Totally on your side here. You should check the awesome manual from Mattrix/Slitherine Games, especially Gary Grigsby'' War in the West, heck the thing is hardbound and in colour. The World in Flames manual even have 3 hardbound colour manuals.
I still remember the large manual that came with the Baldur's gate manual that were bound with rings to keep it on the page when reading.. Oh those were the days of gaming. Now they expect us to print our own and that is if they even supply one on the disk or Dl???
There is much I miss about the old days. Nowadays devs save tons of money on not having manuals, not having to press disks or budget in packaging. They have far less distribution costs. But still we get bombarded with DLC from every side.
Patching is nice. But the 'obligation' to make a sound game has always been there. There used to be some good QA. Nowadays it has just been moved until after release, because the internet infrastructure has made it more feasible, with the entire playerbase acting as unpaid beta-testers. And people treat it as if it is a gift from the developers to their players.
Maybe I'm just getting old, but it all makes me very, very nostalgic.
