Game manuals- black and white or in color?

Do you mind if a manual happens to be black and white or is it not a big deal?

I happen to think less of said company, even though colored manuals are really expensive.

But nothing is worse than online manuals, since they're not as accessible as ones you can hold in your hand.

I browse through game manuals on the toilet...what color they are in I could care less.

I tedn to prefer the colored ones.

I would rather see them in color.

Haven't touched one in years. I wouldn't mind if they went away as soon as digital distribution takes over.

I personally don't mind whether they're in color or not.. as long as they're good to follow and easy to read. :)StraiN-ShifTeD

I disagree. It's part of the total package of buying a game. If a game company cheaps out on the manual on the basis that "blah, no one really cares about the manual anyway", then chances are that that "who gives a ****" attitude is going to leak into other aspects of a game.

Some games have bad manuals, and some games have good manuals. The minimum that should be accomplished is to make the manual informative and easy-to-understand, but it's good when companies take the time and effort to go beyond the bare minimum. Throw some nice artwork in there. Use the manual as a prologue for the game, and to build up the player's anticipation for the game. That kind of thing.

Anyway, as far as black and white vs color, I don't care. As long as the manual seems to be of high quality, either way is fine. Just so long as the manual doesn't seem like a cheap and hastily put-together afterthought. I mean, damn. If you're gonna do it at all and then show it to millions of people, at least make the effort to make it seem like you actually gave a ****.

Any time I play a game, the first thing I do is skim through the manual. If that first look at the manual looks as if they didn't even try, that doesn't exactly help to build up my anticipation for the actual game.

Hands down, it has to be in color. But as long as it doesn't look like that slapped it together at the last minute. Gran Turismo 1,2 had the best manuals, 3 was ok and 4 was just plain bad. GT 5 Prologue was worse.

[QUOTE="StraiN-ShifTeD"]I personally don't mind whether they're in color or not.. as long as they're good to follow and easy to read. :)MrGeezer

I disagree. It's part of the total package of buying a game. If a game company cheaps out on the manual on the basis that "blah, no one really cares about the manual anyway", then chances are that that "who gives a ****" attitude is going to leak into other aspects of a game.

Some games have bad manuals, and some games have good manuals. The minimum that should be accomplished is to make the manual informative and easy-to-understand, but it's good when companies take the time and effort to go beyond the bare minimum. Throw some nice artwork in there. Use the manual as a prologue for the game, and to build up the player's anticipation for the game. That kind of thing.

Anyway, as far as black and white vs color, I don't care. As long as the manual seems to be of high quality, either way is fine. Just so long as the manual doesn't seem like a cheap and hastily put-together afterthought. I mean, damn. If you're gonna do it at all and then show it to millions of people, at least make the effort to make it seem like you actually gave a ****.

Any time I play a game, the first thing I do is skim through the manual. If that first look at the manual looks as if they didn't even try, that doesn't exactly help to build up my anticipation for the actual game.

In general, I prefer a nice thick color manual, full of interesting tidbits about the experience I'm going to have, or useful info like move lists, good full descriptions of items, mechanics and the like. However, I haven't noticed a qualitative difference between games with good manuals and games with almost non-existent manuals. Also, its pretty rare for a game not to introduce its mechanics in the form of an interactive tutorial nowadays, for the most part the days of turning on a game and not having a clue what to do are in the past, and good manuals for most genres are probably a thing of the past as well.

I think it's a lot like when you first buy a game and it has a really awesome opening. If the manual is grappy and the beginning of the game is grappy then the whole game will be greappy.

I prefer manuals how I prefer my magazines- in color. They just seem a lot nicer to read in color.