If you’ve played a video game any time in the past… well, dozen years, you’ll know that they all come with a silly printed paper manual that you probably never looked at. These manuals are ugly (often printed in black and white), and essentially just duplicate the information that you learn in-game.

I have used a manual recently, but only to look up controls for a game that I hadn’t played in a while (Dead Space). But the control mapping scheme would have been just as easy (probably even easier) to look up if there was an on-screen menu item that displayed all the controls.

The first game that will ship sans manual will be Shaun White Skateboarding this fall, which will be released for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. “It’s pretty cool that Ubisoft is making a conscious effort to go green with its new video game packaging,” said Olympic Gold Medalist Shaun White. “I’m excited for my new skateboarding game to come out and stoked that it will be the very first Ubisoft game to be part of their green packaging initiatives.”

At the moment, the paper-saving digital manual initiative will be only for Xbox 360 and PS3, not for the Nintendo Wii, DS, or Sony PSP. This will coincide with Ubisoft’s PC “ecoTech” packaging that they’ve been rolling out recently.

[ Via Joystiq and GamingTarget ]

Photo credit: Bibliona on Flickr

BBC is reporting that the Copenhagen Crowne Plaza Hotel will be handing out $36 (or 26 euros / £23) food vouchers to its guests who generate at least 10 watt hours of electricity on a stationary bike that’s hooked up to a generator. Apparently, 10 watt hours works out to about 15 minutes of cycling for the average person. The bikes will have iPhones attached that will fancily show the rider how much electricity they are generating for the building.

This is an awesome idea. Who wouldn’t spend 15 minutes to get a free meal? Especially if you’re someone who might be inclined to do some exercising anyway. Frederikke Toemmergaard, the hotel spokeswoman with an amazing name, seems to think that this will appeal mostly to those people who would be exercising with or without a free meal. I imagine that it will appeal to more than just those business travelers. Toemmergaard doesn’t seem to think “people will exploit the initiative” just to get a free meal. But my reaction to that is:

Let people exploit the free money offer for exercising!

Why not? It’s good for the guests, because they are getting motivated to exercise. And, of course, they’re getting free chow. And it’s good for the hotel because it generates electricity for them (I have no idea if the numbers work out so that 10 watt hours are worth the cost to make the food they are giving away). Not only that, the Crowne Plaza is getting a green image boost. Which is an image boost that everyone wants these days, right?

This PR Plan was created for A123Systems in Professor Cheryl Ann Lambert’s Media Relations class in Fall 2008. A123Systems engineers battery technology that can be used in applications such as hybrid or electric cars.  This was created for academic purposes only, and obviously doesn’t reflect the views of A123Systems or any of its partners or affiliates. I made this. They didn’t.
A123 PR Plan – Master