Hi Dark, Well, I can say from my general experience with dealing with the public at large you are unique in your enjoyment of reading game manuals. The majority of people, for reasons never explained to me, just don't read them. However, I do not mind reading manuals, and like you I actually get some satisfaction out of reading a well written manual or walkthrough because there are often gems in their one just can't find out through trial and error.
I suppose the biggest reason why most people don't read manuals is they are impatient. They just want to start the game and jump into it without spending an hour or whatever it takes to read the documentation. That's the way I was as a kid in the 80's and 90's. Whenever I got a game for Atari, Nintendo, etc I almost never read the book that came with it. I just stuck the game in the console, and figured out the controls through sheer trial and error. I only went back and read the manual when I got stuck and needed to know something that was not immediately obvious. People today probably aren't that much different. As a game designer I have had to take some of this into consideration. I like what Josh and draconis are doing by having a tutorial/help system in the game that gives you the hot keys, tips, and tricks as part of the game than an actual manual. I think having a manual would be nice, but the tutorial/help system they use is a pretty good idea for quickly acclimating oneself to the game's basic mechanics without having to do any reading. Another thing is adopting some common hot keys and a basic design that some people can just pick up and play. After all, that is what made the Atari and NES games great. One could just put the game in the console, press a few buttons, and voila were up and playing the game in minutes. Most of the game controls were the same or similar so it wasn't very hard to figure out the game in question and be playing it in a relatively short amount of time. Now days things aren't usually that simple. We have newer more complex games with a lot more advanced controls. A keyboard has hundreds of key combos and it isn't obvious that in some games w walks forward and s walks backward unless a person has played a number of first-person games with that setup. Certain function keys like f1 through f12 are optional keys so unless someone tells you specifically what they do it isn't something likely to be obvious. Manuals are necessary in cases like that, but we can ease the situation by coming up with common hot keys and sticking to them from game to game rather than reinventing the keyboard layout on a per game basis. Familiarity will help ease people into games without a manual once it becomes apparent that there is a basic keyboard scheme from game to game. Cheers! On 7/31/14, dark <[email protected]> wrote: > Funnily enough, I really enjoy reading manuals. > > Even if i bang a game on and know how to play, or there is enough text and > instructions within the game to get me started,I still actually like going > back and reading the manual just for interest's sake and to pick up on more > > in depth information. > > Back in 2001-002, just after I got on the internet I went and found lots of > > text walkthrus for all the snes and mega drive games I had, and really liked > > reading those, indeed I started using google searches just to find tips on > mega man x and x2, and found some great stuff on the mega man network site > and gamefaqs, so reading manuals always makes me think of that. > > I actually find the modern trend of missing manuals in games for Ios > slightly disappointing, sinse if I'm really heavily involved with a game but > > don't fancy playing, it's nice to sit down with the manual, or a general > walkthru or wiki without specific information and plan or imagine what is > coming next or what else exists in the game to try. > > All the best, > > Dark. > > > --- > Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] > If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to > [email protected]. > You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at > http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. > All messages are archived and can be searched and read at > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. > If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, > please send E-mail to [email protected]. > --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to [email protected].
