Eco friendly gaming? wth ..

[jango]

Inspired by this news ..


In an effort to be more environmentally friendly, Ubisoft announced it is eliminating all paper game manuals from its Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC products, and replacing them with in-game digital versions. The first title to incorporate an all-digital manual is Shaun White Skateboarding, which releases this holiday.

What are your thoughts on being eco-friendly when it comes to your games, packaging, manuals etc? Is this environmentalism gone mad?

[youthism_is_me]

I dontcare either way . It may sound wrong but by the time those things do alot of damage . I will be dead leaving the world in a form of chaos like it was when i was born .

[Muffincat]

I agree with it. It's a total waste to have those manuals anyway, in my opinion. I never read them, and they just sit untouched in the game cases forever. Nothing wrong with doing away with them... you get tutorials in game anyway if you choose, and what sort of info is even important in the game manual anyway?

The only time I have ever looked at them was if I bought a game somewhere and was in a car waiting excitedly to play it and looked through the manual because I really wanted to play.

[LemonRising]

Half the game manuals don't get read and then a good quarter of the rest get torn up and abused haha.

I'm for it.
Some things that people do to be eco friendly make me go "...watlol?" but small things like this make sense to me.

[LiNuX]

I never read those anyway. Even when I was buying a lot of games for the PS2. There is always options in game that allow you to look at controls or change them and that's what I've always done. I've read manuals to waste time from time to time but never to learn the game fully.

They should make everything digital and save on the materials needed for the case and cd.

Happy earth day.

[EpsilonX]

this is retarded. I like game manuals. If anything, they should make cardboard cases, or at least half cardboard half plastic. paper is biodegradable, plastic is not.

[Subb]

What is a game manual....... j/k do away with em they never exist to me anyway

[Muffincat]

this is retarded. I like game manuals. If anything, they should make cardboard cases, or at least half cardboard half plastic. paper is biodegradable, plastic is not.

Doing something about the plastic cases is a good idea, of course. But I think getting rid of the manuals is a positive step, as they are, in my opinion, mostly useless. Having the manual digital is a fine substitute.

[HamadaLFC8]

I voted for yes, most of the people don't read it anyway so its just a waste of paper,
but I do like the image inside once you open the disc :p

[EpsilonX]

Doing something about the plastic cases is a good idea, of course. But I think getting rid of the manuals is a positive step, as they are, in my opinion, mostly useless. Having the manual digital is a fine substitute.

idk, i like looking through booklets that come with the games.

[Iceskater101]

I am for it
because the booklets for me always get lost
and I never read them

[LemonRising]

idk, i like looking through booklets that come with the games.

You can still do that, it'll just be digital D:

[EpsilonX]

You can still do that, it'll just be digital D:

but it's not as much fun that way!

Game cases should all become those cardboard/plastic snapcases that DVD used to use. Or the cardboard case that Wall-e used when it came on dvd

[thedeparted]

Like i said in the other thread, this is BS pr move to cover up a cost cutting measure. It doesn't really bother me not getting paper manuals because manuals are pretty lame these days anyway so we're not really losing anything

[GrandMoff]

Honestly, I do not care. It sounds nice to say you are eco-friendly, but, and I am not saying in this instance it is, when you have to alter your lifestyle a lot to be eco-friendly, would you? To save on water usage, would you cease to shower? The environment is there for our use. That is what I believe. We do with it as we please. I am a business-oriented person. If it is more efficient to do the
eco-nonfriendly" thing, that is the practical approach.

[EpsilonX]

Honestly, I do not care. It sounds nice to say you are eco-friendly, but, and I am not saying in this instance it is, when you have to alter your lifestyle a lot to be eco-friendly, would you? To save on water usage, would you cease to shower? The environment is there for our use. That is what I believe. We do with it as we please. I am a business-oriented person. If it is more efficient to do the
eco-nonfriendly" thing, that is the practical approach.

exactly. I mean, dumping lots of pollution into the air is stupid, but we are part of the environment. the environment is where we are. resources are meant to be used.

[GrandMoff]

exactly. I mean, dumping lots of pollution into the air is stupid, but we are part of the environment. the environment is where we are. resources are meant to be used.

We are to not purposely mistreat the enviornment, of course. But we should not have to look at the environment as this delicate house of cards that will collapse.

Why you will not find many businesses onboard with this eco-friendly movement is because it is not business-friendly. Yes, businesses partake in eco-friendly movements, but not for the sake of the environment, but tax purposes. As a consequentialist, it's the end result that matters. And as it stands now, for the most part, eco-friendly products are more costly than those that are not. Businesses are out there to, well, make money, or cut costs. Until it be becomes more efficient and less costly for businesses to go eco-friendly, I stand on the side of I can care less.

[EpsilonX]

I stand by the idea that reducing use of plastic as more important than reducing use of paper: a biodegradable product who's source replenishes itself. trees grow back.

i think people should focus more on the corn-based plastic i saw on tv one time.

[Charlotte]

well it's indeed eco-friendly but one thing for sure, how is the one wanna buy that game if they don't have any money online, paypal, or maybe internet connection.
and negatively may cause their company selling drop down.
everyone wants the feeling of having real thing, i mean physically real stuff just like the video games box. it's feel like safe and it's yours. but, when it's digitally download, i hope you can imagine it yourself.

