Digital Additions

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Digital distribution is obviously on the way and there’s some who believe it is already here. But with new games releasing in the non-tangible and many classic games being re-released in downloadable forms, we aren’t only getting rid of the disks. I’m not talking about the packaging, I’m thinking of the manual.

I recently bought Final Fantasy 7 on PSN for the chance to play it on my PSP and because the version I got from a friend didn’t work. The one thing about the game that I was disappointed about was that I wouldn’t have a game manual. You see, I’ve always had a love for game manuals. Whenever I would rent a game I was that guy who would conveniently forget to put the manual back in the box. But would you imagine my surprise when Final Fantasy 7 actually had a digital version of its original manual.

Why do I think that a games manual is so important to have? Well in the first place, every time I play a game that has an awful tutorial I feel that it could have been avoided by simply explaining the games mechanics away in a manual. Also, manuals are just nice. Some times they’re so packed with illustrations that they are almost like mini art books. I’ll thumb threw them at times just looking at the art. I mainly like the things though, because sometimes they really do have useful information that wouldn’t of necessarily fit into any games tutorial.

An example of this is the Resident Evil 1 manual. In this booklet one priceless piece of advice always stood out to me, and it kept me from getting my ass chewed to ass-bits by zombies: When you can RUN DON’T SHOOT. Imagine if in the game you faced the first zombie and on the screen the ‘RUN’ popped up. It would be a little weird, wouldn’t it?

Any way, I was glad there was a manual for FF7.

There’s only one other online game that I thought did an online manual pretty well, and that is actually Fat Princess. This game has a very cute, and fun to look at explanation of all the classes.

One of my only real fears of digital distribution is that things like this, digital manuals, aren’t going to catch on. The last thing I want is for them to be left behind, seen as useless, unneeded, and unwanted.

So, am I the only one who cares about game manuals, or does any body else share my fears out there?

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James Thornhill

August 14, 2009

I used to paw through manuals too. God help you if you didn't have the manual for Flashback, or a friend who knew how to do the running ledge grab! Sadly for collectors, I think reducing the player's learning curve by providing in-game tutorials have simply made the instruction booklet redundant.

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Rob Savillo

Manuals have been on the outs for a while now. I can remember PC games whose manuals were like textbooks -- long, rich back story and character descriptions, in-depth game mechanic explanations, and even strategy tips. These days, we're mostly likely to just get control explanations. I'm most worried about the consumer rights we give up with digital distribution than the loss of physical manuals.

Toby Davis

Manuals give me something to read when I am my mans library. How ever I agree with Rob on the rights we lose, but I am all for digital distribution if people pull it off correctly of course.

Lance Darnell

I am playing FFVII right now, and having that digital copy of the manual is pretty damn cool! I have no problem with digital manuals as long as I am also given the option to just print the manual out, so that way I can enjoy my physical copy, and maybe get creative and make it into a fancy little book! I like your points Jazz, for I do not want to see the death of physical manuals. So I suggest a business idea: Someone could make a living off of taking the digital copy of manuals, and making them into a collectors item! That physical manual could then be mailed out to those dedicated fans who really want a copy.

Jazz English

@Lance, I actually was thinking that Sonys new 'P.S. Thank you' would be an awards system allowing you to get stuff through the mail, and if so I thought that they might send manuals. I can only hope.