I'll read them usually after having a go of the game first. The ones with humour are generally more entertaining, and the charm of something like We Love Katamari is too awesome to resist.

I usually just read the background storyline and the character bios. For some games (like Drakengard) you actually have to read the booklet to make sense of the story.

I can't be bothered anymore. Seems like every single game has an in-game training thing you can't skip that forces you to learn how to play by slapping you with a wet fish. Sure does a better job than an instruction manual.

That and the majority of PAL manuals are either stripped back or squished beyond recognition due to cramming a number of different languages in there. There are some though, like We Love Katamari and the Wario Ware games that have excellent, fun to read manuals. =D

Most of the time though, they are just the graphic designers excuse to show off rare art that you can't find on the net unless you scan it.

I usually don't read the manuals, unless I'm starting a combat game or something. As the game is loading, I just quickly glance at the controls. Most other games are pretty easy to figure out. If there's one manual that I couldn't have lived without, it would have to be Arcanum. It's filled with handy shortcuts and tips, as well as rather important information. I would have never figured out that the spacebar switched the game from RTC to TBC.

I still like instruction manuals, if only for the "feelie" novelty of the better ones. Zeus, for example, explained the game's mechanics and commands entirely through a written narrative not unlike an actual Greek mythological tale in feel. GTA and Manhunt remained astonishingly in character on every page. Of course, everybody knows that We <3 Katamari's manual is just plain awesome.

I still get nostalgic for the old manual-based copy protection of the past. Not the "page 6, line 21, second word" kind, but the ones that really made sense in the context of the game. Sierra had a lot of those. StarTropics even had the whole dipping the paper in water thing, although it doesn't exactly involve the manual itself. I simply feel like games lost a certain degree of immersiveness when manuals became an afterthought.

Never looked at them. But I hate losing them. I won't buy a used game if it doesn't have the manual.

If it doesn't have any good background story information, chances are good I won't read it. Most games are pretty straight forward. Especially console games. There are exceptions. Learning the controls for Syndicate Wars (PS1) was impossible without reading the instruction manual, and keeping it in front of you the whole time you played.

I'll flick through the manual for a second to make sure the pages aren't stuck together or something, but nothing more. The first manual I read was Killer 7's, only because I had no idea what was going on.

EDIT: Oh yeah, the Wario Ware manuals are cool too. STICKERS AND PUZZLES! It's a game in itself.

The last game that I thoroughly read the instructios for was probably Civilisation II. Back in those days, manuals were actually of some use. These days the strategy games tend to have a full tutorial and built-in help system.

I spend a total of 1o minutes learning the game. 5 to read the manual and 5 to actually practice the game, of which I then pown my freinds at an additinal 5 minutes later with things in the manual because they were to lazy to read them

I generally only have a look through the instruction manual after playing the game that it came with for a while. And even then i don't look at everything, just the controls if i'm having a little difficulty with them.

I usually browse through an instruction manual, cause i'll get a grasp of what's to come before it hits so i know what to be expecting. But usually, it's to see the artwork and the extra bits of story/misc info that i have an affinity for. Most of this practice is backed by my taste in anti-generic games that really elude to no parallel gameplay elsewhere.
I'm sure that the older games had a bit more of a reason with the Life=score@50000x1.5N sorts of formulas, so reading the scoring of points of enemies would help, the different techniques such as power jumping (as seen in Super Mario Bros. 2) that had long been forgot in this day and age... not to mention the amazing passwords they'd "accidentally" leave in the in-game screenshots of the password screen overviews (tee hee). so basically it's to see if there's anything that the game is likely to not tell, however little of it there may be...

I'll usually have a look at them while starting the game or when I'm taking a small break.

But to me, they're more part of the package as I collect my games now. Gotta make sure they're in good condition :)

Ever since the original Final Fantasy, strategy guides was the way to go. I love reading guides, hate manuals.

Capcom's manuals these days are weird. Everything I have for the GBA is in full colour. Console manuals are always in black and white.

Does anyone else find that odd?