Will Game Instruction Manuals And Strategy Guides Soon Be Gone Forever Because Of The Internet? [Archive]

Alexander

06-01-2015, 01:26 PM

Hi Everyone.:)

Have you noticed that many new titles are being distributed without instruction manuals? If there is one included quite often it's very brief. I can understand that many games have built-in tutorials and the manuals can be found online but it's inconvenient. For what they charge for these games the consumer deserves at least that. I've also noticed that strategy guides aren't as popular as they used to be. Why lay down $30 for a Skyrim guide when with a click of the mouse everything you need is there and more. Do you feel that eventually, instruction manuals and maps for games will soon be history? What about the strategy guides? Will the internet kill them both for good?

Tanooki

06-01-2015, 02:32 PM

Alexander

06-01-2015, 02:51 PM

Sadly instructional manuals are dead, good luck finding a game with a real one anymore pretty much as they've gone halfass digital. I just don't even bother with that filth and just figure it out as I go along or look up a faq in sheer protest. They cut more and more out to reduce costs and quality yet the price never changes.Hi Tanooki.:)

The reason the prices never change is because the same folks who are complaining about the insane prices minus the book still buy the games. I admit that I'm guilty of that myself from time to time. If memory serves, Zap! asked me if I've ever bought a new game before. Yes I have but not one that was over $45. Where I live most new titles for the PS3 are around $49.99-$59.99. The prices are slowly going down due to the new consoles being out there now. The store were I bought the FF II has a legendary number of used games for sale. Call me a cheapskate if you wish but I will not pay $59.99 for new title when I can get the used version for around $40. If the game works I don't care if it's used.

Tanooki

06-01-2015, 03:14 PM

You're not cheap, you're just smart enough to realize like 90%+ of the games that hit the market, even the good ones, within 1-4mo will fall in price plenty enough it's pointless to get whacked with a $60 stick. I don't buy new anymore except in rare cases, or on a Nintendo game since they're historical tightwads that never drop a price unless a game tanks/overproduced (kind of rare) or goes into a players choice/select line of titles. My happy place on a game is around the $30-50 mark in most cases, or less if possible.

Sad thing is people have no choice if you think about it other than don't by the game and miss out, or buy it without some paper in the package. Most would rather still enjoy the game than punish themselves as much as the publisher.

Flojomojo

06-01-2015, 04:51 PM

Hi Everyone.:)

Hi, Alexander!

Have you noticed that many new titles are being distributed without instruction manuals?

Yes, I have!

If there is one included quite often it's very brief. I can understand that many games have built-in tutorials and the manuals can be found online but it's inconvenient. For what they charge for these games the consumer deserves at least that. I've also noticed that strategy guides aren't as popular as they used to be. Why lay down $30 for a Skyrim guide when with a click of the mouse everything you need is there and more.

Why indeed? Exactly!

Do you feel that eventually, instruction manuals and maps for games will soon be history?

Yes, they will be history, except in a very few, deliberate cases where they are sold as scarce, premium items.

What about the strategy guides?

Same deal.

Will the internet kill them both for good?

Yes, and to a large extent it already has.

Do you care? I don't think I do. Yeah, there's something sentimental about fat map books, just like there is with wired controllers, and ROM cartridges, and analog hookups to television sets ... but that's just emotion talking. There's nothing inherently better about any of that stuff except in the imaginations and memories of old people. The cloth map "feelies" of the early Infocom and Ultima games from 30 years ago are long gone, and we don't have need of crude copy protection like "look up the fourth word on page 52 of the manual" to justify large printed documents.

The other thing about games these days is that they're usually always evolving and changing. It's been like this for ages. Even 10 years ago, Elder Scrolls Oblivion had a bunch of expansions, each one rendering the prior printed guide obsolete. To say nothing of MMOs -- it would be completely pointless to make a static reference guide for them. Might as well print up last week's weather report for how useful it would be.

Ro-J

06-01-2015, 05:20 PM

Manuals an Guides are great if you have little kids. My now 8 year old loves studying the charts and graphs in my old guides (thinking Pokemon). Not to mention the reading skills that reading these guides and manuals can help foster (following written directions, using an index\table of contents, inferring from a picture, cause & effect, vocabulary exposure, etc...). In fact my old Pokemon Silver guide (and game) played a large part in furthering his reading a few years back.

