Topic: Who misses game manuals?

I do miss the feeling of when I was a kid on the car ride home after getting a new game and flipping through the manual. Especially ones that showed you enemies and other characters. I love the Super Mario World manual showing each Koopaling. I would look at that one all the time.

@mookysam Nevermind the fact that most Switch games don't even have digital manuals either...

I hardly miss them. The manuals are now replaced by in-game instructions, in-game lore, et cetera. And the games are better for it too. I would pick the introduction movie for Odyssey over a game manual describing the story any day.

So, with all of the lore and tutorials being put in the games themselves, it is hard to think of a use for these manuals. Why put anything in a manual, if you can place that into the game directly? It just does not make sense.

I understand the nostalgia for some people, I remember those days fondly too. But you also have to be real and ask yourself why these manuals are not there anymore. It's not due to laziness from the developer or cutting corners financially. We have better ways to present it. Gaming as a medium has evolved so much, that it can stand on its own and we don't need that other medium (books) anymore.

And let's be fair... the less paper waste, the better.

All nostalgia for me but to be honest, I don't miss them much now. We still haven't found the right balance on tutorials - some games have zero tutorials and no manual so you have to just figure it out or they give you like three hours of tutorial missions you have to sort out.

@Kidfried See I hated the tutorials in SMO. I'm playing in this beautifully crafted word, exploring, then out of nowhere I get these immersion breaking pop-up windows.

Wish there was a way to disable those. Bad enough that every time I start up the game I'm shown the optional controls. I get that they are trying to showcase everything the Switch can do, but I'll never use the motion controls.
Completely overdid it in my opinion.

@Fight_Teza_Fight Agree, agree. In the ideal game you learn the game mechanics through discovery instead of lazy tutorials.

@Fight_Teza_Fight The video pop up tutorials were not so bad IMO, not many of them and they were over quickly. The constant control reminders that appear within a second whenever you stop moving is annoying though. As if you'd completely forgotten how to play.

As for the motion controls in Mario, I haven't really played with them myself (aside from the increased speed when climbing stuff thing), but in my head thinking about it I bet it's quite liberating to use the joy cons in each hand and make full use of the motion controls, if you can be bothered to get good at it.

@johncalmc @Octane @Radbot42 @DerMeister @get2sammyb @Hego @Tasuki @Gremio108 @Fight_Teza_Fight @andreoni79 @Dichotomy Thanks for replying everyone. What I dislike about not having a maual is completely missing a game mechanic! I would often read a manual after starting a game and see a combination of buttons or area on a map and realise Ive missed it.

@mookysam @ArkhamKnerd @Reanfan7 @Kidfried @RudyManchego thank you for adding to the discussion everyone.

@Kidfried @kyleforrester87 Glad I'm not the only one! The reminders and the dumb emoji's in the subtitles are my only issues with an otherwise superb game.
Anyways, manuals .

@themcnoisy That reminds me, I didn't know you could dive underwater in HZD until about 70 hours in.

@themcnoisy That's what Gamefaqs is for nowadays I suppose.

@Kidfried What're you smoking? I want some.

Seriously games are awesome, sure, but just because we love them doesn't mean that books "especially ebooks" should just disappear. It's a different medium. It'd be like saying that music should disappear because music videos are better or that books should have disappeared when movies and television came around...

@Tasuki Except like 70-80% of all games released this generation don't have a single guide written for them on Gamefaqs...

@themcnoisy Always love getting a map of the game world with my game!

@Octane uh? You can dive? Seriously? Wow.

@Hego Maps are the best. The maps and booklets in gta have been really good imo.

@themcnoisy Yes! The GTA 4 booklet was amazing. I was so hyped for that game and spent ages going through the nice chunky booklet and poring over the map. I love the smell of new manuals too.

@themcnoisy Yes. Press.. [insert button here].. when you're swimming. I already forgot which button it was, but helps you to avoid enemies that are on the shore. Not sure about the Snapmaws in the water though.

I loved reading about the game's characters, world and lore. Not to mention they could actually be helpful if you want to look something up about the game. Also, the weight they add to you case is satisfying Safe to I miss them, The Witcher 3 and Doom deserve shoutouts for including them.