[Muffincat]

well it's indeed eco-friendly but one thing for sure, how is the one wanna buy that game if they don't have any money online, paypal, or maybe internet connection.
and negatively may cause their company selling drop down.
everyone wants the feeling of having real thing, i mean physically real stuff just like the video games box. it's feel like safe and it's yours. but, when it's digitally download, i hope you can imagine it yourself.

This isn't about digitally downloading games. It's about ceasing to have manuals in the game box itself. They still can go into the store and pay cash for it. They just won't have the fancy little waste of space manual :)

And I agree, eps, that reducing the use of plastic IS more important, but it's not like trees regrow instantaneously. Not using a ton of paper for unnecessary things like this is a good thing, though of course there is always more that can be done.

And yes, I am not saying that I think the businesses are actually concerned about necessarily "being green;" Jak's certainly right when he says it is cutting business costs packed in a pretty little "green" bow to make them look better. But it really does not matter in this case, because I think it is a positive thing to not waste so much paper and ink.

But Moff. What. There are more important things than making money, for chrissakes. Saying "The environment is there for our use" is such a simplistic way to frame it. Perhaps WE are indebted to the fact that we live in this environment and should try to take care of it a little better? Saying it's okay to do whatever we want to the planet is, in my opinion, ludicrous. While we live on it, I think we should try not to **** it up. There are too many humans as it is, and the kind of thinking you employ is just not practical with as much waste that is produced nowadays. Using up resources for unnecessary things is one of the most impractical things that could be offered. Acting as though destroying the planet has no effect, and that the only thing that matters is making more money, is incredibly detrimental. If we continue such thinking, there will be nothing left to use. Long-term thinking. It's a good thing.

[Hujan]

well it's indeed eco-friendly but one thing for sure, how is the one wanna buy that game if they don't have any money online, paypal, or maybe internet connection.
and negatively may cause their company selling drop down.
everyone wants the feeling of having real thing, i mean physically real stuff just like the video games box. it's feel like safe and it's yours. but, when it's digitally download, i hope you can imagine it yourself.

yeh you right that is a great feedback. i thing digital download is not that promising.

[Diligence109]

(lots of stuff)

What she said.

I was going to make a long post in this thread and then realized it had already been made for me with every little detail I wanted to say and even in similar prose.

* applauds muffincat*

[LemonRising]

I was going to rep you Muffin, but apparently I have to spread it around first.

SO HERE'S MY PROPS TO YOU.

PROPSPROPS.


Aka. I agree with Muffin.

[RaiDae]

Aw man, I love those little leaflets. I always used to read them... I still do. Though, recently the leaflets (in general) aren't as helpful or as pretty as they were in the past.
It'd be interesting to see what this digital version would be like. Even so, I still think i'd prefer to have a hard copy - just like I prefer to own the actual disk.

The eco thing is good, it's nice to think that the ubisoft is trying to do good for the earth.... but as many others have said it's all just a facade they hide behind to cut production costs. Would we all be as supportive of the idea if nobody had labelled it as "eco-friendly"?

And might I add, that I whole-heartedly, passionately disagree with what Moff said. We are not here to use up the Earth's resources as we see fit. I should offer you a hand down from your high horse - the Earth was not made to profit us.

Is there any news of other companies following in Ubisofts' footsteps? I know that a major shoe prodcuer is cutting out lots of their packaging... so as the shoes aren't even coming in a box anymore, they're instead in something like a cardboard sleve.... yeah....

[LemonRising]

Even if they didn't label it as a 'green-movement' I'd still be for it.
Me and my mom are always looking at useless paper things and going "wat B |"

Even if paper can be recycled, recycled paper isn't always used. Trees are still being cut down for it, and it can only be recycled so many times before turning into crap.

[Project Blaze]

I voted no. I happen to like a little light reading before I dive right into the game. Personally I think it sux. It might be environmentally friendly, but kind of a buzzkill for when the game is installing. Kind of a sad argument, but still. -_-

[KittyCat72]

I've read them when I was bored, but this sounds like a better idea.

[jango]

Some interesting views for sure.

Here's my thoughts for what it's worth ..

Personally I don't see the need for manuals much these days, especially as there's in-game tutorials, and enough web sites to provide all the info you need. For me manuals are only the tip of the packaging iceberg, and I'd certainly like to see a more balanced approach to it in general. Having said that though most of the games I get these days are purely downloaded from steam so it becomes a pointless point to worry about. However, certain games do come along that I like to invest in a hard copy, sometimes a collector's edition - but regardless I still think a balance can be struck between eco-responsibility and the overall quality of the product .. I think eventually most things will go that way, but in highly competitive markets the bravery needed to lead the way with this is probably a tricky consideration.

However, I totally hate having to pay the same for a downloaded game as I'd spend in a shop .. to me that's pointless. Once companies get their heads around how it can be done (probably once the industry finally deciphers the DRM question) then a price-drop should be inevitable .. or at least it should be.

[Project Blaze]

I didn't really give much of an opinion, but now that I think about it I don't tend to read the manuals to games that do have a built-in tutorial. But it would be kind of nice to have digital manual-esque guides/tutorials, as opposed to analog ones. Guess I was just thinking retro PS/PS2 gaming there, plus the newer games that don't say much of anything in-game as much as the manuals do. Aside from the gaming perks, the environmental benefits would be pretty decent if going digital would cut back on paper usage, especially if it caught on. Sooo, guess I'm sort of changing my opinion. :/ Wish I could re-vote. >_<