Physical shipment content

[Al Boone]

I just received my physical shipment copy of CC The Longest Day. The box only included 3 CD disks, with no other documentation or content. Am I missing something? Is it inferred somewhere that we are supposed to figure out which disk has the manual, etc and download it ourselves for printing. My other CCs (COI, WAR, etc) had some sort of documentation........ Is initial game installation to my computer supposed to be that intuitive?????

[RD Oddball]

Hey Al, Someone from Matrix will help you with this.  In the meantime we can get you the electronic version of the manual. 

[Senior Drill]

I received my CD folder yesterday avro. There is only the discs in the case. No manual. Is there a delay in the printed manual that will be dropped shipped later, or do we need to initiate an order short request?

[panzerlehr62]

ORIGINAL: Senior Drill

I received my CD folder yesterday avro. There is only the discs in the case. No manual. Is there a delay in the printed manual that will be dropped shipped later, or do we need to initiate an order short request?

Well thats a bummer. One main reasons I order the physical copy is to get the printed manual. Just got notice its been mailed, but I guess there's nothing to look forward too then!

Gz...

[Fred98]

As with all Matrix games, the manual is produced in colour but the hard copy manual comes in black & white.
 
If you want a colour manual you need to print it yourself.
 
-
 

[Senior Drill]

Amen, brother. Wassup with that?

[Erik Rutins]

I'm very sorry to read about this disappointment. Not all of our games come with printed manuals. We make that decision on a case by case basis. In this case, we decided to go with a "Digital Express" edition, which means that the manual is a PDF E-Book. It's linked to in the game menu that comes up when you double click the shortcut and it's also linked to in the Start menu folder for CCTLD. It's a fully searchable and bookmarked E-Book as with all our PDF manuals.

You'll see in the game specs on our product page and store page that for manual it only lists Adobe PDF, whereas a game with a printed manual will list Printed there as well. The game edition logo in the store also shows "Digital Express" which means PDF manual only, as is explained on the front page of the Online Store as well.

Please have a look at any of the online store front pages for an explanation of the logos and editions and what they mean.

Again, I'm very sorry for any disappointment this causes. We've been using this system of editions for a few years now and the intention of it is to make sure the customer knows whether or not a particular physical copy includes a printed manual. Since previous CC releases did have a printed manual, in hindsight we probably should have made a special announcement here about this release being PDF only. I'm sorry about the confusion on that, we thought the specs and edition logo would be informative enough.

Regards,

- Erik

[Senior Drill]

Ah. It's OK, Erik. Failure to read the fine print. Hate these new damn tri-focals. Gotta bob my head like one of those drinking bird toys to see all of a screen in focus.

[LitFuel]

I have to admit I feel this is rather bogus as in the past Matrix brought back the paper mnauals and made a big to do that all future releases would have them. I assumed as I'm sure many who bought the physical version did that it would be there as it was in the past. I would say thats really out of touch with your consumers to not mention it before everyone ordered. Really who reads everything...you click and order and assume.

[panzerlehr62]

ORIGINAL: LitFuel

Really who reads everything...you click and order and assume.

That manual being inside that CC case was on the same par as the sun rising everyday!

Is it going to be made available for the amazon kindle, so at least for some of the diehards we can still simulate a last minute read before we hit the hay? [>:]

I guess a tree looks better then my manual does after a few months anyway, so at least there is some positive out of this. The dog will be dissappointed, he sure loves finding it laying around to add battle damage to it! [:D]

Gz...

[bink]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

I'm very sorry to read about this disappointment. Not all of our games come with printed manuals. We make that decision on a case by case basis. In this case, we decided to go with a "Digital Express" edition, which means that the manual is a PDF E-Book. It's linked to in the game menu that comes up when you double click the shortcut and it's also linked to in the Start menu folder for CCTLD. It's a fully searchable and bookmarked E-Book as with all our PDF manuals.

You'll see in the game specs on our product page and store page that for manual it only lists Adobe PDF, whereas a game with a printed manual will list Printed there as well. The game edition logo in the store also shows "Digital Express" which means PDF manual only, as is explained on the front page of the Online Store as well.

