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#2999800 - 04/22/10 11:05 PM No more printed game manuals?  
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Desert Eagle Offline
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http://www.thegamersblog.com/2010/04/22/printed-manuals-no-more/

Quote:
No more manuals? Ubisoft announced this 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.


I wouldn't mind it if they actually lowered the price of the games accordingly, which they wont. This is nothing more than another way to cut cost and maximize profit at the expense of product value.


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#2999801 - 04/22/10 11:08 PM Re: No more printed game manuals? [Re: Desert Eagle]  
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Raw Kryptonite Offline
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I rarely use them anyway, a pdf is just fine. The majority of them for the last couple of years have been worthless.
Most pc games I get are downloaded and it hasn't bothered me not to get a printed manual.


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#2999805 - 04/22/10 11:12 PM Re: No more printed game manuals? [Re: Raw Kryptonite]  
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I don't mind if its not a Simulation. I miss the days of Jane's big printed binder manuals. Those things rocked. Guess I can always buy strategy guides if I need something paper. hah


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#2999812 - 04/22/10 11:25 PM Re: No more printed game manuals? [Re: gallycadet]  
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Green huh.

What a load of methane producing material that is.


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#2999839 - 04/23/10 12:20 AM Re: No more printed game manuals? [Re: Wklink]  

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Why stop at the manuals? Ditch the CD/DVDs also for the good of the environment...

#2999877 - 04/23/10 01:35 AM Re: No more printed game manuals? [Re: ]  
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The PC gaming industry was awesome until the console became main stream. Console gamers don't read manuals ... probably because they're illiterate smile

Complex sims/games that require a hefty manual are rarely being produced since they don't appeal to "the masses".

I miss the days where I'd feel how heavy the big software box was to judge how good it was going to be.

I had to get my anti console ZING! in there smile


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#2999900 - 04/23/10 02:36 AM Re: No more printed game manuals? [Re: Desert Eagle]  
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Section_Eight Offline
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The ways games are going these days, why would you need a manual to click three buttons? Masturbation would be more useful with these reflex over thinking games...might as well ship a free porno within the games.

#2999950 - 04/23/10 06:26 AM Re: No more printed game manuals? [Re: Section_Eight]  
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ronzo Offline
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Never use them?!?!? I still have my original FALCON4 manual, still like to take it out and read it once in awhile.

#2999955 - 04/23/10 06:48 AM Re: No more printed game manuals? [Re: Dirt_Diver]  
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Robert Murphy Offline
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Truly a man after my own heart--the X-Box was the worst thing to ever happen to PC gaming.


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#2999957 - 04/23/10 06:58 AM Re: No more printed game manuals? [Re: Robert Murphy]  
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Well, do remember that little 30-40-odd page booklet must cost BIG money!! (God! the day where game 'manuals' are shorter than advertising brochures--and with worse production values--are almost upon us!)

As to that *.pdf file. Even that usually is staggeringly incomplete. (I remember when Microsoft stopped printing a manual for its MS Flight Simulator series.) The publishers just leave it up to the web to write their manuals for them, or to the consumer to print out 100-odd pages (few are anywhere near that long, and even those that are, are often STILL astonishingly incomplete.)

Great days for the Console Kiddies! Not so hot if you like a game (sim or not) with any degree of depth.

Robert


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#3000002 - 04/23/10 10:45 AM Re: No more printed game manuals? [Re: Robert Murphy]  
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I really hate how companies always try to justify their profit-maximizing customer screw-overs as "extended services" or "Green" or whatever the marketing buzzword of the day is.

UBI can totally go play on the highway as far as I'm concerned.


IMHO, the core of the problem is the aggregation and "growth" of ever more design studios into some massive multinational publishing companies, which are guided by one thing only: Their shareholder value. All the problems with consoles, dropping product features, raising prices, preventing resale are merely a product of the total super-commercialisation of gaming. I'd dare to say almost everything that makes gaming stink today is based on shareholder value considerations.

As long as those studios and publishers were smaller in size there was no run for the lowest smallest cheapest possible product they can deliver. But once people in Suits took over, this had to happen.


I'm not Anti-Commerce, Anti-Free Market or Anti-Capitalism, far from it. But the point has been reached were making a profit is put so much higher than any customer relation or coporate ethics that it makes me puke.

#3000019 - 04/23/10 12:02 PM Re: No more printed game manuals? [Re: Robert Murphy]  
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Originally Posted By: Robert Murphy
Truly a man after my own heart--the X-Box was the worst thing to ever happen to PC gaming.


Oh please, so dramatic.
Consoles didn't do anything to gaming. PEOPLE decided what they wanted to buy. Blame people for buying what they prefer, hardware and software alike, not the console. People dictate the market.

