It'd be nice to have an electronic copy of the manual available a week or so before game release - people will need time to understand the new character system and plan their character.

I have a pc, but I'm assuming that consoles can also use pdf or some electronic format of manual?

I wouldn't want it, and I doubt it will happen personally.

Hell no. I need something to hold over my excitement while I toil in my seat on the ride back from EB Games, and during the installation process.

Well, that and the new game smell. Mmm...

Nah, learning what all the buttons do is part of the fun!

I'd love to have a complete description of all the perk trees and racial abilities. And if they aren't secretive about dragon shouts I'd love that too.

I'm surprised they haven't been leaked from all the game demo's. Those things were the first things leaked from the diablo3 beta.

People need time to understand the new character system and plan out their character? Really? The new character system is literally this:

1. Pick a gender.
2. Pick a race.
3. Move sliders and facial feature options to make them look how you want.
4. Pick a name.

No more choosing classes/major skills, or even birthsigns.

Has it really been dumbed down that far???? Sounds suitable for IQ ~ 35

Isn't there anything to choose and/or plan for???

It will never happen but heres hopin.

My only plan is to be either Nord or Bosmer beyond that I have no plan, but I don't need the manual. I'll just see what there is to see when I get it unless some more info on it comes out before then.

Attributes are gone, so you no longer choose two to specialize in.

Major skills are gone (good riddance) so instead of choosing major skills to define your class you just play the game and use whatever skills interest you. The higher a skill is, the more it contributes to raising your level when you increase the skill, encouraging specialization but not metagaming.

Birthsigns are gone and "replaced" with guardian stones and the perk system. This is the one that I'm most disappointed about, as neither one really does what birthsigns did.

The main choice in character creation is your race. Each race will have different starting skill values and racial ablities/powers.

Sounds "interesting" - in the Chinese curse sense of the word!!!
Will obviously lead to very weak starting characters - game balance - starting out versus experienced, will be a problem I suspect.

I still want the manual a week early though!

That's gonna ruin my fun. :sadvaultboy: :sadvaultboy:

That's gonna ruin my fun. :sadvaultboy: :sadvaultboy:

So I'm guessing you just started paying attention to the skyrim news? The no classes/attributes/birthsigns news was a huge controversy for months.

I'm not so worried about how strong a level 1 character is because they're supposed to be weak. In MW/OB major and minor skills didn't really give you much bonus unless you stacked them up with racial bonuses. Plus leveling happens about twice as fast, with a choice of a perk between each level so your character should start to develop quickly. And the lower you start, the more rewarding the sense of progression is when you get up to the high levels.

Sad to say, but the game has been catered to the casual gamer, not the die-hard RPG.

I hear ya too, cause a true RPG with the creation engine could have boundless possibilities.

Better yet. Do a mojang and Notch and leak the TES update some weeks early.

...

I'll settle for the manual.

Edit: Suppose they're already doing the above though, with "leaking" the dlc's 30 days early on the xbox

How would they get distributed? Isn't the whole point of buying the game with a case so you get the manual?

Yes. So much yes. Except, I don't think EB Games exists anymore.

But other than that, so much yes.

No. Part of the experience is reading the manual before playing, which I do for games Im really excited about. Its part of the expectation and the magic, something you kind of lose after you grow up and you realize Santa Claus (or the Three Wise Men for me) doesnt exist.

Game manuals? I think I remember those from my youth. But that was 20-30 years ago, nowadays we have tutorials. I fondly remember the manuals of yesteryear with the cool "DRM" consisting of a spin wheel and questions that needed answering.

I don't understand why they don't do it :

1) game manual must be ready at T-2 weeks so that it can be included in the retail boxes, either as a printed manual, or a file on the DVD

2) Beth already has a web site for support (patches, etc), so adding a link to a pdf manual shouldn't be that big a deal.


so why not?

I really don't understand why so many people do NOT want the manual out early - I'm thinking that they may not use the manual anyway?

The only thing an early manual release would accomplish is to make the forums an insufferable flamezone for the rest of the time until release.

No, I don't like this idea, not just for the whole "ruins the excitement blah blah blah" reason, but there's another reason:

As it is, manuals are already restricted to some pretty strict deadlines (well, the ones that aren't two pages long anyway, looking at you Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood). They often have to be finished several weeks before the game comes out. Sometimes it gets to the point where where the people who write the manual have to draw from beta versions of the game, and the result is that the manual can have some pretty inaccurate info in it. In the Before Time, in the Long Long Ago, World of Warcraft did this with its manual. The WoW manual had screenshots and mechanics listed that had been taken out several beta builds ago (the Tauren race's plainsrunning ability and your own NPCs attacking you if you kill too many enemy civilians for example, not to mention several incorrect ability descriptions).

So I can't see how shaving another two weeks off the manual's deadline will help its accuracy at all.

The manual MUST be completed by the time they start to manufacture the retail DVDs!!

This is at LEAST 2 weeks before release!