I bought Castlevania LoS 2 on PS3, no manual in the box. Was it needed? Nope, there is a very good in game manual and tutorial. Was the game any cheaper? Nope. Give me a sodding manual or make the game cheaper. (been happening a lot recently with newer console games, at least with PC you more often than not can d/l a manual.).



Manuals that add atmosphere and lore to a game like Arcanum or VtM R for example were awesome back in the day, but if its just for controls they aren't really needed.

I disagree. While I think that Civilization (with the Civilopedia) works well, the game manual definitely adds useful information, I think that dismissing manuals as implying that games are badly designed is wrong. Whilst I like a mindless blast of Serious Sam, I also I like a game with depth and that takes some effort to learn, and having an instruction book is only a benefit.

Take Rollercoaster tycoon. Perfectly competent tutorial, teaches you the mechanics, easy to pick up. But the manual adds the extra dimension and the real world context; it shows you the real-world impact.

Same with Civ, Col and Alpha.

I used to love a good manual to read while I wait the 10 minutes or so for the game to load from tape. Almost makes me regret how things load so fast nowadays :)

I prefer a game with an intuitive interface, but also with a nice thick book of background info on the game universe. I miss Origin (the real one, not the EA downloader application :P)

Oh I'm not saying having a manual is not of benefit, what I am saying is that there's aboslutely no reason why the same kind of information can't be integrated into the game itself - and in that case, it's easy to understand why would someone see a manual as a waste.

hmm may i ask if your a younger member?

Obviously because some people prefer to have all the necessary information to understand and play the game before they even load it up, so they aren't making silly mistakes while playing as they check tooltips or whatnot. ie why not go into a game fully prepared.

In addition, many games integrate necessary information in very obnoxious ways, such as tutorials which babysit the player.

My frequent restarts of Baldur's Gate, Master of Orion, various flight sims and Alpha Centauri were mostly attributed to not understanding the games mechanics. I would play, screw up, read the manual, play, screw up, read the manual until I understood the good. Back then, a lot of games used different gameplay mechanics and manuals were necessary. For games which came out in the last 10 years (probably more), I didn't need a manual.

Surprised no one has mentioned this yet so I'll just go ahead and say it. Back in the day when we bought large game boxed filled with air and game manuals started to get smaller, the game devs didn't forget about game lore entirely. A lot of the information that should have been in manuals were transferred to strategy guides that were of course, purchased separately. Yep, if you wanted the game with a proper manual, you essentially had to buy them separately. This was back in the day before the internet was widespread. The only strategy guides I ever had were the two guides for Starcraft but the only reason I had them were because they were included in the Starcraft batttle chest. Separately, they were definitely NOT worth the money as a seperate purchase. Starcraft already had good manuals and some of this info was just regurgitated on the strategy guide. Also, with blizzard constantly patching the game, the info in the pricy strategy guide become out of date. The multi player strategies were a joke too (though I can't remember off hand what some of them were), I do remember one being that terran vultures were useless and not worth building though. Now we can just get the relevant info online without getting priced gouged for "strategy guides" (and thank god for that).

Well to my eyes it fit the collection purpose, adds value as a well done digital product and mandatory for complex games, like RTS.

Or in-game characters who simply don't STFU about what you're supposed to be doing. Damn, that's obnoxious.

Me neither, but lately it's been stronger than me. I even skim the walkthrough quickly for quests that I missed in a certain area, so that I may go back and do them before I advance the plot. I've also found that reading about a game extensively prior to actually playing it is half the pleasure of gaming. It's been a long time since I played a proper RPG (those are the only games complex enough to read about) by throwing myself into it, not caring about optimal playthroughs. Maybe I really should go back to the roots...

I dislike manuals because my instinct is to read one if there's one available, and then it demystifies the game for me, and makes the game easier to understand/crack, so I avoid them if I can..till I get my ass beat by some game in question, in which case I humbly download and read the manual ^^

I've always liked games that don't need manuals, but I still always like a manual.

Manuals are good for complicated games that need explaining or just getting a little more information on how the game works.

Not every Google search is going to turn a good result. Actually Microsoft removed the offline Windows document from Windows 8. So now you have to go online to see the windows manual. What if you're having a problem connecting to the internet and the manual has the solution.

Let's face it, manual probably doesn't have a solution :-P

Half assed online help is what makes me rant at work about the lack of physical manual nowadays.
Online help "manuals" are useless if you don't know the exact name of the function you're looking for. You often can't find it by approximation. It took me SEVERAL HOURS (as in, full time work hours) to find an excell function that I knew existed, because its name was counter intuitive in the index, it wasn't referenced in it's "cousin function" entries and most online help is about the english version (using different function names). With a manual, I would have flipped it in the general section about calculations, and I would have found it in minutes.
Same thing for my CAD program. When I started 12 years ago, the older edition came with a physical manual. If I wanted to do something new, I simply looked in the manual for a few minutes, followed by a few more minutes of experimentation.
Now? I have to ask another user, because the integrated help is garbage...

So yeah, give me manuals for complicated programs, please!

I have found plenty solutions to both Windows and Maya in the manuals. I wish Maya had an offline manual too.