I know there are FAQS, etc., on-line, but they've never interested him. He'd sooner just watch a Youtube review than read something on a screen. An actual physcial book, however, he can spend weeks studying. Of course between him and my 5 year old, my guides and manuals have taken a sizable beating, but I've learned to no longer care about "mint" condition.

Plus I get a kick out of watching him laying on the floor, on his stomach, reading an old Nintendo Power, talking excitedly about how he can't wait to pull a "new" game off the shelf.....but I digress...

Flojomojo

06-01-2015, 08:34 PM

That's a great point. I hope my little girl develops an interest like that soon. She already prefers print to digital, like most kids in my experience.

For what it's worth, Prima and Bradygames (both owned by Random House already), are merging into one and publishing future stuff under the Prima label.

http://www.polygon.com/2015/6/1/8700953/prima-games-and-bradygames-merger

The 1 2 P

06-01-2015, 09:17 PM

They cut more and more out to reduce costs and quality yet the price never changes.

First it was the manuals. Then it was the cases as they started making eco ones with portions cut out. Then it was parts of the actual game that you needed to purchase DLC in order to make it complete. And yet we still have that $60 price point. Next thing you know they'll be selling manual-less, case-less, disc-less digital versions for the same price as a physical copy....wait a minute!?! That's one thing gamer's should protest against instead of stupid stuff like the ending to Mass Effect 3.

As for instruction manuals, they have been dead this entire gen and the trend started last gen with companies making what amounted to a 2-4 page foldout. Strategy guides will last longer though. There won't be as many produced as before but the fact that they are even still around despite the ease of using youtube videos or gamefaqs guides means theres still a market for them. I will always fondly remember Best Buy's penny strategy guide sales. I use to clean house on those. But I suspect that strategy guides will be available for the remainder of this gen as well as next gen too.

Gamevet

06-01-2015, 09:32 PM

The Strategy guides are becoming more of a collector's item, than actually being 100% useful for tips. I still like to buy the hardbound strategy guides for RPGs that I know I'll invest a lot of time in.

The lack of manuals in game cases is not only cost cutting, but a way for the publishers to slowly groom gamers into buying and using digital content. The physical disc for a PC game nowadays is pretty much just a key to the digital distribution network the publisher uses for their games, and it won't be long before the consoles start heading that way.

Tanooki

06-01-2015, 10:22 PM

First it was the manuals. Then it was the cases as they started making eco ones with portions cut out. Then it was parts of the actual game that you needed to purchase DLC in order to make it complete. And yet we still have that $60 price point. Next thing you know they'll be selling manual-less, case-less, disc-less digital versions for the same price as a physical copy....wait a minute!?! That's one thing gamer's should protest against instead of stupid stuff like the ending to Mass Effect 3.

The word I was told for years now from my brother is the following and not a direct quote on what you said last there. People who don't convert to digital only are people we don't want to sell games to as they're fossils, out of date, and will die off and be replaced. Furthermore, supposedly out of the kindness of their hearts once physical media is dead they'll start pricing games around 1/2 the going rate due to the savings from not having to do all that other junk with real copies of games.

Personally I'm actually inclined to believe it, though, it goes with what you said of the DLC bit. You'll get the full game (aka: functional enough to basic finish it) but to get the full game and full ending they'll call that at least a DLC package or two to get it back up near the $50-60 range. I dare them at Nintendo, Sony and MS to do it. The Android boxes, tablets, and the rest will put them in their well deserved graves selling dedicated systems setup just for that purpose to screw people when they can use existing hardware and get along just fine with a bluetooth controller and or bluetooth keyboard/mini mouse just fine without their crap. Due to the mass amounts of free, freemium (whale bait or not), and sub $15 games on there they'll be forced well away from the $50-60 mark or end up dead too. A good way to clean house of all the filth that has really screwed up the gaming development budgets of the last decade.

