Featured Image Credit: Nintendo/Finji
Topics: The Legend Of Zelda, Retro Gaming
A recent subreddit thread in r/gaming has many lamenting the loss of game manuals.
The thread starts “The worst thing to happen in gaming is the demise of the instruction manual.” As games have moved into a more digital realm we have lost the sacred moment of opening the game case and having a browse through the instruction manual. It’s a now ancient custom where we older gamers would buy a new game and then sit in our parent’s car reading the manual to build excitement.
Tunic featured a digital manual in-game that would teach tricks to players
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It’s summed up by one Redditor who says “Not only did you get how the controls work but you also would get tidbits lore, art, even some helpful tips. When I was a kid I would flip through the pages on the way home. Another ritual lost to time and the kids will never know.” The thing is, even those games that are bought physically rarely arrive with a manual. It’s a generational thing, nowadays all the information that used to be included in the manual is found in the opening hour of the game.
“My favorites were the original Baulder's Gate and Neverwinter Nights games. Had the instruction manual up front, then like an inch thick section devoted to spells.” says u/flaxon_. Manuals to some games were, at times, integral to the game as pointed out by one reply “I remember on a PS2 game there was literally the answer to a code riddle in the book, it was the only way you could get the code!”
While many are in agreement that these manuals were a lovely inclusion, the conversation does highlight things that are much worse than this loss. Microtransactions, for example. Live service titles, asset flips, and digital sales that could be removed from online services are also high on the list of things that upset gamers.