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 ]

Video games are an escape from reality. Their interactive worlds are often incredible places to explore. And you can become someone that you may never be: a medieval warrior, an intergalactic space explorer, an amusement park planner, an army sniper… A well-produced game can feel very much like an interactive movie. And since you become your character, games can be much more engaging than a movie can.

I channel my enthusiasm for video games by blogging about them on my site GameKiq, which covers all the modern consoles and reports news and reviews. I’ve operated a video game site in some form since 1998. That’s when I was 10 years old. I started a cheats website mostly for Nintendo 64 by using the limited web development tools that were available then. Since those days, the site has evolved through many forms (and I’ve aged many years). Sometimes it has been difficult to continue the site while I’ve had other obligations, but I’ve kept with it and I’m still loving it.

I attended PAX East this year, which was Boston’s first (of many!) annual Penny Arcade Expo, and I was blown away by the level of dedication that everyone in the video game industry has; both the players and the makers of games. There were tons of awesome little independent developers there, such as Klei Entertainment and Hello Games, who were showing innovative new games (some of which I covered on GameKiq). PAX East reminded me why I love the gaming culture — people are so enthusiastic about every aspect of it and that creates an incredibly fun environment.