06-01-2015, 10:28 PM

Up until about a year or so ago I owned a grand total of 4 strategy guides; an unauthorized DOOM guide, Earthworm Jim, Bushido Blade, and Mortal Kombat: Sub-Zero Mythologies, which were all given to me as gifts when the games were current. The Doom one was cool, my Mom bought it for me as a gift to go along with 32x Doom, and I still look through it to this day. The others are pretty much useless but I keep them for sentimental value.

Over the past year or two I've picked up a few guides for 360/PS3 games at used bookstores and even then only because they were marked down in the $1-4 price range. To be honest I really don't understand who is buying these things nowadays beyond people buying them as gifts to go along with the game. They're outrageously expensive, nearly as much as the game itself. Most games today are designed in a way that a printed map is redundant, and even when it is handy it's not $30 handy.

I often hesitate when justifying a $10 DLC expansion pack or even a $20 game, paying 30 bucks for a book to walk me through a game seems crazy.

FieryReign

06-01-2015, 11:11 PM

People of today are just fucking lazy and impatient. Instead of driving to the store to pick the game up, or waiting a few days for a mail order from Amazon/wherever. They can download the game from the comfort of their couch. It's just game companies catering to our "needs", while pinching a few pennies in the process. Seriously, how much does it cost to produce a goddamn manual?

Games like Majoras Mask 3D and Castlevania(3DS) couldn't be bothered to include a manual. But they sure could put paper in there with all of those seizure warnings and whatnot, that are also plastered all over the back of the case. In the latter's game, they could afford to put a Club Nintendo pamphlet in there, that's completely useless not long after they started it.

Companies are too cheap to put an AC adaptor with their systems nowdays. An experiment that seemed to have been successful, so expect more garbage like that.

celerystalker

06-01-2015, 11:26 PM

It's all going away as fast as the big publishers can get it there, including physical media. Everyone has already articulated it pretty clearly, so no need for me to go too deep here. It's a simple case of controlling the license through drm and user agreements, maximizing profits by minimizing production, packaging, and distribution costs. It makes perfect business sense, and it completely alienates fossils like me and brick and mortar retail, because games are the profit piece in video game sales.

Aussie2B

06-02-2015, 12:33 AM

I don't even know what the state of paper manuals is right now. I've never seen a Vita game packed with one. Are there any exceptions? Some of my 3DS games have them, some of them don't. I don't have a Xbox One, PS4, or Wii U, so I have no clue if the games on those typically have or not. So how likely are you these days to get a manual with a game?

For what it's worth, when I start up a new game, I always read the manual first if I have it, whether it's a physical manual or digital. I hate reading digital manuals, though. It's more straining on the eyes, and in the case of handhelds, I don't want to drain my system's battery reading them (nor do I want to have to repeatedly push a button every time the screen dims). I also like being able to refer to the manual mid-game real quick if I forget the controls for a maneuver or something.

SparTonberry

06-02-2015, 02:18 AM

I love getting manuals but sadly I can see why they're going. Just like those cheap eco cases to appease Greenpeace or whoever, manuals were probably cut because probably 95% of people that would buy physical games just throw them in the trash anyways. :(
(then again, maybe a growing number left that still would buy physical games would be those in the 5%)

06-02-2015, 03:06 AM

But they sure could put paper in there with all of those seizure warnings and whatnot, that are also plastered all over the back of the case.

That reminds me of another point; when unpacking after a move years and years ago I spent some time going through my boxed games and looking at the packaging. I noticed such a stark contrast on 80's games when they would have just one or two screenshots (often blurry, oversaturated mess) compared to something like then-current Dreamcast games.

The art of game packaging is totally gone. All that matters is the front cover. On the back you're lucky if you get one real screenshot and literally one or two sentences superimposed on top of a character model from the game. The other 90% is legal jargon and epilepsy warnings in five languages.

I guess in today's market of media saturation where every single detail and nuance of a game is available before it even hits the shelf publishers have no need to entice customers on this level. The virgin experience of walking into a store and seeing a game you've never heard of and making a purchase solely on the info on the box is long gone. Games sell on franchise name only, pre-order hype, and information bombardment before they even hit the shelves.

celerystalker

06-02-2015, 03:18 AM

That reminds me of another point; when unpacking after a move years and years ago I spent some time going through my boxed games and looking at the packaging. I noticed such a stark contrast on 80's games when they would have just one or two screenshots (often blurry, oversaturated mess) compared to something like then-current Dreamcast games.