Don't know about you guys, but I didn't get a flight manual with any of my sims since MS Combat Flight Sim. I guess we can blame LOMAC FC, EECH, IL2 1943 and Thirdwire also?

I've got games with extensive manuals (not 500 pg flight manuals though) and I prefer the .pdf. I print what I need at my fingertips, no need for 20 bookmarks. I'm sure some sims will continue to sell you a huge flight manual SEPARATELY as they do now. Or maybe I'm wrong, did DCS include a printed flight manual for a Ka-50? I assume it came with something basic (talking PRINT here), but it looks to me that they want you to actually buy the manual for an additional $30 if you want a print copy. Where's the thread complaining about that?

The finger may need to be pointing elsewhere. If the most complicated sims don't even send a full manual and people don't complain about that, then why should the less complex, more common games do it?
Talking pc there, by the way. wink


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#3000020 - 04/23/10 12:05 PM Re: No more printed game manuals? [Re: Desert Eagle]  
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Originally Posted By: Desert Eagle
I wouldn't mind it if they actually lowered the price of the games accordingly, which they wont. This is nothing more than another way to cut cost and maximize profit at the expense of product value.


Actually Desert, the average price of PC games over the past 20 years has dropped or barely changed while the cost of almost all other forms of entertainment has increased significantly or at least kept up with inflation. I remember paying $60 for Falcon 3 and Aces of the Pacific each and these are 1991-1992 Dollars we're talking about which means a lot more than $60 in 2010. smile

For me personally, I only care about having a printed manual for hardcore simulations. I have the big ass printed manual for Dangerous Waters and I've read that thing through about 3 times.

For all other types of games though, I really dont care about having a printed manual. First person shooters are straight forward and in the rare occassion that I get stuck or need to look up something I go online and find it.

Last edited by PanzerMeyer; 04/23/10 12:09 PM.

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#3000026 - 04/23/10 12:22 PM Re: No more printed game manuals? [Re: PanzerMeyer]  
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Ah, printed manuals.

*deep sigh*

Reminds me of a time where a pc gamer was treated like a valued customer. And not like a potential criminal who should feel lucky that he eventually gets some crappy console port and who's regarded as a mixture of useful idiot and necessary evil.


Since I haven't seen a well-done, extensive printed manual in years anyway this "change" won't actually change a thing for me.


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#3000044 - 04/23/10 01:32 PM Re: No more printed game manuals? [Re: Para_Bellum]  
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I want to highlight what Robert said: "You Idiots! If you are going to give us a .pdf, then at LEAST take the time to put in all the information."

Hehheh. A real pet peave. Most manuals that come with the game cover 4 things: The blatantly obvious: "The START button on the screen makes the game Start." "The FIRE Button will make your gun fire."
The oh-so-subtle marketing: -Two pages dedicated to telling me what the next big title is
The Credits: - I know the producers have family that might care, but really?!? This is important?
The Legalease: - "Your software is not complete on purpose, sold as-is, with no promise that it would actually work on your, or anyone else's system. You forfeit any rights to hold, indemnify, sue, shoot at, or complain on any forum that we own, lease, sell, or spam. Blah blah blah..."

Truly the manuals shipped are WORTHLESS.
Haven't seen a manual in last 2 years that stepped you thru the (see previous rant) interface on how to connect successfully to another game in Multiplayer.
Mostly is the manual says: "Use the multiplayer button to join your friends online in exciting ____deathmatch games!"

*sigh*
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#3000047 - 04/23/10 01:37 PM Re: No more printed game manuals? [Re: Bill_Grant]  
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"under the green initiative"

Then make the mauals from recycled paper - what a load of bs.


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#3000048 - 04/23/10 01:37 PM Re: No more printed game manuals? [Re: Bill_Grant]  
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My last game with a worthy manual was EECH, or maybe one of the tomb raiders. Ever since, the manuals didn't serve for nothing. It's just like manuals for VGAs.

Last edited by Blade_RJ; 04/23/10 01:51 PM.
#3000050 - 04/23/10 01:41 PM Re: No more printed game manuals? [Re: Haggart]  
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Originally Posted By: Haggart
"under the green initiative"

Then make the mauals from recycled paper - what a load of bs.


You're just a right wing crazy kook Haggart. wink


“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
#3000061 - 04/23/10 01:53 PM Re: No more printed game manuals? [Re: PanzerMeyer]  
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That's not the "green" they mean.


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#3000076 - 04/23/10 02:21 PM Re: No more printed game manuals? [Re: adlabs6]  
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you really need 3 monitors - one for the game, one for Teamspeak and one for the manual


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