Yes, that is absolutely horrible! The charm of games is not only the virtual
experience they provide but the atmosphere they create from the physical media.
Thick interesting manuals, maps, trinkets, magazines, newspapers, and all of the
other extras we use to identify a special game make it unique. I can name 40 space
opera sagas that share strong similarities in graphics, plot, and game play, and
I'm sure you can too. Can you name another game that had the same visual impact of
Elite: Frontier with its story book, manual, and info cards? Can you name a game
other than Hitchhiker's Guide that contained pocket fluff?
Other examples for me: Starflight 1, Mines to Titan, Times of Lore, Civilization,
and many others. I remember not only the gameplay but the appearance of the game
itself --
and I don't mean graphics.
Of course, a game can be great without any props, but it lessens the impact. The
physical material is the bridge between the virtuality and the real world.
Homogenizing it is offensive.
Jim Leonard wrote:
> Unfortunately for our hobby, it looks like IEMA, Infogrammes, and Activision
> are working together to standardize box size and form factor. This is
> depressing, as it means all software will come in double-thick DVD boxes (which
> are significantly smaller than the current form factor, which means no room for
> trinkets or props).
>
> Not that there ARE any trinkets or props in games nowadays, but at least there
> are usually decent thick manuals in some games, and there wouldn't be any in
> the new boxes since they're 33% smaller.
>
> PC Gamer has an article on it; would anyone like me to republish it here for
> perusal? I haven't given my OCR software a workout in a while, and this would
> be a nice task for it.
> --
> http://www.MobyGames.com/
> The world's most comprehensive historical PC gaming database project.
>
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