atw: Re: Report from a parallel universe
- From: LEWINGTON Warren <Warren_LEWINGTON@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2010 12:27:26 +1000
These are both interesting posts, given that one grabs the by-line, they are
essentially the same article. But is not for the content of the article, it is
the discussions that blog post predicated that are most interesting.
It seems that UbiSoft has decided, on reading the article, to completely stop
producing manuals, my bet is that they will (probably) supply pdf or soft-copy
format versions of the manual. The cynical responses, which are mostly
universally condemning - along with many posts claiming never to use the
manuals anyway - is very interesting.
Many of the users of the products are saying that they will refuse to buy games
that they see don't provide the support they want. So form our perspective, the
posts are most illuminating about the sort of attitudes people do have about
poor or good manuals. Those posts also offer some interesting notes about the
physical appearance - kept as much for the artwork (like my comments about the
latest CorelDraw version) as for the information, considered "collectable" and
so on. These are issues I have made a point about in my documentation over the
last few years - presentation should be representative of the company and
should display quality, both in information and delivery.
So it does seem on reading some of the replies that there is a significant
notional value-add to products with good documentation - even if the value-add
is not directly measureable. This would possibly make an interesting study.
Questions along the lines of whether the appearance of comprehensive
documentation being present (as opposed to whether it actually was useful)
makes the user more comfortable with purchase and actual use of the product
would be what I would be interested in having answered.
Regards
Warren Lewington
Technical Writer
Compliance and Enforcement Branch
-----Original Message-----
From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of James Hunt
Sent: Monday, 28 June 2010 9:52 PM
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: atw: Report from a parallel universe
A debate re-played:
http://www.thegamersblog.com/2010/04/22/printed-manuals-no-more/
and
http://games.slashdot.org/story/10/04/22/1728207/Ubisoft-Says-No-More-
Game-Manuals?art_pos=8
(Yes, I am behind in my reading...)
James Hunt
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