Is it just me...

[edyzmedieval]

...or are other people missing the old school style gaming, regarding the packaging? Remember those times when it was Christmas and you went to shop for CD games, and you got the game you've been wanting for so long, and it meant so much to physically have it...

Dunno about you, but I don't like the new methods of distribution.
I still like the old fashion - double CDs, a big box, and a thick manual.

I still have my old Shogun TW box, the box with the cardboard inside, the CDs which are in very good condition and the manual. And it's around 10 years old...

[Hooahguy]

yeah, i remember that too. i remember when i bought empire earth it had a huge box, a folded sheet with the tech tree and a huge manual. now it seems as if all the games nowadays try to make the manuals as short as possible. i used to love reading the huge manuals, going through every detail and highlighting the important stuff, or what i thought was important with a marker. the cd was in a jewel case, which isnt the case anymore. now its in some flimsy paper sheaf.
i miss the old days.

[frogbeastegg]

I have never ceased to miss the chunky manuals. I have mourned their passing since the day I first opened a game to find a leaflet inside. Paper maps, keyboard layouts with the hotkeys all labelled, charts ...

The jumbo cardboard boxes are a different matter. I still have the cardboard boxes for some of my favourites, and inside them I've packed the manuals from the games whose boxes I couldn't keep. That there explains the difference: I don't have space to keep many of those boxes. DVD cases are more practical.

[TinCow]

The shift from the BIG box to the smaller boxes was definitely an improvement. I cheered when that happened. I was not big on the shift from hardcopy to digital distribution though until about a year ago. I really didn't like the idea of not having the discs lying around to install whenever I wanted, and that was a huge barrier to me in going over to digital distribution. Eventually there was some game that came out that I wanted to play but was too lazy to go to the store to get. I don't remember what it was, but whatever it was I bought it over Steam. The speed and ease with which it installed and ran startled me. Since then, I've bought only one game in hardcopy. In fact, I'm now so much in favor of digital distribution that if a game was NOT available online, I probably wouldn't buy it. I'm now a digital distribution addict. The ease of getting the games has also resulted in a significant increase in the number of games I buy. I would say the money I spend on games has doubled since I switched over to digital distribution.

That said, I still won't buy e-books.

[Beskar]

The shift from the BIG box to the smaller boxes was definitely an improvement. I cheered when that happened. I was not big on the shift from hardcopy to digital distribution though until about a year ago. I really didn't like the idea of not having the discs lying around to install whenever I wanted, and that was a huge barrier to me in going over to digital distribution. Eventually there was some game that came out that I wanted to play but was too lazy to go to the store to get. I don't remember what it was, but whatever it was I bought it over Steam. The speed and ease with which it installed and ran startled me. Since then, I've bought only one game in hardcopy. In fact, I'm now so much in favor of digital distribution that if a game was NOT available online, I probably wouldn't buy it. I'm now a digital distribution addict. The ease of getting the games has also resulted in a significant increase in the number of games I buy. I would say the money I spend on games has doubled since I switched over to digital distribution.

That said, I still won't buy e-books.

Being honest, I disliked Steam when it first came out. "Why do I want to install a distribution system just to play a game I got a disk for?".

However, I have always had problems with disks. They either got lost/broke, took up too much room, or eventually just get thrown away.

Last hard-copy game I bought was Empire: Total War, which got me using Steam again. After a while of playing it, I saw so many offers, games I always wanted to play at costs which are virtually non-existent in shops. As I always owned a fast unlimited internet connect (the very idea of 'capped' internet is... well, I will stop there due to owners posting here) I never had any problems downloading or installing straight from Steam. Also, the fact it was so easily done, so cheap, so convenient, I got over 40 games (including expansions) on Steam, and I would never trade all of it for boxed versions if offered that.

Experience with Impulse on the otherhand.. well.. it was rubbish cheap-knock off which has higher prices and smaller catalogue. I see no reason to use it. :p


As for Books:

Yeah, I really dislike reading on the computer. Other than it is bad for your eyes, it is really impractical. The Kindle service doesn't work over here as far as I am aware, but I haven't experienced it to really comment. It sounds really nice in theory, but I would have to use one to see if I enjoy using one.

[Boohugh]

As I always owned a fast unlimited internet connect (the very idea of 'capped' internet is... well, I will stop there due to owners posting here)

This is the biggest problem of digital distribution. It's great if you have a fast unlimited connection, but if you don't...you need to feel for all us poor sods in backwards countries (like the UK!) who don't always have access to such great services. I'm stuck in a rather annoying place currently where I can't download much and it's a slow service leaving me with little option but to go to my local games shop to buy any games I want...

...however, I get there and lo and behold, they only have two shelves in the entire store for PC games, with the rest filled with console junk!

Unless I want the latest, heavily marketed PC game (ala E:TW, FM2010, CoD:MW2, etc) I'm out of luck and can't get anything which, quite frankly, sucks.

p.s. sorry to all you console fans

[TinCow]

This is the biggest problem of digital distribution. It's great if you have a fast unlimited connection, but if you don't...you need to feel for all us poor sods in backwards countries (like the UK!) who don't always have access to such great services. I'm stuck in a rather annoying place currently where I can't download much and it's a slow service leaving me with little option but to go to my local games shop to buy any games I want...

