Hi
I just found myself wishfully thinking about old handbooks like e.g. for "Civilization" (II-IV) or "Age of Wonders II". Everything about the game explained, if you just bothered to look.
And nowadays? I seem to spend more time in wikis dedicated to certain games than in the games themself when I start playing ... and apart from EVE Online (I still get nightmares thinking about all the reading I did.), Heart of Iron III (E.g. the bonus of officer ratios above 100% ... explained nowhere in-game or in the handbook) this also is the case with Elemental right now.
Caravans? Notable location level? Difficulty level vs. AI difficulty level? ...
Man. I surely miss those old handbooks. And books they were. *sigh* Not leaflets or handouts hinting at a "tutorial" ... *sighs again* REAL books.
Rabenhoff
I'll take a well-written, low-whitespace 90 pages over bulky-feeling dreck any day. Seems like the standard today is heading towards the worst of both worlds, though. Maybe the 'real' manual for a game like Elemental shouldn't be published until Stardock decides that the final expansion pack has had its last serious round of patches. That would give them time to do the best thing you can ever do for a piece of public writing--put it away for a long time before you make a last round of edits.
Re the SC II notepad, did it by chance have some branding stuff on all the pages, like a logo watermark? I can easily see marketing folks thinking more about getting scraps of their brand identity out in classrooms. The hardcore folks pretty much like to see their brands in trash cans, as long as their recognizable.
The SC II notepad did have branding stuff on all it's pages so your probably correct about it's purpose.
Regarding Elemental, even before any possible future expansions I expect to see a large number of gameplay elements completely reworked to create a more balanced and cohesive game. I guess it would have been kind of sad to have this huge printed manual which is no longer remotely useful or accurate.
Back then, there were no forums to go to. Played on a Commadore 64. You were on your own, and the manual HAD to have everything in it. I remember if you were lucky you could call an very expensive phone # to get some insight. And that was costing you "by the minute". so talk fast. Now, forums act as a large part of figuring how things work, or don't work.
The manual AND the box are extremely important to me. I have an entire shrine dedicated to all of the PC games of my youth, from Sim Earth to Diablo 1 to Baldur's Gate to EverQuest to Morrowind. In fact, if I buy a game off GoG or Steam, I will still go out and buy the original box + manual off eBay, just so I have something to show for it. Like a gaming museum, it is a real pleasure to go back and read some of the old manuals. As you can imagine, I really, really hate the new digital distribution age that we have nowadays. Steam is really the devil to me.
Call it a psychological handicap, but I simply cannot enjoy a game if it is just bytes on my hard drive. I literally have to own the box and manual to feel like I truly enjoy the game.
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X3: Terran Conflict has a decent manual. It has paperback style binding instead of staples because its pretty big (Still full of fluff though. It doesn't cut to the important stuff right away like it should.). Not as big as what I'm guessing what some of these older manuals are, but still impressive compared to the 10 page manuals we seem to get these days.
I don't miss the actual physical book. Dead trees clog up the home and eventually get trashed, recycled, or put in a box and hidden in my garage until the next time I move... and then they get trashed/recycled because I don't want to move them.
I'm of the opinion that if the game can't explain its mechanics well enough in the game, then it didn't do it right(this doesn't necessarily make the game a failure, by the way). Manuals detailing statistics were a necessary evil in the days when memory was a huge concern. To figure out what a stat does today, I should just have to hover over it. Or click on it and get taken to a description. Tech trees should be easily navigable in game. For instance, gal civ 2. I was never confused at where I was at or where I wanted to be.
I would like to add that "in game" does not mean make the first hour of play a ridiculous tutorial I have to go through each time I restart the game. I really don't need to be told that left clicking selects a unit or WASD is how to move around. Seriously game developers. Stop doing that. Nor does it mean the game describes every little thing in such detail that experimentation is lost.
Not really. Never read them anyways.
'miss the old manuals'.... WHAT old manuals? A couple of games had them, the rest had leflets then, too. Don't get too rosy tinted glasses now.
To be honest, it is almost always the fluff that makes me buy the game. If the premise is interesting, then I am hooked. If it is "Zombie-Survival-Horror-Shooter #459,001,632" then count me uninterested. There are exceptions of course, the old Rise of Nations games just let me rule the freakin' world, let's me satisfy a minor God-complex of mine.
But anyways, fluff makes a game for me, and what was often great about the manuals (in-game or PDF really) was the behind-the-scenes extra fluff inside said text. Homeworld, Warcraft, Starcraft, Legend of Zelda, etc. were brought that much more to life by the accompanying text.
Even Halo continues to bring me back simply because the tale of the Covenant's demise is a good one, one that too often is ignored. The Covenant themselves called it the "Age of Doubt". And it was, it was the fall of a once great, just, and noble alliance, one that fell to politics, greed, and the revolution of a warrior-elect that saw the honour of their cause fall away.
For some of us, fluff is everything.
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