Jaffe: “Hate the idea of losing paper manuals”

Industry figure David Jaffe, Designer/ Director at Eat Sleep Play, has commented on Ubisoft’s recent announcement regarding an environmentally friendly move to stop producing printed game manuals.

Jaffe states, “HATE the idea of losing paper manuals. Great manuals add to the experience and – when you are a kid – make the car ride home from the store where you got the game bearable. I LOVED pouring over great game manuals as a kid.”

Whilst we’re sure that Jaffe supports the environmental benefits of such a move, his sentiments in regards to the physical loss of them adding to the overall experience of purchasing a game title are surely to be echoed by many.

Personally I enjoy reading any back story provided for a title regarding its world and characters, but more often than not ignore reading about the controls, gameplay mechanics etc as more often than not these days we find that developer’s seek to implement more intuitive tutorials to aid the player in grasping such elements of their game.

What are your thoughts?