Matrix Games Forums

We are looking into Printed manuals for future games. I am not making a promise here but we do take in what you all say in.

Originally posted by Ross Moorhouse
We are looking into Printed manuals for future games. I am not making a promise here but we do take in what you all say in.

Well, Ross, if you're interested in another two cents worth, I am not in favor of printed manuals. I have several reasons:

Printed manuals add cost and add bulk, which increases shipping costs.

The online manual is searchable and scannable as an electronic document, which make it more utilitarian than a bulky paper job.

The online manual is printable, if that is what you prefer. As another poster has mentioned, you can take the PDF to Kinko's or whoever and get it printed for under ten bucks. Inclusion of a glossy printed manual would raise the price of the game more than this.

After awhile, you get familiar enough with the game that you seldom, if ever, refer to the manual, so eventually, it tends to sit around taking up space, anyway.

We are thinking of printing maybe a detail tutorial section and making the main manual PDF. We have also worked out a deal with Kinkos to provide printed manauls to those who want it.

David

but its also good for the trees that we can print it if we want or not.

Other reasons for printed manuals:

1. If the manual is outstanding, it is like getting a book and a game in one shot.

To be a great manual, take a page from the great wargames of the past; give us Historical Notes, Rules, and extensive Designer and Player's Notes. Include a glossy paper map to hang on the wall.

For historical wargames, I really enjoy a well researched game with a well written book.

2. Piracy.

If the game comes with a book, it is damned hard to make pirate copies of the entire product.

Guys, you would not believe how easy it is to get games, NEW games, on the Internet as ripped downloads.

UV was available the day after it started shipping.

So many games are available the day after they ship, I have to wonder if the CD making factories are the repository of the day jobs for warez posters.

(Yes, my copy is legal )

3. Tangibility of the product. Wow, a book! A tangible thing that has value on its own.

But no manual has ever shipped without errors, mistakes and problems. Every game comes with a manual errata section in a readme file - and you never bother to read it until you're fed up with the manual.

A PDF file can be upgraded every time you patch - and always be up to date. As long as there is a paper quick reference card included I'm happy with the e-manual.

Also means that poor sods who are drooling and salivating for the game but haven't got it yet can appear on the forum and beg for someone to email it to them so they can get a partial fix. You can't do that paper-wise.

My vote is still for PDF.

One of the best manuals I ever got with a game was the one that came with "Red Baron" by Dynamix. It included tons of historical material about the air war from 1914-1918. I also know two people who bought the game instead of copying it just because they wanted the manual. It was also a great game, by the way.

Yamamoto

Printed Manual solution: "Add to Cart"

I don't mind the PDF manual but I would like to see two things:

1. Make it a separate file on the CD.

2. Do NOT ship it with a password, it would be nice to be able to add my own notes( I have the complete Acrobat).

Originally posted by Nomad
I don't mind the PDF manual but I would like to see two things:

2. Do NOT ship it with a password, it would be nice to be able to add my own notes( I have the complete Acrobat).

or edit it to reflect the new rules...

I agree with what Luskan, Nomad, and the Admiral said.

If you offer the manual as an optional purchase, no matter how you slice it, you've still got the cost of production to defray if you print it. I doubt that manual sales alone would cover those costs. Further, embellishments of the kind mentioned here may reduce the utility of the manual as a play aid.

If I want the history associated with the game, I go to historians to get it (or to these forums, which are often a valuable source of information and cross-reference to scholarly and other works). I want my games to be based on solid research, of course, but I have no interest in manuals that attempt to be treatises.

I agree with Wilhammer that designer and player notes would be helpful. Do they need to be in print instead of on the CD? I think not.

Do I want to pay more for the game in order to help the publisher break even on a printed manual and "glossy" ancillary materials? No. Seventy bucks American plus shipping for WITP is already plenty. Put the stuff on the CD. If I want it in fancy hard copy, I'll pay to get it done (or exercise my desktop publishing skills, gear, and software).

Oh, well. You all know that I'm gonna buy the verschimmte thing no matter what it costs or what's in it. And so are you. But if I gotta spend extra, I'd rather have something REALLY useful, like a pair of Halle Berry's used panties...

Originally posted by Nomad
1. Make it a separate file on the CD.

They have already stated that this was a mistake to not have it separate on the CD and that they will not do that on future games.

When they get around to creating another master for UV, then I would assume at that point they will put the manual out separately.