Do you miss games coming in Boxes?

I huggle my game boxes. I even separate them from simple plastic DVD cases, even at the risk of destabilizing chronological orders (such as game series).

The Vice City and San Andreas boxes are very nice.
 
Are you tired of having PC packaging inconsistent with similar console packaging? Regardless of your answer, the Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association (IEMA) is here to solve this dissonant arrangement. The IEMA is the same group that introduces the 'mini-box' and the PC icon for us easily confused consumers.

Yesterday, the group announced their new design:
IEMA said:
Working in conjunction with leading publisher and retail representatives, the Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association (IEMA) today unveiled the first major redesign of the organization’s now-standard PC icon. The new version incorporates the logo into a broader template design which the group hopes will standardize the appearance of computer games packaging to make it more consistent with similar console titles.
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You may be wondering what game will flagship this brave new approach towards standardizing PC game packaging? It would have to be something monumental, to truly impact the consumer and galvanize the industry. EA is the company to take the first step, by using this new standard on none other than: Madden NFL ’07!

madden4xa.jpg
 
Ugh! It just a DVD box!

I guess they hope stupid people will buy some by accident while also increasing the retail space for games.

Sincerely,
The Vault Dweller
 
I remember about a particular period when gamemakers went like this (it must have been some 6/7 years ago): "Games are expensive? Of course they are! Look at those HUGE cardboard boxes! If only publishers realized that they can put games in a simple dvd case... Prices would be lower, I'm sure."
Anybody?
 
At the Risk of showing my affection for old school games, does anyone remember the Ultima Series boxes. Damn they were good.

We got a Manual, Quick set up guide, (ok boring i know) but then we got a work of fiction and a cloth map, cloth for crying out loud. Also i think it was ultima 7, but there was a coin. A big chunky coin. Not even the collectors edition either, just the standard one.

The Elite series had good stuff in em too. Frontier First Encounters (Elite 3) came with a detailed guide to all the ships in the game, manual (which detailed the mathematical equations behind the newtonian flight physics, well the basic ones anyway) and a series of stories.

Planescape torment got you a damn novel. Literally.

This proves two things:
1) My gaming golden age happened long ago.
2)I keep too much stuff

It also goes to show that the age when gaming was a select hobby played by a few dedicated people, playing games made by amateur enthusiasts turned pro has long since departed. Replaced by publishers calling the shots to appeal to the largest group of consumers.

Yes i miss boxes, but more importantly i miss the era and ethos that boxes represent.

:( I've made myself quite sad now.
Sven
 
You made me sad too :( .

I think that evil game distributors want to sap our Will of playing True and Pure cRPGs.
I am truly outraged by the way they destroy a culture decades old.
 
I love the manual that came in the Baldur's Gate 2 box. That was the second game I ever owned. The first was Diablo 2.
 
The trouble with getting all that fancy stuff in your box is it doesn't change sales. A person isn't going to change his mind and buy a game because it comes with a cloth map or a coin. Sure, the adamant fans of the series will like it but they'll buy the game either way. So publishers would rather make more money than show us love.
:(.
 
Yes, definitively. Real, living, breathing manuals are also nice compared to the electronical .pdf versions you get nowadays.
 
SimpleMinded said:
The trouble with getting all that fancy stuff in your box is it doesn't change sales. A person isn't going to change his mind and buy a game because it comes with a cloth map or a coin. Sure, the adamant fans of the series will like it but they'll buy the game either way. So publishers would rather make more money than show us love.
:(.
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Thats very true, i'm just sad that that is the case :)

It could be argued that there are benefits of the mass commercialisation of our hobby. What i was trying to express is a longing for a more ... innocent, optimistic time. I know that it will never happen, i'm not even sure if i had the choice i would give up the trappings of the modern gaming world.

It' just part of the human condition to believe in a golden age. Even within this context i suppose.

Cheers
Sven
 
O don't get me wrong, I agree with you fully. I save all of my game boxes in my room and absolutely despise some games decision now to put the manuals as a pdf file rather than as something I can read. Sigh, I guess my pessimistic side was speaking out again earlier :(.
 
Gail_Saint said:
I love the manual that came in the Baldur's Gate 2 box. That was the second game I ever owned. The first was Diablo 2.
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Diablo 2 manual had great drawings. Hight quality stuff. I still have 11th hour box. That did a great job on it. Still my favorite is Might magic 2 - Gates to Another world. I had to use that manual all the time. Good old times of big boxes full of extras.
 
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