Do you miss physical manuals?

S

Septimus Prime

Member
I do. I was reading the e-manual for Xenoblade X over the weekend for like an hour, and I didn't even get halfway through it. It just feels like a slog to read, scroll, maybe scroll back up to reference something, and then repeating for each page--not to mention the jump links, which I didn't even bother to use. I'm pretty sure I could have easily finished a physical manual a lot faster.

This is like the one thing I miss from the boxed product days. It's not a big enough problem where I'd go back to disc games, but it's something.

Do you miss physical booklet manuals? Or are e-manuals better for you?
 
Not really. Games have become so streamlined and in-game tutorials so commonplace that I don't see the point.

The Evil Within had one, but I didn't even read it, I just went "Neat, cool that a game has a manual in 2014".
 
Putty Squad has a full colour manual.

I cannot, for the life of me, work out why Putty Squad gets a full colour manual and every other game I own has a single page, if that.
 
Yes.

It's one of the main reasons why I bought the physical version of Shovel Knight on PS4, despite already owning it digitally on PC.
 
Man, I still have the MGS4 manual lying around somewhere. Absolutely loved that little graphic novel they included with it, such an unnecessary feature but it was a really nice touch.
 
yes, but I can see how they're not really needed for many games these days because of tutorials or even digital manuals. I wouldn't mind a little art or design booklet instead. That would be nice.
 
I miss big, lore-filled RPG manuals like the original Diablo and Baldur's Gate. Baldur's gate 2 manual was ring-bound. shit was legit.
 
no, I miss manuals with actual artwork.

These days you are luck if you find a generic cg render, let alone awesome drawings and other concepts that you easily found on early ps1 and before.
 
Of course! There was always a fun artistry to them. Plus, back when I was in school, I would get a new game and take the manual to school with me and just read it in my free time...
 
yea, some games really need it too imo, like you said for example, Xenoblade X. too much shit to know with that game and its annoying having to hop into the menu instead of just having the booklet right there.

Spieler Eins said:
No. I'm a collector, pshysical for life, but really, no.
Click to expand...

wat? did you even read the op
 
On the one hand, I rarely ever read them. Games these days do a good job of easing you into their mechanics in-game (well, most of the time; some do it a little too slowly).

On the other hand, for more complex games where I absolutely need the manual, being stuck with an eManual that I can only read by stopping the game entirely is rather annoying. Can't really keep it open on a given page, either, to my recollection; with Nintendo, at least, it'll take you back to the top of the TOC every single time.
 
Yes because something physical is always better than nothing. When I was young, I would read manuals religiously. I have fond recollections of this...

Now, as an adult, I must admit I would probably never read the manuals, and even if I did run into a question about the game I'd just Google it on my phone. But that doesn't matter. We still deserve paper manuals, so publishers should start killing those trees so we can have them.
 
It's likely a nostalgia thing, but I used to pull out the manual and read them on the way home from the store. It'd get me super amped up, and I'd be ready to play by the time I put the cartridge in the slot.
 
YES

Mostly for the fact that games feel incomplete without. For cardboard boxes having no manual is fine. For plastic boxes, the manual is a must. I'll survive ok if there's some slip of paper with nice artwork there in its spot. But if there's literally nothing I wince every time.

I especially miss the feeling from riding home from a store and looking through the manual before I could play. But a lot of that is gone because I'm older.
 
I dont miss manuals at all. I never read them, most instructions and info should be in the game, there is no reason for me to read a manual these days.
 
I really do. Getting home with a new game and reading through the manual in the bathroom before playing it for the first time was like half the hobby.
 
I miss them. I always read the manuals before starting a game.
I especially miss them for JRPGs. But I was pleasantly surprise that the physical version of Shovel Knight included a manual. In color no less!
More of that thanks.
 
YES!

Do you guys remember Pikmin manual? It has so much lore and it compares Olimar with a Game Cube disc. Damn! This is the stuff!
 
I got EDF 4.1 and Xenoblade around the same time and I had to laugh when EDF was the one with an actual full colour manual.

Yes I do miss them, in fact before this gen I refused to buy any game that didn't come with its manual. Nowadays I get strategy guides to fill the void...of bathroom reading.
 
I will fondly remember reading manuals in the car after buying a new game. It made the wait to get home to play so much fun.
 
I really do miss them. I understand why they aren't a thing anymore, but I loved them. When I was a kid I would continually flip through them even when I wasn't playing the game.
 
I don't really miss manuals so much as I miss having a book with lore and art in it accompany all of my favorite games. Blizzard of olde was magnificent here, as were the RPGs of yesteryear (Baldur's Gate, Final Fantasy). I take no joy in looking up instruction manuals for modern games as I'm either required to flip through them on a very tiny screen (e-manual 3DS style) or download a PDF and have it open in a second application on my already crowded desktop (Steam).
 
Yes and no. Yes, if it's as robust as what Rockstar does with their manuals (full color and has specific gameplay features). No, if it's like three pages, black and white talking to me like it was the first time I have ever seen a controller.
 
I miss the amount of detail and care that went into them, but not the physical aspect. The digital style on Vita is super handy, but they have very little info in them.
 
Yeah, liked them for the lore and background story on the game I'm about to play. It was part of the ritual for starting a new game - definitely miss that feeling.
 
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