The art of game packaging is totally gone. All that matters is the front cover. On the back you're lucky if you get one real screenshot and literally one or two sentences superimposed on top of a character model from the game. The other 90% is legal jargon and epilepsy warnings in five languages.

I guess in today's market of media saturation where every single detail and nuance of a game is available before it even hits the shelf publishers have no need to entice customers on this level. The virgin experience of walking into a store and seeing a game you've never heard of and making a purchase solely on the info on the box is long gone. Games sell on franchise name only, pre-order hype, and information bombardment before they even hit the shelves.

Truth. I do sorely miss those days of being provoked by covers. They had to capture your imagination to get that impulse to buy, and as an eager kid, those screenshots would balloon in my head into what just had to be an awesome game. I mean, there's been a lot of great stuff that's come from the internet, but I catch myself at times clinging to the vestiges of that enthusiastic innocence, hoping to find a way to translate it to others so that maybe, just for a second, they could see how amazing these experiences were to my hopeful eyes, long before I became the functional, modestly douchey adult I am today.

That might be a bit more dramatic sounding than intended.

Edmond Dantes

06-02-2015, 06:25 AM

It's not even just the screenshots that suck about modern covers, but the actual covers themselves are boring as shit, often being nothing more than just a picture of the main character, standing there, doing nothing.

Just for comparison:
classic box art (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventureland_%28computer_game%29)
Modern box art (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_of_War_III)

Yeah, guess which game looks more enticing to me.

Tanooki

06-02-2015, 12:06 PM

Going from AZ's post from yesterday first. I was much like that over the years, barely ever had guides, usually they came free from NP mag subs, gifts, or clearance junk like $5 level stuff. IN the last few years I've traded into or bought up quite a few, and I too have that awesome DOOM guide too (and the equally well done Wing Commander 1+2 guide from the same group.) I have quite a few http://tanooki.byethost16.com/strategyguides.html But like you, I'm not insane enough when it comes to peeling open the wallet to pay $20 let alone $30 for a guide, it's not worth it. I stopped buying most when they hit $15, $10 was good for me because text faqs for more open stuff (adventure, rpgs) suck.

Fiery is right though, people have got used to instant satisfaction and the laziest route possible so we now have no paper(manuals), thin boxes that fall apart with minimal plastic and thin paper, and now even Nintendo is screwing people with no power supplies on their 3DS handhelds.

Physical media is the apex of it, it's coming sadly. Once the network infrastructure is there for most areas that play games, kiss the discs and cards bye bye. It's all about making sure you only pay them and not a second hand person or merchant because they feel entitled to everything. It's all about the license, not about what you own, because then it's just a long term rental until a license expires or the network comes down as they won't transfer stuff for free. Even Nintendo could be seen as the first criminal act in that with their Wii to WiiU policy of charging like a 20% fee to re-buy your games on WiiU you bought full price on Wii. There will always be a charge either partial or a total re-purchase, IF they continue to host the goods. It kind of makes you not want a console or handheld anymore, at least on PCs, Android, iOS, you can just freely transfer your stuff and run it again.

Aussie: Vita has no manuals, 3DS is more miss than hit, WiiU is the same way, and the PS4 25% of my games have a manual/mini manual and that's it.

I totally get the box argument too, a majority of them are just a piece of given teaser art perhaps just a piece of it zoomed in with a title, and the back is more of just media catch phrases and garbage no one cares about because it's better than being blank. The other day at half price books I saw both the original (still new) Blake Stone PC games (CD ver) on the shelf for a few bucks. The hand done work on the front, the more art and honest game images on the back really drew me to it as it stood out largely against the modern clam shells and not just because the box was larger. They just don't try like they did in the 20th century as there's no point thanks to the internet and everything being spoiled so it's too lazy and costly to bother at the point of service box anymore.

The 1 2 P

06-03-2015, 09:55 PM

The word I was told for years now from my brother is the following and not a direct quote on what you said last there. People who don't convert to digital only are people we don't want to sell games to as they're fossils, out of date, and will die off and be replaced. Furthermore, supposedly out of the kindness of their hearts once physical media is dead they'll start pricing games around 1/2 the going rate due to the savings from not having to do all that other junk with real copies of games.

