Poll: Do you R the F-ing M?

[Kongamato]

How much info about a game do you gather before you jump in and play it? I've noticed there are varying degrees of preparedness. I like to try and read the entire manual before playing the game, but sometimes I'll jump in if the manual gets boring. I can never remember everything that is in the manual in the first place, so there is a limit to the benefits. Also, training missions these days do a lot of the manual's job for it, but they don't usually contain all of the info the manual does. Some people prefer to skip this part of the game, but I don't. What about you?

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

As a male, you are only allowed to read the manual if you do not have access to the game. IE, during the car ride home or before bed.

[drone]

Depends. If the game is a shooter-type, I'll skim the manual and do a training mission. If it's a strategy game, I usually try to read the manual first, since I will want to play for hours on end, and the woman usually despises that. But she doesn't complain about reading, for some reason. So I can read up on it, and not waste time messes about when actually playing.

[Reenk Roink]

As a male, you are only allowed to read the manual if you do not have access to the game. IE, during the car ride home or before bed.

Touche

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

I usually read the entire manual. Sometimes it has shiny pictures.


I also read it if I'm stuck or about to dive into a game that seems complex at the beginning. For example, I blasted through the Hearts of Iron II manual and the Republic: The Revolution manual, but only used it for reference in Battlefield 1942.

[Somebody Else]

Read the manual during install, skip the training missions. Is there any other way?

[Xiahou]

You know, now that I think about it, the tutorial level can go a long way to making or breaking a game for me. If it's long, drawn out and boring it can do alot of damage to what I think of a game. If it's interesting/immersive and really showcases what the game is capable of, it can really make you look forward to getting to the meat of the game....

As to the question, I usually play tutorials- but only skim the manuals if it's a complicated game or if I dont have access to play it yet.

[econ21]

For some reason, I recall devouring the manuals for Might and Magic games, which is odd as they are very beer and pretzels hack n slash games. But I really liked to plan out my characters and make optimal choices for stats, skills, weapons etc. But nowadays, CRPGs often hide away the information you need to make those kind of plans and you have to search the net for FAQs etc to get it.

Most games nowadays are designed to be sufficiently intuitive that you don't need a manual. Even Civ4 - which is quite a deep game - I kind of picked up as I went along (admittedly I'd played the earlier variants).

I suspect I will devour the Oblivion manual, just like the old M&M ones, and for the same reason. Although I'll probably skill end up scouring the web to find out how it really works.

[Papewaio]

RPGs... yes
FPS... no
TW series... after the first no... I play a bit then I read the manual and/or online.

[Lehesu]

I read thoroughly and do the tutorial. A small investment up front can prevent minutes of confused frustration later.

[Martok]

Well since about 70% of my games are strategy titles, I definitely read the manual before playing. If it's more a sim-type game or an RPG, I skim the manual and then come back to it as it becomes necessary.

[Navaros]

Read the manual? Who prints manuals these days? Many glutton publishers these days do not even include manuals at all! Those that do, well they usually are only a few pages useless of schlock so as to keep "printing costs" down.

Despite all that, I do read manuals. Not right away though. Usually I'll play a game for a few days and then read the manual after that just to see if there are any features listed that I missed out on discovering. Which these days, there almost never are.

[doc_bean]

I read the manual except or shooters, I might just skim through it if it's a familiar concept though.

[Husar]

I usually read manuals only while installing, when stuck or to discover features I might have missed.
Training missions usually only when they´re not boring, but mostly not.
In most Strategy games I learn myself in a skirmish-mission against an easy AI.

[TinCow]

I skim the manual while installing or when I'm trying to do something or enable a feature that I can't figure out by myself. Some games require more manual use than others though. For instance, stuff like D&D games often have me looking back to check the info on spells and such. Many strategy games have this reference material aspect to their manuals as well. Not enough games have followed the genius that is the Civelopedia.

I usually do training missions on everything.

