The manuals are also missing from Steam, so if I had to make a guess, I would say that perhaps Triumph don't have the rights to them.

Wow, a sensible reply ! I have the manuals already, for AoW via replacementdocs and for SM via replacementdocs too but I also have the paper manual in any case. I just wondered why they weren't included with the games and was hoping for a quicker response than having to contact GOG directly.

I would imagine replacementdocs is one of those sites which is on the fringe of what is legal, much like abandonware sites. I.e. they put a lot of things up and then have a disclaimer at the bottom stating if you want your copyright removed, contact them. Most holders though don't have the time or resources to go check an remove on every site. As they aren't selling, there's less impetus to follow up either. No selling it on the other hand could lead to lawsuits for loss of earning etc. so that would be followed up. Don't assume that just because something is available that it is all fine and dandy.

You forgot the call to "sudo" ;)
https://www.xkcd.com/149/

Okay, I'm sure you're right. I just pine for the days when a game just came with a manual, no questions asked. Nowadays it's seemingly always this or that legal wrangle which prevents you (the gamer) from gaining access to what we all used to take for granted. On top of that, most "indie" games don't come with manuals either. It's one of the really shitty things about being a gamer in the modern age.

Strange. I just installed to see if it was bundled in the game itself, and it's not. Just a short "quickplay guide".

Tell me about it, I remember the days of the big box, cloth maps, manuals etc. Blame corporate US for the litigious, advertising driven, greedy world we live in. (I presume I can still use words, I know there was a big push by certain companies - king, gWorkshop - to copyright words).

I just struggle on, trying to game in the old way. I think we didn't realize at the time (in the 90s) how perfect it all already was. The games industry is HUGE now, though, and has been totally taken over by the moneyed classes, so all of this stuff is inevitable I suppose.

Just a side note : you CAN get the AoW SM manual from replacementdocs but it is missing the entire appendices (more than 50% of the whole manual). These old manuals were just works of art. Nowadays it's all DIY : learn-the-game and "you're just stupid" if you can't get to grips without a manual. It's one of the things I really hate about the modern games industry and the way it treats its customers.

Not that I want to defend the modern games industry... but their modern games don't require manuals because they've been dumbed down enough that you just need to hold the space bar and eventually you win. (only SLEIGHT hyperbole in this post)

That's an easy one to answer. When GOG signs on a new game, the publisher of the game furnishes GOG with the game and whatever other materials they may have. GOG then packages that up in their special format and makes it available for download. If the publisher doesn't give GOG a manual, then they don't have one to provide for download. So if you have a game that has no manual, it is because the publisher didn't give GOG a manual, even if such a manual exists on some other store, or on some shady website.

If you own a paper manual or PDF for a given game, or you know where a given manual for a game or any other materials (maps, etc.) can be obtained, contact GOG support or ping JudasIscariot in the forums or on GOG chat and let them know about it. GOG welcomes user contributed manuals/maps etc. and will work out the copyright/legal issues with the publisher and once they have approval to ship any missing content they'll put it up for download in the future. Many users have contributed PDF manuals or scanned manuals/maps etc. over time in this manner.

But if GOG has not been given access to such content and have not been able to obtain it via legal means otherwise, then they can't and don't ship it.

Hope this helps.

Try Prison Architect : a very clever game (but also a bit of a shambles in my opinion) which comes without any instruction manual and a totally useless set of tutorials (called campaigns). This game NEEDS a manual, but the devs haven't bothered to put one together for whatever reason. This would never have happened back in the 90s or the 00s. You can learn how this game works, and how all of its individual systems work, but you have to do it all yourself, by googling. And, oh, as a whole the game DOESN'T really work : it's not really a finished product at all. It's still fun, though, I will recommend it. But you will be put through hell trying to understand how all the clever systems fit together (which ultimately they don't). It's a NIGHTMARE to get into. Once you get into it, it's fun, but you have to work far harder than you ought to have to.

And Paradox games ? The above multiplied by 10. The worst documented games OF ALL TIME, in my experience.

Not all modern games are dumbed down (dumbing down is another topic), but some of the modern games which are complex and which DO require clear manuals don't ship with them. I think I understand "why" but that "why" isn't good enough for me, the gamer. Just release games in a finished state, with manuals. Don't use "dedication to updating the game" as an excuse for not providing gamers with manuals.
Thanks for the reply and for the information, but precisely WHY do the manual and the game itself get split up in the first place ? You can give me a lesson in the way capitalism works if you like, but I wouldn't bother. It's just ****ing annoying from my point of view, as a mere gamer, that I can't get both the game AND the manual in one purchase ? Am I being unreasonable or are the various parties involved just being a set of selfish ****s

It doesn't help really, but thanks for trying :) I continue to be annoyed.

