In My Experience... | Random access info architecture. (9710)

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Random access info architecture.
[ Posted by Dan on February 19, 2004 | 3 Comments ]

One trend I have noticed in many video games produced within the last couple of years is that the game teaches you to play it as you play it and assumes that you haven't read the manual. More often than not, those assumptions are well founded. Mario&Luigi: SuperStar Saga is one of those games where I need the on-the-job training, and Project Gotham Racing 2 (PGR2) isn't.

The manual for Mario&Luigi is so bad that it should be training me on how to use it (like the O'Reilly books do). On every page of the manual there are page numbers for more in depth explanations of the game mechanics, and quite often, there really isn't any info at all except for the page reference. IMHO, good manuals cover the basics up front in a linear fashion (ie, know this, then know this second thing and then know this third thing and you should have enough to go on). The manic, random access info architecture of the Mario&Luigi manual makes it a complete HASSLE to read and nearly impossible to grok when your job, wife and daughter are placing high premiums on your time.

I'll definitely agree with you on that one. Why did they even both shipping a manual at all, because it would be "wrong" to not have one? Whenever I had a question about some aspect of the game, the manual never answered the question.

While some hand holding is nice, it is nice to figure some things out for yourself, imo.

-Posted by milbertus on February 19, 2004 05:51 PM

I have been thinking alot about this same topic lately, trying to figure out how to make a website that "teaches you to play it as you play it".

I deal with a customer base that skews very old, so it is especially important for our site.

Maybe I will start making everyone play a practice level before they can have access to the full site ;)

-Posted by josh on February 26, 2004 03:41 PM

One of the important things to remember here is the on the job training. Which is to say that the tasks you perform that are training tasks are giving you things you can keep.

Training hours and task acheivement that is thrown out when the training is complete leaves the user feeling empty.

-Posted by Dan on February 26, 2004 03:48 PM

Comment posting has been turned off because I don't have enough time and will to deal with the constant comment spamming. I'm very sorry and will fix this sometime soon (soon = before 2004 ends).