When I was bite-sized, Nintendo games were a rare treat that came to me on just a few days out of the year. It was always an experience, though. From one bright cardboard box you'd recieve a game (of course), a full-colour instruction book that usually included an extensive encyclopedia of enemy characters and items, maps, artwork and, of course, an offer to subscribe to Nintendo Power.
In these modern times, we get skeletal black-and-white instruction pamphlets contracted out to some godforsaken company without a spell-checker. Instead, we learn about games' hazards and inhabitants through extensive in-game tutorials and the developers' websites. Soon, all that will be packed with game discs will be a voice chip that growls, "Go check GameFAQs and feck off fer Chrissake."
In a way, games offer us more frivolous materials than they ever have, but now it's through digital means instead of collectables. I'm not one to get pissy about the march of progress, but sometimes when I open up a new game and see the sparse innards, the '80s brat in me says, "Awwww..."
I always figured developers took to paring pack-in material because the switch to CDs presented a perfect opportunity to save money with packaging as well as in development. Once buyers have accepted shelling out for less product, it's rare for a company to go back to their old ways (my husband never stops moaning about the days when McDonalds' Happy Meals used to come in cardboard boxes and included cookies or an ice cream cone).
Looking at this "Green Gaming" entry on the Wal-Mart gaming blog(!) though, it occurs to me that developers now have the perfect excuse for cutting back on pack-in material. Before, they just got lazy and/or wanted to save money. Now they're out to save the environment like so many Captain Planets. Yes, that was their intention all along! Initiate circle-jerk while gamers smile and nod approvingly. Veering off for a second, I don't know how I feel about being preached at by Wal-Mart. I know a naughty company that needs to clean up its own image and start treating its employees like human beings before going off on environmental crusades.
Of course, less junk is always okay by me. But then again, I never threw out my instruction booklets; I have a stack of them dating back to the NES era. Most of them have been scribbled in or chewed on by the dogs that existed in our household through the ages, but they still endure.
I salute your heroic end for the greater good, Nintendo pack-in junk.
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