Please have a look at any of the online store front pages for an explanation of the logos and editions and what they mean.

Again, I'm very sorry for any disappointment this causes. We've been using this system of editions for a few years now and the intention of it is to make sure the customer knows whether or not a particular physical copy includes a printed manual. Since previous CC releases did have a printed manual, in hindsight we probably should have made a special announcement here about this release being PDF only. I'm sorry about the confusion on that, we thought the specs and edition logo would be informative enough.

Regards,

- Erik

Erik,

Why not provide info about the manual within each game description? I always found the DX/ST/CL logos cryptic, and only recently noticed the explanation further down the page.

I normally go to the store, then click on the genre (e.g. WWII) on the top left, so had never scrolled down the page to see the explanations - I only found them randomly. In fact, when I went looking for them a second time, I couldn't find them!!

This leads to another question: Why do the Digital Express editions cost $10 more than a download, same as a standard edition, but don't come with a manual? I would have thought there would have been an effective price difference. As it stands, a DX or ST both cost $10 more than a digital download, but ST comes with a manual whilst DX does not.

If you are looking at cost savings, have you considered putting the games onto DVD? I think this has been pretty much the standard optical format for a while. A DVD Rom drive can be bought on eBay for around $5 shipped.

Also, which games are the CL with a color manual? I scanned through all the WWII titles, but none appear to have a color manual.

I would also prefer the games to come with a manual (color if possible, but B/W at a minimum).

Thanks,

bink

[FeurerKrieg]

I normally try to read all the features of a game pretty carefully but I must not have on this one. For some reason I was thinking this game came with a hard copy manual.

I'm disappointed of course, but I'll keep buying Matrix. I'm still drinking the Kool-aid.

[kam99]

This is very disapointing news and I feel cheated.

Particularly as I have still not recieved my physical shipment (ordered on 5 May 2009). I am in the UK. Digital River have just advised me:

"the product that you ordered is currently out of stock. Although we do not have an estimated arrival date, we are working to obtain more stock as soon as possible."

Point 1. If I had known it did not come with a printed manual I would not have paid extra for physical shipment.

Point 2. If I had known the product was out of stock I would not have ordered it.

I have asked Digital River for a refund.

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: LitFuel
I have to admit I feel this is rather bogus as in the past Matrix brought back the paper mnauals and made a big to do that all future releases would have them. I assumed as I'm sure many who bought the physical version did that it would be there as it was in the past. I would say thats really out of touch with your consumers to not mention it before everyone ordered. Really who reads everything...you click and order and assume.

Well, you may not be aware that things went through several stages.

First, we started by bringing back printed manuals and we were printing all of them in color. That lasted about a year before the economics of it stopped making sense (we lost the deal we had made with a printer to make that affordable). We then had to scramble to be able to continue printing manuals at all, which was particularly fun as the first deal fell apart in October, 2007 right before the Christmas season with multiple new releases on deck.

So then we started printing again, but grayscale manuals rather than color. We put out an announcement to our forum, on our front page and sent it out to our mailing and PR lists explaining the new "Editions" system and that some future releases would be with PDF manuals and others with Printed manuals.

This system continues to the present day and is explained on our store front page and in each game's game specs. I realize that communication is not perfect, but realize that this is not exactly a new development. We've been releasing "Digital Express" and "Standard" editions without much confusion for almost two years now. Yes, I should have realized that since in this case it constituted a change from previous CC releases, it should have been highlighted. My fault on that, but the information was there as it is for our other releases.

Regards,

- Erik

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: panzerlehr62
That manual being inside that CC case was on the same par as the sun rising everyday!

Sorry again guys. We made a decision on this release - first we felt from past releases that most of the CC owners were already quite familiar with the series. Second, we felt that there was a lot of overlap between the new and previous manuals, so we felt that it made sense to get you all the game sooner and go with the PDF E-Book manual rather than waiting 4-6 weeks for a print run. The manual is good, but I don't think it covers that much new ground for CC players.

I'll say this - we hear you now and the next release will once again have a printed manual.

Regards,

- Erik

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: bink
Why not provide info about the manual within each game description? I always found the DX/ST/CL logos cryptic, and only recently noticed the explanation further down the page.

