Your favorite band has released a new album, and you want a physical copy. You go to your local retailer and ready for you to buy is a plastic jewel case holding the disc, but no CD sleeve…just a note saying, “You want artwork and lyrics? Go to our website”. That is what it’s like for me when I buy a game that doesn’t come with a game manual.
Being a video game consumer for over 20 years, I’ve come to expect the trifecta of box art, game manual and game. I remember scouring game manuals for controls, artwork, or game plots when early video games usually had no room for them due to lack of space on the cartridge. Even today when I buy used games I open the case to see if there is a manual…partially out of habit, but mostly to see what the artwork looks like.
Game manuals are mostly considered unnecessary by today’s gaming industry. As I’m purchasing new games I find weird stuff where my precious game manual should be. For example: Arkham City, instead of a game manual, there is a catalogue to order Batman action figures. Gears of War 3, there is a sticker sheet. A STICKER SHEET? What do they want me to do with this? Put it on my Trapper Keeper?
Everything we used to love about game manuals is either in the game now or you can download it from the appropriate website. While the content seems to be the same, it’s still different. For instance, you sacrifice hand drawn artwork in favor of 3D models hidden in the game menu. Why can’t we have both? To me it feels like less for my money.
The death of the game manual will arrive in February as NO Playstation Vita games will come with instruction manuals. Just a plastic box and a game card. The phasing out of the game manual has begun.
The truth of the matter is, I’ll have to adjust to the digital changes that are coming, or are already here. It’s not like I’m going to stop buying games, and the gaming industry knows that. I guess I’m old school, but if I buy a physical copy of the game, I’d like a game manual with it too. I don’t want to hunt around in the game for content that can be just as easily accessed in a manual.
