Re: 75% of new games purchased were downloaded

On Wed, 25 Sep 2024 08:59:25 +0100, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:

On 25/09/2024 04:20, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

On Mon, 23 Sep 2024 22:36:54 -0500, Altered Beast
<j63480576@gmail.com> wrote:
 
 

>
It sounds to me like the gaming industry makes bank on downloading
versus physical product.  They certainly haven't printed a manual in a
few ages.

 
They barely even make PDF manuals anymore.
 
In fairness, few games actually need them. Not only have in-game
tutorials become quite good, game design has standardized enough that
there's much less _need_ to teach players how to game anymore.
 

I think there's also the factor that the internet is now a thing so if
you want to know something then google is your friend.
>

And game visuals and world-design is complex enough that the secondary
purpose of manuals --to flesh out the game-world-- is rarely necessary
too.
 
So writing manuals is an expensive proposition that serves no purpose
except to make a tiny percentage of gamers happy. After all, even
_were_ a manual necessary, most people _still_ wouldn't RTFM.
 
I still miss those old-school manuals, though. Whether it was those
giant tomes you'd get in flight simulators, the wonderfully
illustrated manuals in CRPGs, or the manuals in strategy games which
went over every mechanical detail of the game, they were great fun to
read.

>
I do kinda miss manuals in part I think as I would start reading them on
the way back home after buying the game. It certainly ramped up the
excitement of playing more than the current press a few buttons, wait
for the download to complete and you're ready to go.
>
The one I most miss though from a physical game is the likes of
lore/background books and maps. I still have the map from Silent Hunter
III on my wall!

Or the lovely cloth maps from the Ultima games; I used to have them
all mounted above my computers. I only took them down because they
started fading from the sunlight, and I loved them too much to watch
them degrade like that. So back into their boxes they went. ;-)

Sim manuals -whether flight or sub or whatever- were great manuals,
though. They told you SO much more about the topic than ever the game
could provide. You'd read them front-to-back and feel like you
actually could fly an F-16, or drive an M1A1 tank. There was so much
more educational value in those tomes than the entirity of actual
educational games.