RTFM
      The fifth in a continuing series of articles on
                  the psychology of gaming

What's the first thing you do when you buy a new piece of
software? Unpack and install it, load it up and have a twiddle
with it, testing out the keys and clicking the mouse to see what
happens?  Or unpack it, read the manual from front to back so you
know EXACTLY how it works, and THEN install it to have a look?

Of course, not all modern software has manuals, but you get my
drift. Are you a dive-in-and-experiment person or a
get-prepared-first person?

I've got a friend who insists on reading a manual from cover to
cover before she even considers installing a new piece of
software.  I tell her she's missing all the fun of
experimentation! I love to install a new program and flail about,
clicking icons, pressing keys and being surprised at what happens.
Of course, sometimes it all goes horribly wrong and I can clearly
remember an occasion, years ago, when I was on Prestel's MicroNet
800. I was having problems with a program and sent a mailbox to my
friend Ian asking what he'd suggest. He passed on some information
that he'd been given by an Amstrad user group when he was in a
similar situation. "RTFM," he told me. When I asked what that
meant, he told me it was to "read the f****** manual". Of course,
he was right, the answer I wanted was in there. But looking at the
documentation just hadn't occurred to me.

Now I'm a bit more likely to turn to the manual ... after a few
days or even weeks. Recently I was playing Rollercoaster Tycoon
and saw one icon like a little 'for sale' sign which suggested you
could buy extra land to expand your park, but click as I might,
nothing happened. Ah well, I thought, and kept playing. After six
or so scenarios, I had a squint at the manual .. and found out
that I had indeed struggled unnecessarily with some of the earlier
levels.  These had very small parks, and building the rides was a
nightmare, while I tried to get everything to fit. From reading
the manual, I discovered that some of these could be expanded as
there was large areas of land to buy. I could have completed these
scenarios much easier by buying land using this icon, if only I'd
known how.

Again, when playing Caesar III, I found it almost impossible to
get the prosperity levels high enough to complete some of the
scenarios. When I finally gave in and looked at the manual, I
discovered several ways to bump up the prosperity. It would have
made life much easier if I'd looked earlier.

...But you may have noticed that I said "gave in and looked at the
manual" and I guess that sums up my attitude to them. I look on
reading a manual as being akin to looking at a solution. Somehow
it feels like I've cheated. Silly, isn't it?

Mind you, I also believe that software manufacturers and people
who write manuals aren't convinced that we read them either. Back
to the aforementioned Caesar III manual. When I looked up the
question on prosperity, I read the building summary in the
appendix and found that statues boosted prosperity. But there was
more.  Under 'statue, medium' it said 'Administration. Prosperity
rating up to 75%. What the hell is this shit?'. I almost fell off
my chair. I can only assume that the author of the manual had got
really fed up writing it and decided to have a rant where he
thought no-one would see it - IN the manual! (I gather that once
Sierra heard about this unofficial addition, they reprinted the
manuals pronto).

So there we have it. There seem to be two camps regarding manuals
- those who read them avidly and those who only read them as a
last resort. What does this mean? What causes the difference?

As with previous articles in this series I asked psychotherapist
Adrian Blake for his views. He said:

   "Probably the most significant factor will depend on how we
   were brought up. Was 'caution' the name of the game, or was it
   okay to play, to have fun, to take risks, to make mistakes? If
   we are lucky the answer will be yes and we will chuck the
   computer manual out the window (or at least treat it with
   proper scepticism). We will learn by doing, by experimenting,
   which is actually a more solid form of learning based on the
   old truisms that nothing teaches like experience and we learn
   most when involved.

   Our upbringing will also determine how we respond to authority
   - is it okay to rebel against the 'parental' authority of the
   manual (supposedly written by 'experts')? Or do the 'experts'
   know best?

   As a keen walker I used to believe in maps. Years of walking
   have taught me the hard way that the map is not the territory.
   Strangely enough I have found that if you dispense with the map
   the worst that can happen is that you get lost. To some people
   of course that will be a disaster. I have noticed people on
   walks assiduously studying their maps, carefully checking
   directions with a compass. I have also noticed they are no more
   or less likely to find the 'right' way than those who treat the
   map as simply an approximation of the truth.


   If you focus too much on the map it can even become
   counterproductive. You become blind to the territory ("You see
   but you do not understand," as Sherlock Homes once despairingly
   remarked to Watson).

   Many years ago when I was a keen young student a psychology
   professor told me "There are no experts in psychology". At the
   time I was shocked. Here was a professor. Of course he was an
   expert!  Twenty years later I do understand what he meant. The
   secret of life is that nobody knows very much. Another secret
   is that most people, including writers of computer manuals, are
   unlikely to tell you this."







                              - o -