EA eliminates printed manuals
As part of its environmental initiative, publisher Electronic Arts announced that digital manuals will replace printed ones in all titles shipping worldwide.
Printed game manuals have become a thing of the past for all Electronic Arts games. As part of a worldwide environmental initiative, the publisher today announced that digital manuals would replace the old paper ones in all titles shipping around the world. The move reportedly will result in a 40 percent reduction in printed materials in its packaged goods.
The new digital manuals will be on the game disc and be accessible both from the main menu and pause screens. One benefit to the new system is that players will be able to pull these manuals up on the screen without leaving the game, making it easy to get help. Full digital versions of the manuals, in multiple languages, will also be made available through a game manuals section on EA's support site.
While we can all appreciate the need to spare the environment, it's hard not to have at least a pang of nostalgia for the days of detailed manuals and the rest of the loot like cloth maps that came in the box. On the other hand, each of those Falcon 4.0 ring bound flight manuals probably took a birch or two to make.
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replyComment on EA eliminates printed manuals, by Garnett Lee.
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I'd rather see an in-game accessible manual than having the entire "game manual" printed in front of you during gameplay (e.g., "PRESS X TO NOT DIE", etc.).
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yeah, more like "printing costs".
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but it's not pure horseshit because there is a tangible impact on the reduction of paper waste. it's okay to understand they aren't talking about the cost of manuals and it's also okay as a consumer to want manuals back, but you denying any environmental impact is just as bad as what you are saying they are doing (not bringing up their financial gain.)
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the "green initiative" that has become vogue lately is the perfect excuse for them to do this, is what it boils down to. anything with "green" in it will be immediately seen in a positive light.
its exquisite: it allows them to make what could potentially be an unpopular business decision and frame it as a socially responsible maneuver. opportunities like this dont come along very often and they are wise to jump on it before green loses its magic.-
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the green initiative thing has happened before with manuals, too, and i honestly disagree with you that it's solely a cost saving measure (and as a consumer manuals in most games have nothing of real value anyway so it's not actually a loss to you.)
i also enjoy the more environmentally friendly boxes but i've heard people give those crap. the less plastic and the more eco friendly material can be used the better. so it saves a company a bit of money - would you rather they not do it?-
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i definitely disagree on the dumbing down thing - but i think using that phrase as a generalization usually misses the mark although when applied specifically sometimes i agree. most games that need big manuals also need balances or patches, and i'd much prefer a manual that can be updated rather than one that is obsolete when things get changed.
also in the age when so many people buy games and don't keep the packaging or don't get packaging, online manuals or in-game manuals are also welcome. and for me personally, that's the case - i have very few physical boxes left.
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The environmental impact is a benefit of their decision, not their reasoning behind it as they are claiming. But that's marketing. /shrugs
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I had an abortion last week, you know, because I'm green and stuff. Plus I hate babies.
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Logic? This is a cost cutting measure.
A room full of MBA's put together a CBA model and decided it made financial sense for the company to stop producing manuals. Saving paper is a nice bonus.
Greenwashing is annoying.-
i have no idea how it actually went down at EA so maybe your idea of suits actually happened but chances are not and if you work in the business world you'd know that it's not as ridiculous as you make it sounds. also talking about abortions is why i said you were terrible and i'm totally sticking to that.
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I work in the business world, and suits make all of the big decisions at a company the size of EA.
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Yeah, that made me laugh.
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haha, agreed.
This saves them thousands of dollars in production costs and no one will really notice it missing anyway. It's a business decision, and there's nothing wrong with that, but spinning it as a green initiative is pretty ridiculous.-
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It's a business initiative that happens to result in saving paper.
If they cancel an upcoming game does that count as a green initiative as well? Of course not.
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lol. I have often wondered the same thing about DD.
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I couldn't agree more. It's just more evidence of games moving from an interactive art model to a business model.
Same with installers. I think C&C remains one of the most rewarding installation experiences ever. :( -
I'm all for finding new and innovative ways to integrate manuals into games.
a) People never open the manuals anyway
b) Opening the manual when you're trying to play the game sucks
Roll that all in with an intelligent interface and I'm totally down. This sure as hell beats the previous method of just including PDF manuals. God, that was the worst.-
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I love me a good manual (the spiral bound Dune II manual was great), but more often than not it's just a waste of space anymore. Everything is integrated into ingame databases (like Metal Gear Solid 4 and Assassin's Creed Brotherhood) and it's common for games to feature ingame tutorials to get players accommodated (in part because of people never bothering to read manuals in the first place).
As much as I loved Read Dead Redemption, I don't recall ever opening the manual for it until I was trying to figure out how the fuck to do the quickdraw...which it didn't really explain at all anyway. The RDR Wiki was a million times more awesome.
For me, integrating manuals into the games is totally the way to go. Bonus points if the company helps develop a detailed wiki. -
the homeworld manual filled with tons of extraneous lore, i bet i was the only who one read it :(
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the english version was super fat and had backstory for all the clans, really fleshed things out
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My favorite was the one for the original Fallout. There were fucking recipes in the back!
