Fuchida
Posts: 69
Joined: 5/16/2002 From: Stevenage, England Status: offline
|
[QUOTE]Originally posted by juliet7bravo [B]"Aren't pdf files pretty much the standard multi-platform document file format across the entire IT industry?" Not here in South Buttfuck Ohio apparently, the local print shop gave me the "goggle-eyed stare". Cheap $100 printers take expensive $50 ink cartridges, that you're lucky to get 100 pages off using higher print quality. I own a very nice laser printer...but it doesn't do colour or double-sided. [/B][/QUOTE] I used a B/W laser to print the manual and it was fine. The colour screenshots were obviously B/W but clear enough. I don't need the manual to look very high quality. I just need it to be readable. [QUOTE]Originally posted by juliet7bravo [B]Should owning a CD burner and printer, living in the "big city", and/or being a computer geek be a mandatory requirement for buying the game?[/B][/QUOTE] You hardly need to be a computer geek. You either need a printer or you need to download Acrobat, which is free, and then use Alt-Tab [QUOTE]Originally posted by juliet7bravo [B]I can fully support the e-manual concept from a business perspective, but wouldn't it be a lot simpler and easier on the paying customers to embed the manual into the game and have it accessable via an icon ingame? That's pretty much industry standard as well, instead of the current low-budget Mickey Mouse goat screw. [/B][/QUOTE] I think having the manual in game sounds likes a reasonable idea. However, UV is anything but low budget. If I get the choice of flashy graphics, colourful manual, little gameplay, vs functional graphics, PDF manual and excellent gameplay, give me the latter every time (and I'll pay more for it too) Matrix are catering to a very niche market. The vast majority of gamers are click-twitchers who would have a brain overload trying to play a game that requires some thought and analysis. Matrix could cater to the blast-em-up crowd and no doubt make more money. Instead, they are obviously trying to produce high quality games for people who they know will appreciate their efforts. While money is obvious a consideration for any company, Matrix seem more interested in creating great games than making vast amounts of money. That attitude should be applauded by the gaming community. Due to the fact they will sell smaller numbers of their games than the big companies which churn out vast amounts of low-intelligence-required games, they need to price them a little higher to make up for the lower number of units. If you add the cost of a printed manual to that, it starts to take the game into a price range where a lot of people would not buy it. Therefore, we either support Matrix in their efforts to produce great games, which means having a PDF manual, or we don't buy the game because they don't have a printed manual, in which case they go out of business and we all start playing Quake. So you do you want great games or nice, glossy-looking manuals?
|