Purpose

The document is to be used as “basic training” manual for people who intend on playing Medal of Honor Frontline. The instructional booklet can be read from cover to cover, but will more likely be scanned by the user to find out how to move about in the game and execute commands such as aiming and firing one of the various weapons in the game. 

The document provides instructional information so when the user first plays the game they have a “good gaming experience” and are not frustrated by not being able to “do well”. This builds the ethos of the game-system company, EA Games™ and the Medal of Honor™ game series.

When not being used the document is stored inside the plastic case the game and the document comes in.

Audience

The document in intended for users aged 13 and up, with motor skills and decent hand/eye coordination (basic ability to play videogames) – otherwise they will not have a good gaming experience. The target audience of the game – and thus the document – is 18 to 30 year olds. This group has the disposable income to spend on videogames and a general interest in playing videogames. The document also assumes the user has an interest in first person shooter games and/or in history, and/or in World War II. The document assumes the audience has a Playstation 2 Entertainment System and television and intends to play the game.

Context

The document is primarily a reference guide, as most users will only refer to the document when they have been unable to discover for themselves how to perform specific actions in the game. Thus the document will most likely be read in front of the television while the game is paused or loading.

Text

All the body text in the document is in a Sans-Serif typeface which allows for easy scanning of the document. As well, there are few paragraphs of text that are longer than four lines, so linear processing is not a major concern.

The headings and subheadings in the document are in a Stencil typeface that imitates the user’s idea of traditional military text. This typeface adds to the “realism” of the game, as well as, being a clear and easy to read typeface over a short span of text.

Graphics/Images

The entire document, except for the front cover, is black and greyscale. All the images, with the exception of the four different watermarkings for background, are screen captures.

The screen capture images are small, fuzzy and because they are printed in greyscale, hard for the user to distinguish individual elements within the image. Use of colour for the images would have been an effective enhancement for the document. Due to the image’s small size, the colour would not have created an excessive level of sugar, while making the images easier to process. Having said that, using a colour photo may have spoiled some of the ambiance of the game and its attempt to portray a vintage World War II environment. But, there was colour photography during that time, and because it was expensive would have added to the overall ethos of EA Games.

The watermarkings on the page are a unique addition to the document. They add a note of elegancy and promote EA Games’ ethos by showing the company is not afraid to spend money – a good thing when you consider the process of game development. However, two of the watermarkings add too much noise to the pages they appear on by showing the head of a solider on the recto or verso page (depending on which watermarking is used). The image of the soldier’s head is larger than the screen capture images and the relatively dark colour of the soldier’s head makes it the most salient image on the page distracting the user from the information in the document.