I've heard similar arguments but still won't hold my breath. Every time video game companies cut out another cost(the previously mentioned eco-cases, no manuals, digital versions, etc) they refuse to pass the savings along to the customer. Back during the PS1 days when companies started investing more heavily in product placement there was a story in some magazine reasoning that if companies started getting more money from product placement they would probably lower the cost of games at launch. Well we all know how that turned out. I understand that game companies are a business and the number one priority of these companies is to make money but over the last two gens it seems that they are making more and more money on things like product placement, retailer pre-order exclusives and DLC while giving consumers even less of a game. I'm skeptical things will improve that much once they go all digital.

I don't have a Xbox One, PS4, or Wii U, so I have no clue if the games on those typically have or not. So how likely are you these days to get a manual with a game?

Of my four opened Xbox One games(I have downloaded versions of the other sealed ones) only one has a manual. Only one of my seven Wii U games is opened and it has a manual. For the most part the vast majority of XBO and PS4 games will no longer receive physical manuals. Things might be different on the Wii U though.

RP2A03

06-03-2015, 10:40 PM

Of my four opened Xbox One games(I have downloaded versions of the other sealed ones) only one has a manual. Only one of my seven Wii U games is opened and it has a manual. For the most part the vast majority of XBO and PS4 games will no longer receive physical manuals. Things might be different on the Wii U though.

First party Wii U games either have a pamphlet or a manual that appears to be of decent thickness only because it is trilingual.

SparTonberry

06-04-2015, 10:06 AM

Back during the PS1 days when companies started investing more heavily in product placement there was a story in some magazine reasoning that if companies started getting more money from product placement they would probably lower the cost of games at launch. Well we all know how that turned out.
We did get a bit of a price reduction at some point.
I know SNES games usually averaged $59.99 in the US.
Not sure on PS1/N64, but I know in the GC/PS2/Xbox era new console games were pretty much universally priced at $49.99 but in the following gen 360 and PS3 brought back the $59.99 pricetags.

Tanooki

06-04-2015, 12:01 PM

Thats why I said supposedly with the sarcasm after it. I imagine the reality of it would be what it is now. Ever look at steam and see what new console ports cost? Usually it is same price at $60 or at best just $10 less and the most recentI saw the lackof a price difference on was resident evil revelations 2. They wont honor the price savings because without physical media they dont have competition from second hand copies.

CDiablo

06-04-2015, 12:35 PM

I know SNES games usually averaged $59.99 in the US.

This was NOT the case for most games growing up in New York City. A few outliers were upwards of $74.99 but the vast majority launched at $49.99.

Ever look at steam and see what new console ports cost? Usually it is same price at $60 or at best just $10 less and the most recentI saw the lackof a price difference on was resident evil revelations 2.

IMO Steam has never really been that great and on games >$20 on Steam you can almost always do better with a physical copy(new or used) on consoles. I never got the love for Steam as once it killed the physical market they went to fairly regular pricing. Dont get me started on XBL/PSN digital prices, not until you hit the $5 range is it ever cheaper than physical.

Gamevet

06-04-2015, 10:31 PM

This was NOT the case for most games growing up in New York City. A few outliers were upwards of $74.99 but the vast majority launched at $49.99.

I remember seeing Ogre Battle (SNES) at Electronics Boutique selling for $70. I said screw that and ended up renting the game from Blockbuster.

SparTonberry

06-05-2015, 10:42 AM

RPGs were definitely above the average price. Most likely a combination of being a niche genre as well as requiring more localization that most other games, and also relatively more expensive to manufacture (such as more memory, battery backup).

SAV2880

06-05-2015, 04:38 PM

Tanooki

06-05-2015, 11:17 PM

I always forget about the best buy thing, but I rarely buy new games so I didnt think Id get the value from it.

dendawg

06-06-2015, 07:10 PM

Honestly, I'm surprised on-disc manuals didn't come sooner.

kupomogli

06-06-2015, 08:41 PM

I always forget about the best buy thing, but I rarely buy new games so I didnt think Id get the value from it.