We do include it in the Game Specs where we felt it would be more easy to find. We figured that putting it in the description would actually make it easier to miss than having it set apart as a consistent spec item like required memory or video card.

I normally go to the store, then click on the genre (e.g. WWII) on the top left, so had never scrolled down the page to see the explanations - I only found them randomly. In fact, when I went looking for them a second time, I couldn't find them!!

I hear you. The logo system is intended to be the "at a glance" info that doesn't require reading the detailed description. I'm not sure we can do anything more obvious than those logos, but I'll see if anyone here has an idea on that.

This leads to another question: Why do the Digital Express editions cost $10 more than a download, same as a standard edition, but don't come with a manual? I would have thought there would have been an effective price difference. As it stands, a DX or ST both cost $10 more than a digital download, but ST comes with a manual whilst DX does not.

Well, we started out with physical copies before we had printed manuals and priced those at $10 based on our cost and DR's cost in the "physical on demand" process. When printed manuals came along, we decided that increasing the cost to customers was not something that would go over well, so DR and we came to a new agreement for the copies with printed manuals to allow us to still charge $10 for those rather than increasing the cost.

If you are looking at cost savings, have you considered putting the games onto DVD? I think this has been pretty much the standard optical format for a while. A DVD Rom drive can be bought on eBay for around $5 shipped.

We've been banging on DR for DVD support for some time now.

Also, which games are the CL with a color manual? I scanned through all the WWII titles, but none appear to have a color manual.

There are no "official" Collector's Editions with color manuals at present. Since we started out printing color manuals, there are still a few games with color manuals left in stock that will be replaced by B&W manuals when those run out. Those are still listed as Standard editions since we don't guarantee a color manual with them. The first "official" Collector's Edition with a Color Manual will be the War in the Pacific: Admiral's Edition release this summer.

Regards,

- Erik

[Erik Rutins]

Kam99,

ORIGINAL: kam99
This is very disapointing news and I feel cheated.

I'm very sorry you feel that way. I don't feel we cheated anyone, but I understand your disappointment.

Particularly as I have still not recieved my physical shipment (ordered on 5 May 2009). I am in the UK. Digital River have just advised me:

"the product that you ordered is currently out of stock. Although we do not have an estimated arrival date, we are working to obtain more stock as soon as possible."

This should not be the case at all, they should have been shipping those for some time now! Please e-mail me your order info and I'll find out exactly what's going on.

Point 1. If I had known it did not come with a printed manual I would not have paid extra for physical shipment.
Point 2. If I had known the product was out of stock I would not have ordered it.

Understood on both. It should not be out of stock, I have no idea what's going on with that but I'll find out. Did you order digital+physical and if so did you already get your download copy? E-mail me your order info and I'll see what we can do.

Regards,

- Erik

[bink]

Erik,

Thanks for your comprehensive response to my questions and comments.

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins
I hear you. The logo system is intended to be the "at a glance" info that doesn't require reading the detailed description. I'm not sure we can do anything more obvious than those logos, but I'll see if anyone here has an idea on that.

Maybe you could make the logo (for DX/ST/CL) clickable, and open a pop-up window with the explanation of the three game types?

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins
Well, we started out with physical copies before we had printed manuals and priced those at $10 based on our cost and DR's cost in the "physical on demand" process. When printed manuals came along, we decided that increasing the cost to customers was not something that would go over well, so DR and we came to a new agreement for the copies with printed manuals to allow us to still charge $10 for those rather than increasing the cost.

That sounds like manuals are free!! [;)]


Thanks,

bink

[LitFuel]

Well, I may not be"aware" as you say but apparently very few others were as well so I'm far from alone on this one. Just seems like a lot of spin to me but whatever. I'll live but will have to rethink buying physical CD's in the future, not worth the extra $10 without the manual.

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: bink
Maybe you could make the logo (for DX/ST/CL) clickable, and open a pop-up window with the explanation of the three game types?

Actually, that is a great idea. I'll see if we can do that.

That sounds like manuals are free!! [;)]

Unfortunately, far from it. (I did see the winky smile) - but they don't cost the customer more.

Regards,

- Erik