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Ubisoft Says No More Game Manuals
thsoundman writes with this excerpt from The Gamers Blog: "No more manuals? Ubisoft announced last week that they will be ditching the trend of printing instruction manuals for new games under the 'green' initiative. While no other publishers have jumped on that 'green' train just yet, it is likely that others will follow suit. Printed manuals have been part of gaming since you bought PC games in plastic bags. There have been many standout eras for manuals, such as the NES-era booklets to the manuals that accompanied Electronic Arts vinyl-sized game sleeves. Some may argue that the advancement in on-screen contextual commands and first-level tutorials have made the manual pointless, but is this really the case?"
When no one can play your game due to drm servers being down?
(come on, you know it's going to be said many times in this thread.. Might as well get it going early :))
the brown paper written in black with anti-piracy codes (remember Sim City?!)
how long until
They've been all but useless for ~20 years anyway. Contextual help and tutorials within the game are usually more useful and intuitive. If I need more help, it's usually easy enough to find what I'm looking for online anyway.
Nobody reads instructions. As noted in older /. articles, nobody even reads Terms of Service, even if they end up surrendering their soul. Instructions are always included in the game itself, and if they aren't, are fairly easy to figure out. I've never used instruction manuals, except for when I'm looking at character bios not included in the game, or artwork.
they plan on developing only simplistic titles for the brain-dead masses; instead of huge, complex, detailed games that demand printed reference materials.
Since games now ship without a manual I am sure all of those savings will be passed on to the end consumer, right?
I honestly can't remember the last time I used a game manual.
The only real reason I know of is to find out the control layout, but that's usually included/changeable in-game now.
I have not seen a decent printed manual for a game in about 10 years now. Sometimes they've got some nice fluff or stories, but as the writeup mentioned, in-game tutorials work a lot better. Having the instructions only printed in the manual is an anachronism in this day and age. Manual designers know that too, since most are at best anemic these days. When you download games from Steam you don't get the manual either. It's only an issue if you're attempting to play very old games like the original X-COM. Even then, the manuals are often available as a PDF.
I read the internet for the articles.
No, not "GREEN", more like "It's a helluva lot less expensive to just not print the manuals!"
On-line help in HTML or PDF form would suffice for a "manual" and often does in many games nowadays.
Besides, I have seen manuals get smaller and smaller and smaller to the point where they are really just a few pages of basic "How to install game" paragraphs and "How to contact support" *plus* two pages of advertisements for the company's other games, subscriptions, merchandise, etc.
Real men don't read instructions
What will kids read on the way home from the game store now? I have also found game manuals helpful in many instances where commands and instructions that weren't put into the game were put there. Not every instruction or tip you need to convey can be put into the game without breaking the flow. The game manual helps. Besides, sometimes they're really pretty.
Human beings are the biological version of Von Neumann machines.
...either in software form (nothing more fussy than html or pdf, please) or within in-game help, that would merely be a disappointment.
But what really going on here is that they're turning their manuals from a cost to a profit by outsourcing their manuals to BradyGames, Prima, and other publishers. I'm sick to death of paying for games which need manuals (rts/tbs yes, fps, no), but I'm only provided with a razor thin command reference sheet, if that.
UbiSoft wins. The game strategy guide industry wins. The customer loses. More of the usual.
However there are a few games, such as simulations and city building games, such as those created by the late Impressions Games, with vast complexities. Covering this kind of information in a tutorial is a little tedious and the beginners just don't care. It's really for the advanced users who want to understand how all objects interact. So, IMHO there are circumstances where game manuals are warranted, but most of the time I'd say they're not necessary.
So to be green they're removing the most environmentally friendly part of the product?
It'd be a much more green initiative to replace the plastic case with a paper and card case that could include basic controls printed on it's various surfaces. They could even go all out and switch to all digital distribution.
The last time I bought a game, it came on a plastic disc in a plastic case, surrounded by cardboard padding, packed into a laminated cardboard box, and then covered in a plastic wrapper. They've got a long way to go before that's 'green'. Besides, of all parts, isn't the manual the only one you'd actually want to have as a hard copy? I could do without the CD, especially with easily available digital distribution.
# cat
So now I am going to look stupid telling people to RTFM. I don't know, but RTFCH (read the F. contextual help) just doesn't feel as catchy.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
When is the last time that a major RTS hasn't had a campaign mode nearly entirely devoted to showing you all of your units and explaining the mechanics and trees? Starcraft and Warcraft 2 had campaigns where the beginning explained these things; the difference in newer games is the general shrinking of the portion afterwords that you have full access to all units.
I know that TBS games can be a bit more detailed and usually only give an overview, but since when is learning their mechanics impossible to do from playing rather than reading?
Even if I did want to read the manual, I wouldn't care if they got rid of the paper manuals in favor of electronic versions; it's the same information whether it's in HTML, PDF or print; one just costs the environment and the company less. There's no disappointment to most people when most people would use the amazing information machine in front of them anyway instead of searching for a manual that's likely not detailed enough to cover the aspect of the game you want to know.
How is that a loss? There was a time when the game manual had to fire the imagination a little, make up for the chunky graphics, supply a back story, or document some complicated controls, stuff that was difficult/impossible from within the game. Now games have all the technology to explain themselves from the moment they start, and if they can't or don't, they're in trouble. What's wrong with giving some game mapping companies an inside track, folk who do a far more honest job documenting the game than the developers, and letting customers choose whether they want the manual? Developers can leave the books to people who want a colourful walk-through, and make them pay. If it's one less "compulsory" cost in a boxed title, that's fine by me.
Matthew @ Bytemark Hosting
Paper manufacturers don't go around cutting random trees; they either grow their own trees or buy them from someone who owns the land. If people stop using paper, that land will be used for some other purpose.
Unless there is no buyers. By reducing the need for resources in all possible places there simply will not be a market and land that is unused today will continue to be unused. Supply and demand applies as much to land as it does to money.
They're doing this to save money, nothing more.
The paper is not the only thing involved with the printing process. There is a potential for real gains here. Maybe not a big one on the small scale that Ubi is doing it but it is part of the solution of reducing waste, like it or not.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.