I'd say go for it, now that the PS4 is starting to pick up, you won't have to wait so longer to have the games to drop in price. There are certain games that drop in price quickly, but anything that's less popular won't drop in price as quick and you'll be waiting a much longer time simply because there's less product and less incentive for the price to drop. Or Nintendo games that never drop in price.

It's $30 right now for two years, and already I've benefited from it. Best Buy was doing a buy one get one 50% off sale on select Nintendo 3DS games, I purchased Xenoblade and Code Named Steam each originally $40, but the price I got them for was $32 and $12. The second game reduced the 20% from the full price instead of half price. So at $44, it was really more like buy one get one free rather than buy one get one 50% off.

I'm getting Nobunaga's Ambition and it'll be a really long time before it drops in price being an extremely niche game, so I might as well purchase it at $48 instead of waiting such a long time for it to drop in price. Getting a Wii U soon, so every first part title going to buy there considering they almost never drop in price.

Additionally, I think it has free shipping on every game you purchase.

Tanooki

06-07-2015, 01:26 AM

$30 over 2 years isnt bad, $15 a year, and you get $60 games for like 20% off or whatever thats still under $50. And then that 3DS example where that percent plus the other thing got it like buy one get one I could totally go for that. When I buy stuff anymore it usually is new at retail, rarely used as the used rates tend to be crap like $3 less, not worth it. I will tend to buy the new stuff off ebay or amazon unless it is just a price steady game where it isnt worth that and just get it,w hich in that case just using best buy would make sense. I got puzzle and dragons 3ds the other day which is a $30 game, but the discount would make it I guess closer to $20 which would be cool. I guess I should go read up on it more.

The 1 2 P

06-07-2015, 04:05 AM

It's $30 right now for two years, and already I've benefited from it. Best Buy was doing a buy one get one 50% off sale on select Nintendo 3DS games, I purchased Xenoblade and Code Named Steam each originally $40, but the price I got them for was $32 and $12. The second game reduced the 20% from the full price instead of half price. So at $44, it was really more like buy one get one free rather than buy one get one 50% off.

I did the same thing but got Xenoblade Chronicles 3D and The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask for $34(I had a $10 certificate to use). The great thing about Best Buy is that they have video game deals all the time and not all of them are advertised in their circular. And sometimes both online and in store they will have games clearanced for as low as $3. And Gamer's Club Unlocked(which I got for free when I bought my Xbox One but is $30 for everyone else) is 20% off ALL new games, even clearance ones, so a $5 game would be $4 and so on.

I've been preaching about the Reward Zone Gamer's Club on this site for the last five years, especially when they had their magazine each month that featured six to eight coupons for games and accessories. It's pretty much the only place you should buy new games outside of retailer exclusives. Every purchase you make in store(on games or anything else) adds up to points to use on certificates. So you are always getting something back and if you pre-order anything you get a $10-$20 certificate once the game releases and you purchase it. And now that they take trade ins it should always be the premier destination for buying new games.

kupomogli

06-07-2015, 04:29 PM

I did the same thing but got Xenoblade Chronicles 3D and The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask for $34(I had a $10 certificate to use). The great thing about Best Buy is that they have video game deals all the time and not all of them are advertised in their circular. And sometimes both online and in store they will have games clearanced for as low as $3. And Gamer's Club Unlocked(which I got for free when I bought my Xbox One but is $30 for everyone else) is 20% off ALL new games, even clearance ones, so a $5 game would be $4 and so on.

I've been preaching about the Reward Zone Gamer's Club on this site for the last five years, especially when they had their magazine each month that featured six to eight coupons for games and accessories. It's pretty much the only place you should buy new games outside of retailer exclusives. Every purchase you make in store(on games or anything else) adds up to points to use on certificates. So you are always getting something back and if you pre-order anything you get a $10-$20 certificate once the game releases and you purchase it. And now that they take trade ins it should always be the premier destination for buying new games.

Yeah I saw your posts but I never did it because Best Buy was so far away from me. An hour each way. I thought it was in store only and it was recently that I found out that online is included. Except for Amazon having better price drops and more of a selection on older games, nothing compares to Best Buy's GCU.