Handbooks - Quality declining ?

@Wulf : You're right. I frequented forums a lot when I needed some help when I got stuck or with some bugs ( )
However, you can keep handbooks, but some forums dissapear, either because of unpopularity or no time (or money) by the webmaster. A lot of older RPGs and other games have lost their forums and it's quite hard to find some information for some of those games.

I'm for every kind of help included. I prefer it to be included. If people are like you and don't like the manuals or help guides, then they (along with you) can just put them aside. Others might want to read them when stuck or for some tips. Then others can also read the whole manual if they want to.
If there isn't a manual then the people don't have that choice, which is quite important for me.


@Alrik : I'm sorry, but you're wrong. Civilization (at least II and III) have almost complete in-game manuals with everything in it. I don't think I ever managed to read everything in those help pages. If you were talking about RPG in-game help then you might be right though.

I haven't seen any ring handbooks either. I do have some kind of magazine handbook for Civ II.
Never got a cloth map either . Too young for those I guess.

You never had a cloth map Pladio?.. it was quite normal for gamers to open the box and say "not another map!"

the ultima's were well known for them, take a look at what you missed....

http://www.idsa.net/ultima/

Wow...... (NOT World of Warcraft!)
Those are a great deal of maps ! IS that your room ?!?
The only real maps I got were the ones from M&M7 and RTW, but both weren't cloth maps.

Why don't they make them anymore? The cloth maps, I mean ?

They are fairly expensive to make I would assume, and difficult to fit inside a standard DVD box!!

Cost reduction. More income. Longer programming time.

Pladio said:

Why don't they make them anymore? The cloth maps, I mean ?

Click to expand...

They still do... though it's rare. NWN2 Limited Edition comes with a small cloth map.

Gothic 3 Collector's Edition (I ordered it from Sweden) has a very nice, big cloth map.

I didn't know that. Can you post a pic ?

Pladio said:

I didn't know that. Can you post a pic ?

Click to expand...

Here you go...

One of the Gothic 3 map and one of the NWN2 map... I hope the link works...

Maps

EDIT: Please note that in the two pics the maps probably look the same size, but the Gothic 3 map is at least twice the size of the NWN2 map.

Very nice, narpet! The Gothic 3 map looks like an authentic specimen of the cartographer's art. . Some day when the word on the street says G3 is stable, I look forward to buying and playing it.

I remember baldurs gate 2 collectors edition came with a cloth map, it was a really coarse cloth though, not like the old soft ultima maps that you could use to blow your nose.

Are you saying you blew your nose with maps ?

Isn't that what they're most useful for?

Oh I forgot to respond about the topic. Yeah the Gothic map looks good. Unfortunately the pic quality of the NWN map in particular isn't very good.

Corwin... Please don't post pics of your maps.

Pladio said:

Are you saying you blew your nose with maps ?

Click to expand...

Isn't that the way Goblins create their "maps" ?

I didn't understand the joke
"maps" ?

Yes. You wouldn't call a map in which all of the lines and structures are made out of the contents of a blewn nose (now hanging within the tissue - the "map" in this case) a "map", would you ?

OOOhhhh. No you won't