Game Manuals

If I had done things the "intended" way, I would have read the game manual prior to turning on the playstation. Maybe I would have had an easier time manipulating the controls and maneuvering Yuna, the camera angle and my inventory.

So, I decide to take a look - what is inside the purple little book graced with the high summoner's picture. Health warning; table of contents; 2 pages of backstory; a section called 'getting started' - which shows an interesting diagram of of the actual playstation - which I find curiously funny (guess any game can be your first!). The facing pages has pictures of the controller, with arrows pointing to each button with their function written above. The more I read, the more confused I am getting, but figure it'll make sense as I turn the pages.

Wrong! The more I read, the more I realize that all these words mean very little outside of their context. Much like Myers' explanation of symbolic contextualization [p. 17], the symbols in the game manual mean little outside of their context of game play.

Logically, one would think you were meant to read the manual before loading the game, but in actuality, it seems that it is really meant to be a guide of sorts to be open beside me on the sofa while trying to navigate my way through the game. When thinking about some of the differences between games and films, I realize that besides the excerpt on the movie promo box at the video store, there is no other form of symbolic contextualization in film. The back story and character descriptions given in the Final Fantasy guide book are rare finds when considering a film.

I think I have to ponder this a little more. In many ways, film context can be alot more ambiguous than that of a video game, but there is no 'manual' for me to follow. Heaven knows my children and partner would be happier if there were one so I could stop asking incessant questions during the film.