[Somebody Else]

Actually, recently got X3:Reunion - despite having had X2, I still continually refer to the manual during gameplay. It's just to confusing otherwise. Something like Civ4, I didn't bother with the manual at all. FPSs, well - the manuals are usually so short that I can read them completely during install. RPGs, hmm - well - I'll probably read as much of it during install as possible, and - well, I read fast, so by the time I've got the game up and running, I should have had most of it under my belt anyway.

Training missions? Hmm, no, not really - only if the game won't let me do otherwise, or perhaps if doing so means I unlock some feature or other. I've played too many games to need to be taught how to crouch-jump or whatever.

[Dutch_guy]

I used to love reading the Ceasar III and Pharaoh manuals, they always contained loads of information.

Nowadays, with Medieval and Rome, and other games I play I tend to leave the manuals aside until I get stuck in the game and need to know a certain thing to carry on.

I do tend to do the tutorials, especially if the game's a little harder than your regular FPS - think HOI 2.

[Craterus]

As a male, you are only allowed to read the manual if you do not have access to the game. IE, during the car ride home or before bed.

I try to read the entire manual on the drive home or during the install. But otherwise, I just jump straight into the training mission.

[Blodrast]

I never read manuals - if the game has a tutorial/training thingie, I usually do it - but only after I've started playing the game and decided I can't figure out everything on my own.
More often than not, though, I go for online resources - forums and such; they are by far the best resource, although if you're just an occasional player for that game, it might be difficult to separate the chaff from the wheat.

Then again, if you're only playing it occasionally, you don't _need_ to go to the forums, because you probably won't care about the advanced stuff, and can settle for whatever you can figure out on your own.

[Ianofsmeg16]

Manuals are for when things go wrong, be a man and die the first 5 times you play a game!

[Zalmoxis]

I'll look over it, but I won't actually read it.

[Samurai Waki]

I generally skim over the manuel, and then if I have questions later, I'll try and find it in the manuel...different story with HoI2 though, after playing HoI Platinum and not reading the manual, I knew I would have to read the HoI2 manual because theres so much information you would miss without it.

[AntiochusIII]

Well, manuals nowadays are pretty much useless -- unless they're the cooler RPGs. So I skipped most of them, albeit I played the training missions no matter how much they annoy me.

Some old manuals, though, are much fun to read, like those Impression Games ones.

[Ciaran]

I read them thoroughly - as has been mentioned before, it saves potential frustration. Though manuals nowadays aren´t what they used to be. When I think back to games like Wing Commander, Strike Commander or Aces over Europe... those were the days.

[BelgradeWar]

Always play the training mission, but never read the manual. Games today are pretty much on the same track - learn one RTS, you know them all (although I don't really play them). Learn D'n'D rules, and you're good to go for most RPG's.

[screwtype]

I'd kinda like to read the manual, but because these days they are always printed in a tiny font on dark coloured pages and with some sort of frickin' image or mottled pattern as the text background, I often give up in disgust after a few pages and just go play the game instead.

[Catiline]

Flick through the manual on the way home, i'm more inclined to googlewhack for more during install. Training missions only if i don't have a choice

[Banquo's Ghost]

I'm one of those people that reads the manuals for everything first - DIY furniture, vacuum cleaners, saucepans etc.

I can't say I like the modern trend for thinner manuals or unreadable ones, but I recognise I'm in the minority. I have kicked the habit for buying additional 'strategy guides' though. Last useful one I saw was for Civ:Call To Power.

I've bought some games where the manual was far better value than the actual game!

[Monarch]

As a male, you are only allowed to read the manual if you do not have access to the game. IE, during the car ride home or before bed.

Lol spot on. I skim the manual on the way home from buying the game and then take the training mission (if it's a new variety of game. If I was to buy say imperial glory which is alot like TW then I'd just skim the manual, not bother with TMs.

[Avicenna]

I usually read the entire manual. Sometimes it has shiny pictures.


I also read it if I'm stuck or about to dive into a game that seems complex at the beginning. For example, I blasted through the Hearts of Iron II manual and the Republic: The Revolution manual, but only used it for reference in Battlefield 1942.

Omigosh I want shiny pics!!

I usually just go straight in unless I'm in urgent need of a dump.