I think the reason it happens is that once a game is finished and out there, development teams get re-tasked to work on new games etc. and the products often go into maintenance mode, and eventually into stasis. By stasis I mean the game may (or may not) still be sold out there but there are no longer developers working on it and it is effectively sold as-is. This is basically the case with the overwhelming majority of games that are still currently being sold today, as they don't usually get further patches/updates/support from the publisher/devs beyond a month/months/year or few years at best for the majority of games.

As the game ages, and they no longer have people actively supporting and maintaining or even caring about it any more, they may not keep the game's code, assets and other materials in a well organized state. Some of it might get chucked into boxes and thrown in a basement file cabinet or similar over time and forgotten.

Additionally, many game titles are sold from one company to another, or an entire company gets acquired or merged and things get moved around. Just think about how we all have crap in our basements we haven't touched in 10 years. Some of it we know is there somewhere and some of it we've forgotten even exists. Only with a company they own zillions of things and employees come and go all the time. The person who even knows where something is stored in the 4th file cabinet in the 8th room in the basement may no longer even work there, and there is generally no financial incentive for a company to go and dig through all that stuff and organize it.

That's the longer story, but the short version is that things just don't stay organized endlessly and they get lost and forgotten over time. Even the original source code for many older games has been lost by the company that originally wrote it in many cases. They just don't have the code anymore, and in many cases they don't have the manuals either.

So now these games are brought back from the dead by enthusiastic companies like GOG begging at a copyright owner's doorstep. They go dig up what they can find and say "here, go nuts" and GOG gets what they get. So, we end up with games that have no manuals sometimes, much the same way as I have no idea where my 3/4" socket is but I think it might be somewhere in the basement unless I left it in a box at my previous apartment...

...you get the idea... :)

Yes, it sucks that video games are not well preserved by the people who created them, but they're as human and disorganized as the rest of us, and in many cases they don't even exist any more, with a game passing from one company to another to another to another over time with each company doing it's best to lose more code, manuals, information, etc. :)

Sadly, in today's digital age where copyright law is taking over the world one freedom at a time, despite the fact that we have the most amazing technology ever in history to be able to archive and store art, data, etc. essentially forever - copyright laws work to thwart that by making it illegal to preserve things for the historical record or other purposes for the most part.

As much as it sucks, it is just a fact we all have to live with. What we can do, is try to track down the missing pieces ourselves via google, ebay, etc. and pass it on to GOG or the company that owns the rights and get them to make it available for everyone.

Well, I can't argue against what you've just said (which was a bit TL ; DR tbh :D) but I'm not suddenly going to just start feeling that it's okay that any seller can sell me a game without a manual, whatever the reasons for that may be. If the manual has been written and I have bought the game, it ought to be available for me to not only read, but to save somewhere (such as on my iPad). Hell, I really OUGHT to have a written copy of it sent to my door !

Basically, you were just giving me a lesson in how capitalism works, which I predicted you would do (yawn). Honestly, I could not understand this whole thing even if you repeated it to me a zillion times, because I have to be enthusiastic about something before I can even have a chance of understanding it. The modern games industry makes me sick because it has been hijacked by the desire to make money, and screw the customer. I am HOPING in the next decade that it (the games industry) might start to mature somewhat and stop treating its customers as merely stupid consumers. It should NOT let its stupid legal wrangles affect gamers in the way that they do now, whether that be about manuals or DRM or regional pricing or whatever. The games industry has become too big for its own boots and its own good. Bring back the spotty, bespectacled nerd who used to write a "classic in an attic" without expecting much in return except respect. I was never such a one but, boy I respect those guys now compared with the nasty creatures who now dominate the games industry.

As previously mentioned this is a rights issue. I looked into why for the AoW1 manual some time back. Triumph outsourced the whole thing to a Chinese publishing company which then produced a nice manual. IIRC, they are the ones with the publishing rights. Don't believe they exist anymore or if they do not as the same company.
Some of that is likely suppostion. My impression was it's in legal limbo with the addition of a language barrier.

to make it short there's no official manual

but there's a quick strategy guide on of the official website of the game (if you have used google or wharever search engine you may be found it)

http://aow.triumph.net/beginners-strategy-guide/

i'm curious, where did you find a manual on the site you mentionned (remplacementdocs)

i didn't find any related to age of wonder iii ?!?

and one the official answer :
http://steamcommunity.com/app/226840/discussions/0/540737958331350425

now, i have nothing against your questions , but well, you see , i don't have the game, and i found all those infos myself in 5 min.