Am I the only one bothered by lack of a physical manual?

[C the Lyte]

Get used to it. It will be the way of civilized culture here in a few years. With technology the way it is and is going, paper as a whole will be obsolete.

[Pogo27]

Quote: Originally Posted by WhoCares?

I agree, if there is no manual then the price should drop $1.00 or $2.00 right

Actually... I've got this feeling that... between the weak economy, and the fact that the gaming community continually expects more and expects a better product than last year's product (reasonably so), the lack of manual may have been what allowed EA to keep a few extra people on the development team, rather than laying someone off, or perhaps RAISING the price on the game.

I wonder if we'll start seeing other, non-sports games follow suit (or even other sports games). Will my FIFA have a manual? Will Activision take up the same plan for their next Call of Duty and ship it without a manual?

I'm not sure how much it costs to
a) Have someone design & layout the manual, plus write all the text
b) Have a manual printed...


But either way, this year, NCAA Football sold 700,000 copies in the first two weeks.

Not having someone put the work into the design, layout, and text of the manual means that you can spend that salary instead on another programmer.

And at the very conservative estimate of a dime per manual, cost to print, EA saves $70,000 by not printing it. I'm not sure what the average EA employee is making, but that's at least one person's salary right there.

[Wildcats302]

Not really. I've played NCAA Football for 11 years and do not need or ever need to look at the manual. The manual is on the game...for any noobs. And I'd look on here or other gaming sites for help before using the manual anyways, if I needed to use it.

[mva5580]

No. Like this game even needs an instruction manual anyway.

Looking forward to them getting rid of the discs too, just give me digital distribution and be done with it. Not only would I have less clutter, but Gamestop would be out of business. Win-Win.

[football5680]

No, I know how to play.
Newer players may have a slight problem with it but you can always access it.
The first day i bought the game, i looked inside and their was no manual and I was shocked but then i heard it was on the disc.

[Cardot]

From a nostalgic perspective, I also miss the comprehensive manuals. Back in the day, part of the game buying experience was to open the game and read the manual on the car ride home from the store. Or perhaps months after playing the game, scouring the manual to see if there were any nuggets of info that had been overlooked.

But from a practical perspective, they really aren't as useful anymore. Sites like OS have way more detail than any manual could have. And now, we pretty much know every detail about a game weeks before it even hits store shelves.

[mkharsh33]

My post on page 3 was actually kind of funny if you can picture a big tree under the comment (that magically disappeared)...

[Pogo27]

Quote: Originally Posted by Cardot

From a nostalgic perspective, I also miss the comprehensive manuals. Back in the day, part of the game buying experience was to open the game and read the manual on the car ride home from the store. Or perhaps months after playing the game, scouring the manual to see if there were any nuggets of info that had been overlooked. But from a practical perspective, they really aren't as useful anymore. Sites like OS have way more detail than any manual could have. And now, we pretty much know every detail about a game weeks before it even hits store shelves.

I can agree with this sentiment. I did enjoy the comprehensive manuals. And I did enjoy reading them on the car ride home. It was the preview, and the "I'm so excited to play this game but it's taking mom forever to drive me home."

But that was a different era of video gaming. That's 10-15 years ago, when video games HAD comprehensive manuals... and when I still lived with my parents and got to ride in the backseat so I could read a manual on the way home.

But today? First... I can't read a manual on the ride home... because I'd probably wreck my car. And second, the manuals aren't nearly comprehensive enough to be at all interesting to read.