...however, I get there and lo and behold, they only have two shelves in the entire store for PC games, with the rest filled with console junk!

That is definitely a huge factor. I get fiber optic internet at home and Steam regularly downloads at 2.5+ mbs, which means that even huge games take no more than an hour or so. The ability to download the games on multiple computers with Steam is really great as well, since between my wife and I we have 4 computers that we play games on. I'm also a huge fan of GOG downloads, for the quality of their content and their total lack of DRM. Steam and GOG now account for about 95% of my game purchases.

[Meneldil]

I hated the DvD boxes and their 25 pages long manuals and complete lack of anything cool (such as maps, tech trees and what not). I hate digital distribution even more. Bought STALKER on Steam and HoI2 on Gamersgate, last time I'm going to do that.

[Samurai Waki]

I'm constantly on the run, between College, Work, and being a parent the last thing I want to do is stop by best buy before making the 20 mile trip back home often times on ice covered roads in Below Freezing Hell. I miss the hard-copies but mostly as a throwback to my childhood, they're clunky space consuming things, and 18 CDs more often than not would get misplaced by mischievous little sisters, or scratched-up, maybe even broken from time to time, by older brothers who don't like to ask if they can borrow your game to play on their new shiny computer with Windows 98.
Little Kids are even worse, I had to replace their favorite DVD on several occasions because they don't understand that you can't touch the bottom of the disk or that dog slobber can in fact break the DVD player. I finally just downloaded the darn thing to my laptop, and haven't had an issue since.
Steam has been nothing but excellent for me, I don't really care that I can't see the manual, since games are rarely ever in playable form from the get-go anymore. I can just go online, and get any information I need. Although I do miss the maps...

[Martok]

I have never ceased to miss the chunky manuals. I have mourned their passing since the day I first opened a game to find a leaflet inside. Paper maps, keyboard layouts with the hotkeys all labelled, charts ...

Lords of the Realm 2 and (especially) Klingon Academy will always retain a special place in my hear for their hefty manuals alone. Now *that's* what you call reading material!

The jumbo cardboard boxes are a different matter. I still have the cardboard boxes for some of my favourites, and inside them I've packed the manuals from the games whose boxes I couldn't keep. That there explains the difference: I don't have space to keep many of those boxes. DVD cases are more practical.

I still miss the larger boxes to some extent, but not as much as I once thought I would. I still prefer the (smaller) boxes over CD/DVD cases, however.

[caravel]

I remember the days of the large size cardboard game boxes with several 3 1/2" or 5 1/4" floppies inside...

I also remember the CDROM versions of the same games being on sale and then having to go out and pay £100 for a 4x speed CDROM drive... (Back then I had a 486 and connected the CDROM drive through the IDE connector on my SB16 ISA card.)

It was good to have a decent manual, the key bindings chart and maybe a map.

And yes it was far better in those days for PC gaming overall. Back then I could go out and actually shop around for games. The shops were full of them. I remember when HMV or Virgin had at least a 1/3 of their games section made up of PC games. Nowadays you can walk into a high street store in the UK and you'll be lucky to find a decent selection of PC games - probably one solitary shelf tucked away in a corner, if that. In fact where I live there are several game shops that no longer sell any PC games at all. It's mainly consoles these days.

Gah, kids to today, Gah!

*shakes stick at thread*

[Gregoshi]

Yes, I kinda miss the old packaging. I vaguely recall one game having a cloth map - Ultima III? Hmm, can't remember.

Anyway, anyone remember Infocom's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? It had a bunch of goodies in the box - the "Don't Panic" button, Peril-sensitive sunglasses, the microscopic space fleet, and the pocket fluff among other things. Infocom's Deadline had goodies in the box too.

[Monk]

I miss the days when you could crack open a game manual to find several novellas inside based on the Lore of the game you were about to play. It really set you in the mood, and Blizzard was one of the best companies with that kinda stuff (the Diablo 2 manual is an epic unto itself).

[pevergreen]

I miss the days when you could crack open a game manual to find several novellas inside based on the Lore of the game you were about to play. It really set you in the mood, and Blizzard was one of the best companies with that kinda stuff (the Diablo 2 manual is an epic unto itself).

I still read through my copy from time to time.

Warcraft 2 and 3 manuals were the same.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

I like digital distribution (and essentially Valve is a joint owner of my bank account) but I also miss the old manuals. But then there's the question of which came first - digital distribution or skimpy manuals? And I think it's the latter.

/so I'm not selling out
//I promise!
///might still have my TIE fighter manual/novella
/slashies!

[Azathoth]

They still have giant manuals, they're just PDFs now.

[edyzmedieval]

My favourite manual was from USNF 97. The game itself was brilliant, and it still is today, but that manual...

That manual was something like of a military guide, 90% of it actually made by JANE's, the military publication. Just around 500 pages, I still have it today. It's my military aircraft bible.

A good new manual happens to be the one from M2TW. It was an upgraded version of the original MTW, which was really good.