Yes, this. So far, every game I've installed that has a manual will install the manual when you install the game.

But it is nice to have it as an extra if, like me, one is ANAL about reading manuals before playing, so I often only download the manual, and get started reading it before I ever download and install the game. Sometimes the manual will convince me it's not what I want at the moment, and the game remains uninstalled.

Wow no, incredible! XD
Ah, the one I was thinking about was for EF2000 fligh simulator.

I loved reading some good manuals and foretaste+imagine the game : )
The best usually were for fantasy RPGs (lots of stories and cool images), the most useful were those with summaries like Warcraft2 and Xwing (build order, key shortcuts).

They are only obligated to sell the game installation files, anything else they throw in is a bonus.

Red Baron, Ace over Europe had manuals with colour profiles. Some game came with actual books.

I wholeheartedly disagree.

If a game includes a manual, it is as much a part of the game as the 1's and 0's are and historically when you bought a game at the store (before there were digital sales) the game was part of the purchase.

Once upon a time, games were considered piece of software, and the service standards applicable to producing and delivering software include the design of availability of a manual that features all functions.

Nowadays, games are consumer items, sold at alpha or beta stage. Functions are not relevant anymore, at least not once the games are sold and the money cashed in. The user has to consider the manual as a good gesture from the publisher but is expected to buy a guide if he needs more information. It's even better if he doesn't play the game at all, as he is then likely to purchase another one

True. But times have changed.

Anyone still remember these things? They looked like your computer screen/tablet but written on a piece of paper. The good times :((
[url=http://home.online.no/~maber3/hosting/gaf/fallout_02.jpg]http://home.online.no/~maber3/hosting/gaf/fallout_02.jpg[/url]
[url=http://home.online.no/~maber3/hosting/gaf/fallout_01.jpg]http://home.online.no/~maber3/hosting/gaf/fallout_01.jpg[/url]
http://www.keenandgraev.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/baldurs-gate-2-manual-e1374296597511.jpg

Now we have these -_-
http://www.technobuffalo.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/EA-Sports.jpg

If a game requires a manual, then the developers suck at game design and should get a job elsewhere.

Yes, it's nice to have a manual with lore and such, but I don't appreciate being treated like an imbecile. Games up until relatively recently didn't require a manual at all because the developers were careful to design the games so that people would discover things on their own.

Personally, I don't read the manuals so clearly they're not as much a part of the game as the actual game is.

There, fixed that for you.

You're welcome.

Sigh, is this the OCD talking? Bottom line is that the best games of all time are usually ones that don't require a manual. These are games where they have widespread popularity, but actually have some depth of content as well. I didn't require a manual to find my way around Wasteland or the Fallout series. FPS games never require a manual and most of the RPGs use a manual more as flavor than to convey the gameplay mechanics.

You're certainly entitled to your opinion, but it's ridiculous to suggest that good games typically require a manual when that's demonstrably false. Controls usually go back to a common paradigm and anything new just requires appropriate hints to the user.

Listen kid, when I was your age we read manuals as bed time stories. They were sometimes as long as any novel. But here's the thing: games were near indecipherable without them. Yeah you could spend hours using trial and error to work out what the feck is going on but reading the manual allowed us to start playing the actual game much sooner.

Seriously???

Is this the asshole talking?

Perhaps, but you're one to talk.
I've been gaming since sometime in the mid '80s, there was never a point where reading manuals was compulsory. In fact, since most games were pirated up until relatively recently, the odds were really good that a given copy wouldn't even have a manual available.