Dominions 3, AGAIN!

> You were reading the background information, which I can easily believe
> I'd find fascinating, too. By "the manual" I meant the mechanics of game
> play, which I gathered from prior posts was complex, counterintuitive, and
> intimidating.

Uhm, no: I learned to play in a couple of hours. What is difficult is to
master the game - but you usually start with a favourite nation (mine is Man
in the Middle Age - basically Arthurian Britain) and learn everithing in
expanding circles from there.

> I think the "ADD" comment is over-the-top; if you're trying to apply the
> term to the vast crowd of people impatient with long operating manuals, it
> ceases to have useful meaning. They could just as easily dismiss us as
> "obsessed by low-bandwidth linear presentation."

I like Call of Duty 4 as the next guy - and I would be disappointed if a 300
pages manual is needed to play that game. But it is by the same logic that I
*pretend* a 300+ pages manual for "Dominions 3". Unfortunatly, for a game to
be "mainstream" it would seem, today, that the pamphlet is the way to go.
Consider that as early as the '90s games were praised (and sold tons of
copies) for their detailed manuals (just think about anything by
Microprose), and you will see how low we have fallen today.

On Aug 4, 8:11 am, Gandalf Parker
<gand....RemoveThis@the.dead.ISP.of.Community.net> wrote:
> I cant really disagree with those. It would be hard to have a complex game
> without complex UI.

Dwarf Fortress?

"Vincenzo Beretta" <reckall.DeleteThis@hotmail.com> contributed wisdom to
news:BL0mk.13081$0N.6461@tornado.fastwebnet.it:

> I like Call of Duty 4 as the next guy - and I would be disappointed if
> a 300 pages manual is needed to play that game. But it is by the same
> logic that I *pretend* a 300+ pages manual for "Dominions 3".
> Unfortunatly, for a game to be "mainstream" it would seem, today, that
> the pamphlet is the way to go. Consider that as early as the '90s
> games were praised (and sold tons of copies) for their detailed
> manuals (just think about anything by Microprose), and you will see
> how low we have fallen today.

And at the same time, "hint books" showed up for sale seperately which had
basically the same info that the old manuals did.

Gandalf Parker

Gandalf Parker <gandalf DeleteThis @the.dead.ISP.of.Community.net> writes:

> And at the same time, "hint books" showed up for sale seperately which had
> basically the same info that the old manuals did.

I wonder when that happened exactly? I remember I was annoyed when the
Heavy Gear 2 manual lacked information about the ranges of various
weapons. I remember wasting a lot of missiles before I realized they
could lock on from a lot further away than what they could actually
reach. As I recall, there was a substantial manual, just not as
comlete as one might wish... HG2 came out in June 1999.

WDS <Bill.DeleteThis@seurer.net> contributed wisdom to
news:f3ba2906-16bc-4c02-a7ea-57da465d0d15@w7g2000hsa.googlegroups.com:

> On Aug 4, 8:11 am, Gandalf Parker
> <gand....DeleteThis@the.dead.ISP.of.Community.net> wrote:
>> I cant really disagree with those. It would be hard to have a complex
>> gam
> e
>> without complex UI.
>
> Dwarf Fortress?

I didnt say impossible.
Many of the Dom3 players have mentioned Dwarf Fortress. I believe that one
of the developers has even played it.