A good booklet sized manual always comes with a complex game.
Though a complex game alas not always has an extensive manual.

I like playing a new game without the manual, figuring things out until Im too tired to use brain skills and realise Ive been staring at my inventory for fifteen minutes.
Then I go to bed with the lovely huge manual and read it until I fall asleep.

I love expansive manuals.
I hope Skyrim has one.

Actually, I still remember when I got my xbox with Morrowind. I got home, went to the bathroom and read the whole manual. By the time I was done, I couldnt believe I was going to play this game! Now, I always read manuals before playing. And in six I like foreplay. Go figure.

thats a mans time man. you should enjoy it. its the best part of the day for me, well on 11-11-11 it will be the second best time for the best time will obviously watching the opening cutscene/looking at the first start up menu as i foam at the mouth :drool:


and as to reading my new manuals on the john...i do that exact same thing and hope to cram some skyrim lore down my throat as im on it before i play the game.

Why use the manual when you can just use the UESP or better yet the forum. The only time I'll look at the game manual is when I'm 1st starting out so that I get acquired with the controls.

It helps in game, it helps those that don't have access to the internet 24/7, it helps those that don't spend free time online ( I remember those days. )
It shows fans that the company took pride in the game, that they have an artistic side.
That they're not too cheap to publish one.
That they don't care just about releasing everything with an expensive game guide.

It helps players that want to plan ahead but don't want spoilers, it helps P&P gamers, it really just helps a fair few people tbh.

Edit: ms typing and that I forgot about toilets.

Sad, but true. What p*sses me off is that even the electronic (pdf) manuals are really lame lately. I can see not paying to print a 60 page manual, but I want some decent details on playing the game, selecting my character. I'll be happy with a really good digital manual

For lame example, see Dragon Age 2, which electronic manual is a grand total of 23 pages, and leaves out such goodies as how to go from day to night (since it doesn;t happen in the game until YOU press the right button)

Every month I get PC gamer and I'm good for pooping for about two weeks as I read it. I then have to hold it all in until the next magazine comes a few weeks later. It is very painful and I need other means of relieving myself. A beefy book that the elderscrolls games have had in the past will greatly reduce my uncomfort.

I also had the lore book that came with the collectors edition so that helped too.

Whats this big chunky Oblivion Manual are you guys talking about? mine was barely the thickness of 3-4 quarters stacked ontop of each other >_>

Collector's Edition better have a good map. A big cloth map with Ye Olde Scripte. And a manual you can bludgeon someone to death with.

If you're reading this Bethesda, I love your monstrous manuals. Keep 'em up.

I do this all the time too. Game manuals have nothing to them these days though :sadvaultboy:

Oh man, have you seen Warcraft 3's game manual? It's a small novel containing nearly 200 pages, and if you got the battlechest with expansion you'd get a second one for the expansion, though I think that was just a strategy guide, as well as a strategy guide for the vanilla game. I wish they'd do something like that for Skyrim, doesn't have to be that large, just something that has some meat to it unlike most manuals these days which barely exceed 10 pages if they do. I've seen quite a few that are just 1 sheet of paper folded in half with front back and the two inside "pages".

I am not alone in this then!

WOW, so i'm not the only one that does this.

I think my all-time favorite manual, and one of the best ever, was Mechwarrior 2's. It was set up so it looked old and read, had notes and scribbles written in the margins all throughout, was awesome. It had a history of the clans and the inner-sphere, and the mech controls read like a manual for mechs as opposed to a video game manual.

Oblivion's was awesome for the same reason, well written, and lore. 2 things that don't go into manuals anymore. Heck, even early SNES RPG's had manuals with a walkthrough for the beginning of the game and maybe a short story to set the game up.

Oh, I lied, Earthbound is my all time favorite and best manual. It shouted at me from the box on the book-shelf.

Redguard's manual is both. It's 28 pages of comic w/ one page of chain mail q&a, 46 pages of Pocket Guide, and 9 pages of manual. ( That's front and back, if you're wondering. ) The pages aren't colored, but the cover's sturdy.


Edit: No, what I mean is, that counts each side as a page.

I've never read a manual in the bathroom. I do, however, always love to read manuals. I usually read them in the car on the way home, but I guess the time it takes my PS3 to install games could be used, as well. I love Bethesda manuals and do hope Skyrim gets one of equal magnitude to those of Morrowind, Oblivion, and Fallout 3. All of them were nice, all had a colorful and consistent theme, all were surprisingly decent sized for 21st century game manuals, and, at least in the case of Morrowind and Oblivion (don't remember Fallout 3's), they came with a sincere letter and greeting from the development team. Those are nice and I can't think of any other game company that's had those in their manuals.

Ahh it's so funny. I just came back from reading the FFXII guide in the bathroom and clicked on this thread. I too, am among friends apparently.
And yes, I vote for a big chunky manual with this game. I will also buy the Prima guide or w/e for the same reasons, a little bedtime and dumptime perusing.

The small things are best in life. Ahhahah