of the Lunar games stick out in my memory for having some pretty cool manuals, along with a bunch of other bonus stuff that made the game feel special (though anyone who wore that pendant that came with one of them might as well have been wearing a sign that said "please punch here"). I think it's pretty clear, though, that games are moving towards digital-only, so losing manuals is almost an inevitability. Too, including the manual increases the cost of the game, anyway, and by the time you've bought the game, it's not like the manual will work as additional advertising. Chasing a nostalgic feeling isn't enough to stop the shift; manuals don't serve a practical purpose, so I wouldn't expect to see them other than the occasional .pdf. But, even then, people don't want a .pdf--they want the physical manual because of nostalgia and a sense of ownership. It's the same as vinyl records.

Yeah, I'd agree that there are better films for sure. There Will Be Blood is probably my favorite film, and it doesn't have any significant plot twists. I think from the list, The Prestige and A Beautiful Mind weren't overrated at all. Fight Club, Shutter Island, Donnie Darko, and The Sixth Sense I can understand, but I'd still say they're better than the majority of films that come out.

Well, I haven't seen Prisoners, but as for the others, I'd argue that they're good in spite of the plot twists rather than because of them in a lot of cases. Most of those films have really strong character development, dialogue, acting, and cinematography. Some of them--like A Beautiful Mind or the Prestige--have plot twists that are necessary results of character development and are expected since the films are about a man with schizophrenia and misdirection/what it takes to be a magician, respectively.

The problem comes when you're making a game about, I don't know, battling your inner demons, and then your best friend who's made a name for himself by jumping very high decides to betray you (!), but then it turns out that he's just being mind-controlled (!!), and then you join back with him to defeat the bad guy only to find out that he's your father (!!!), but that's okay because he's just being mind-controlled by a moon man (!!!!), but you can stop him because you're actually a moon man too (!!!!!).

author=RyaReisender
Especially when you pretend that you got a perfect score on all reviews and consequently get removed from the super popular website RMN amirite.

It also helps to make memes from your own characters and use them in response to criticism because everyone likes memes since they're the apex of comedy.