Today, I am installing a new game to my computer. I'm about sure the game will probably be pleasant enough to warrant the purchase, just as I am sure I will probably only play it a while and then get bored of it and that there is only a small chance that I ever get to play it "to the end". But I'm okay with that, just like I been used to since several years to forget about "innovation" and "originality" in new games...

But today, it all changed. When I opened the box, I fiddled with what was inside, opening the smaller box inside the bigger one to get all the goodies, glanced at the manual (which is already a good sign since it seem to be quite big) then took the publicity and registration card aside since I never even look at these. Then, when I took the carefully wrapped CD case, knowing that I would as always have to fight my way thru the wrap so I could finnaly take the CD out and place it in my CD-Rom... It striked me.

There was a little red plastic "wire", for the lack of a better name, almost invisible to the left of the plastic wrap around the case. All I had to do with it was to tear it at one side of the CD, pull on it, and it was over. No fighting, no tearing, no need of another instrument other than my nails and teeth, nothing! And the most stupid part of this is that I've seen similar things years, if not a douzain years ago on completely different products. All what was needed was for someone to actually think about it, and package it that way.

At that very moment, I could not stop myself about thinking that it was the best inovation in PC gaming I've seen in a long, long time...

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I'm so ashamed of the PC gaming industry, I think I'm going to go to my bedroom to cry in fetal position.

Uhm, innovation? :P
I don't know about other places, but it's been quite common here ;)

Unfortunately... LOL

I don't know about your game, but last two games I purchased came in new plastic boxes, similar to DVD/PS2 movie/game boxes, but much ticker. This allows multi CD/DVD games to be places inside. I have to say that I love this packaging.

What game did you get? :max:

Well, I like the idea that you got a printed manual with it! That's a real rebirth! USually I just get .pdf manuals on the disk and need to print them out for easier usage :wall:

Best innovation since sliced bread, is that?

I'm with Seb on this. I can't stand it when a game only comes with a PDF manual! I don't have a laptop (well, I do, but it belongs to my employer and stays at work unless I'm on-call), so how am I supposed to read a PDF in bed? Or on the toilet? No, I don't wish to use half a ream of paper and several pounds of toner to print it out. Game companies that don't include paper manuals are just plain cheap.

(I was pleased to discover that Civ IV came with a hefty manual and a poster with all sorts of useful info on it. Thanks, Sid!)

Civ 4 came with a hefty but rubbish manual I found - it's poorly written, and insults my intelligence by putting things like "right click" in inverted commas ALL THE WAY THROUGH IT! Arrrgh! Besides, half of it's no longer accurate after the patches :)

All Sid's games come with great manuals.

In the version of the manual I have, those things are in brackets ([right-click], [mouse over]) each time they're mentioned, which I found very bizarre. I haven't read the whole thing yet, so I don't really know how useful it is.

No doubt. Not much can be done about that, though.

That's where the readme file is in function. After each update you get the option to see the readme file to find out what changes have been made and what part of the manual to ignore ;)

At least we don't get those flight sim manuals anymore. Yeesh, they were way too massive.
Blizzard has the best manuals, not too long, but filled with awesome information and cool stories about the game's plot.

I personally adore it when manuals that come in the second or third game in a series contain trivia about what came before it. While Return to Castle Wolfenstein will never be as good as Wolf3D, I really got excited about the little bits of Wolf trivia scattered throughout the manual.

I like the fact that some manuals are so heavy that they can be used as a shield or weapon in case of emergency :)