Comment on similar to the word of mouth post, what game did you not expect much from but loved it?
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 3 days agowho reads manuals?
In the 90s, everyone who wanted a shot at understanding what was going on. Games didn’t have a ton of text, so the manual was the way to learn the controls, get backstory, and even some hints for obtuse puzzles.
Cyberspark@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
And social media wasn’t a thing, nor YouTube, nor forms for sharing it really known. Reading the manual on the way home, getting excited to play it was part of the experience.
Super Mario 64 was, by memory, one of the first to have tutorial-like directions and informational instructions in game with more in the first few levels. Even then reading the manual still helped. I was genuinely shocked when Skyrim just omitted a manual entirely compared to the thick booklet Oblivion came with.
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
Yup, I remember reading the manual on the toilet while my sibling was playing so when it was my turn, I’d have a leg up. We would take turns, cheering each other on as we got past a difficult part, and sharing secrets that we found.
With the internet, I can just look up a walkthrough pretty soon after the game launches, so I have no reason to look at the manual (if there is one) or talk to anyone else.
I think that’s why competitive MP has taken off. People want that social experience, and that’s filling in for what used to exist. I remember PvP being a thing, but I also remember helping each other out on a SP game being a thing, so both were social activities.