Only Gog can decide the fate of the refund, whether it dies without hope or if it can be given life with your store credit back. Pray to Gog almighty high up in the cloud and hope that He fancies to aid you.

Translation: Each case is up to support to decide upon, I wouldn't take chances, there are sources for manuals elsewhere.

That's the advice given by Blues several times in the past. As Maighstir said, Support department staff probably have some discretion to make exceptions in certain cases over others -- I would imagine, for example, if you only downloaded the standalone "bonus" manual, they might still let you return the game, but maybe not if you downloaded the soundtrack. But, as Maightstir also said, best to play it safe.


No problem.
If you still haven't heard back from them in another day or two, I'd advise you to reply to one of the response e-mails they sent you, or ask for help via Chat from Firek or one of the other staff who deals with support issues.

But why would you be checking the manual for a game you don't want?

I would imagine one may intuitively download the manual without even realizing it's not the right game beforehand.
Also on some occasions, you only realize "this is not the game you were looking for" upon checking the manual.

These are only assumptions though, I for one still have most of my library NOT downloaded as I don't touch any title prior to it moving out of the backlog (yes, this include year+ long entries), When it does though, I start with downloading the manual of course.

Manual, avatars, artworks are often available for free on the devs page or via steam(manuals) even if you don't own the game.

While I get this sentiment (because I used to do that too) sometimes I really feel like I'm going back into the past reading this forum, this is one of those times. I haven't actually read a manual for games in years I think xD

Depends on the game in question. There's some games with too many damn buttons, we're talking20+ keys mapped over the keyboard for different things. I can't help but recall the Xwing fighter game when TB was playing it live. There were so many buttons and mapping that printing out a page for the buttons used (maybe a quick reference) would be needed, otherwise he referred a lot to chat who would tell him what keys did what.

A lot of recent games have fallen into a pattern of what's standardized or having fewer commands. Both good and bad.

I wouldn't deny a refund if they downloaded the manuals/reference materials, as it's not like they can play the game by closing their eyes and imagining the game really really hard-like... can they?

Same, I'm assuming that wouldn't be an issue. It's their own fault for planting the manual with the 'Goodies' anyway.

Hah! A fool is you! I am currently playing Nox, Ultima Underworld, Police Quest, and Space Rangers. All at the same time. IIIIN MYYYY MIIIIIND!

status update, i got the refund, but the money hasn't appeared back on my card yet, should i wait a bit or is there something i missed?

thank you for the information.

Most GOG games that come with a manual also have a copy present in the game directory after installation. The individual .ZIP files offered as "bonus goodies" are usually only useful if you want to check the manual without having the game installed. (Most games that install with a manual also have a link to it in the Start menu program group, so you shouldn't even have to open up a file manager to find it.)

Which is completely pointless in comparison since that requires downloading the game = no refund (without problems)

The point is that it would be nicer to have it like (some games at least) on Steam where you can simple access the manual from the store page, whether you own the game or not.

Sure, but in lieu of that, ReplacementDocs is good enough if you just wanna check the manual.
The point I was trying to make was based on misunderstanding what rtcvb32 said in the comment you replied to. Sorry for the confusion.