The last few days have been a struggle. I had five or six ideas for Friday’s post and couldn’t get myself to piece even one of them together. 

I pushed it to Sunday. If you didn’t notice, nothing came. 

Trying to write something for today hasn’t been easier. I’ve pushed out more than 30 posts in the last month and a half, plus a few across other sites too.

I have ideas, but I just can’t get them out. 

So, I’m trying this a little differently. Instead of sitting at my desk, typing away on one of my keyboards, I’m lying in bed typing on my phone, hoping it’ll feel casual enough to finally get something out. 

One of my original Friday ideas was about how games used to come packed with instruction manuals, and how that has shifted into in-game tutorials. I wanted to look at the way games had changed from a development standpoint, but also how it had changed the experience of starting a new game. 

But I just wasn’t feeling it coming together after making my outline. 

Truly though, I miss games with manuals and other little inserts. I remember sitting in the backseat on the way home, admiring game boxes and flipping through manuals, learning controls and seeing bits of artwork through the pages. 

I also remember getting games I was so excited to try that I didn’t bother reading the manual. Part of the fun was pressing every button just to see what happened. 

These days, games don’t come with much more than a single slip of paper—usually an advertisement or a DLC code. I treasure finding collectible versions that might come with extras or an art book. 

I wish I still had the boxes and manuals for Pokemon Red and Pokemon Yellow, not for resale value but because I want to look through them again. I know I can find a digital scan, but I want to flip the physical pages again. 

I love that when I got Cyberpunk 2077 it came with a compendium, postcards, stickers and a map. It felt like a throwback to the way games used to be sold. A love letter to not just gaming, but collecting. 

I even bought a second, used copy of Cyberpunk because I saw it still had all the extras. 

When I’m browsing shelves at Gamestop and other local game shops, I keep an eye out for steelbook games and collector’s editions so I can find the extras that go along with games I love. 

It started with Gears of War years ago. I never could afford the big fancy editions, but I found out Gamestop sold steelbook copies at the same price—if they had them. And at the time, most stores didn’t display them.

I’d pop in at random, ask if they had any available, and eventually I found the first three games. Steelbook and collector copies that had art books, photos and even a medal thrown in. 

Now it’s turned into a fun scavenger hunt for any game I enjoy. The Guardians of the Galaxy deluxe copy has a beautiful steelbook inside the box, and Battlefield 1 came with a nice art book. 

I both wish more games would come with physical manuals again, and wish less had required tutorials. Sometimes I want to discover the gameplay on my own, rather than be force-fed an intro.