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I think the best integration of manual into the game that I have experienced recently is Assassin's Creed 2. Everything is in the database and it's cool because it's right in the game. However, like anyone I truly enjoy thumbing through a good manual while waiting for my game to install and keeping at hand for quick reference while playing.
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What the hell am I gonna read while I'm on the shitter now??
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subscribe to field and stream?
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Glad I'm not the only one who does this.
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the shack?
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MaximumPC, duh.
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IBS
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Not long enough.
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The Shack on your phone.
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I don't.
At the moment the industry is treating physical and digital as a black and white thing - Personally i'm more than willing to pay a premium for a properly done physical product (like a proper collector's edition, like the original WoW or GT5 Signature). Put the digital stuff down in price and limit production on the physical product. You save money, make the physical item rare (and thus reduce the supply) but worth it.
Going away completely from the physical product is either a panic move to save money or to 'try to embrace the future for the sake of the customer' (which is also to save money). No one (in charge) seems to be able to compromise or actually look at the options.
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There will still be printed manuals....you'll just have to buy the $150 special collectors editions with "limited gold leafed gamer manual"...
It is sad, actually. Manuals use to be the first thing you looked at and not just to learn about the controls but also look at the artwork and the certain amount of character in them (Diablo 2 Manual....like the best ever).
But alas, the newage gamer doesn't read....actually....do any of us read? -
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Manuals are boring and useless these days anyways. They've been pared down to two pages of copyright information and two pages of keyboard shortcuts. Can't say I'm going to miss that.
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While I can't remember the last time I read a manual, there's a little part of me that remembers reading manuals sitting in the car on the way home from the shop that gets a little bit sad by this news.
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I like a combination of the different views expressed here. In a manual I like all of the back story that does not make it into the game. The StarCraft and WarCraft 3 games come first to mind. Oh, and all of the awesome artwork.
But i hate looking at manuals to try and figure out how to do something. Teach it in game or I will probably not be playing that game for long. I think most companies do a good job on this part.-
Ugh. I feel completely different. Most games that try to "teach it to me in the game" end up boring me half to death by the time they're even 30% through the tutorial process. I can't stand that aspect of modern games (and it's particularly endemic to console games). Of further annoyance is the fact that these "tutorials" barely teach any of the important details anyway - it's all hand-holding for the most basic aspects of gameplay and to cater to the "I need everything spoon-fed to me" gaming crowd. :(
Also, many games suffer badly due to a lack of an intelligently written and helpful game manual. Too Human, for example, would almost certainly have been better reviewed had reviewers been given the Prima/Brady game guide that I finally ended up purchasing back in the day. Before I had it, much of the game simply didn't make sense but after I acquired it, so much more of the depth and enjoyment built into the game system became more apparent. As a former professional freelance reviewer, it was enough of an impact that it would have changed my original opinion and scoring of the game from a 7 to possibly an 8 or 8.5. The lack of a good manual hurt that game, imho. I also feel that way, to some extent, about games like Madden. I hadn't played any of the games in that series for ages and finally picked up 2010 a few weeks back. The manual provided some buttons and control schemes and that was about it. Many gameplay elements weren't explained at all (fumble recovery mini-game - specifically how it works, why I can't always challenge a play despite having all my timeouts and it not being during the final 2 minutes of a half, what the number mean that are listed after formation types in the play selection screens, etc...).
TL:DR - Not every game type needs a manual, admittedly, but there are many who would have been FAR better with them than without.
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Not unexpected. I was surprised and pleased that (supposedly) we'll be able to pull the manual up during a pause in gameplay - that's incredibly helpful and goes a long way to mitigate the annoyance of not having a good manual to read.
The sad thing is that while it will save 40% on printed costs, it's unlikely that ANY savings will be passed along to the customers. \ :( -
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NERD ANGER DURRRR.
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I have one of those Falcon 4.0 binders. I especially like the Advanced Tactics section that goes over different flight formations, dogfighting tactics, and how to identify and avoid SAMs. Falcon 3.0 and 4.0 had the biggest manuals ever. I don't think any game will ever try to come close.
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sweet, no more tacked on french manuals clinging to my games
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The only environmental initiative going on here is saving the green from leaving their pocket.
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the game industry pretty much eliminated manuals years ago. I miss the manuals of games long passed!
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I can't wait for them to pass the savings on to the customer.
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hahahaha good one RPE good one.
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What a joke.
"One benefit to the new system is that players will be able to pull these manuals up on the screen without leaving the game, making it easy to get help."
So instead of pausing the game to look up something, now I have to quit the game, go back to the main menu, look up something, restart the game.
How is that easier? Call it for what it is, a money saving measure. Stop trying to make it sound nice. -
Of course these cost savings will be passed on to the consumer in the form of lower prices right?
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