Coalition Connection

The End of Video Game Manuals

Gasp*. I know right? How could Game Manuals be coming to an end? Well if you’d like a few hints, look at games such as Modern Warfare 2, with 5 whole pages in it’s manual. I can’t tell you how excited I was to finally get Modern Warfare 2 and open the game and read the manual, to delve the depths of the story and the game itself. I was extremely disappointed. I found very little information. I found what the buttons do and a quickie on xbox live. That was about it.

Now games of the past have been quite different. One of my favorite games of all time, Warcract III, had the most amazing manual. It included pictures of important characters, their bios, maps, lists of units and their bios, etc. It was excellent, and I must have read it over 100 times completely.

Visiting IGN, I found an article about the Ending of Game Manuals. Apparently, Ubisoft is going to completely stop game manuals in their future games. IGN had 4 editors give their opinions on the situation. My opinion is that there should always be a decent manual in a game. A game manual increases the worth of the game. I just truly enjoy opening the game and reading the manual first before I ever play the game. That’s how I am, I like to read all about it and know what is going on before I step foot into the game itself. It’s the experience that’s being cut. I don’t like it.

After reading my short opinion and the editors at IGN, what are your opinions? What do you think about game manuals and their importance to the game? Do they enhance the experience, or do you cast them aside and never touch them? What do you think of the financial savings vs. end user desires?

I’m anticipating some great responses!

Tags: game, ign, manual, ubisoft, video