Arcanum manual is long

[Bot yuri]

I have spent an whole hour on this thing and I have only finish half of it, how can a manual be sooooooo long? I can't remember what I have just read and I don't want to reread it again

[fauxpas]

Here's your participation trophy.

[Bot yuri]

Originally posted by fauxpas:

Here's your participation trophy.

The lore part is interesting, but the instruction part are, boring and long, but you don't want to miss it cause it's the only reason you read on it

[Kronovan]

Personally, I really like it and I applaud the author's effort to create a game manual that's written the way a Victorian era instruction manual was. They aimed for theme and flavor over simple bullet points and IMO succeeded. For sure there's lots of fluff in it, but most of it's entertaining.

I miss that kind of creativity and strongly dislike the lean collection of bullet points that most game manuals are these days. Or even worse, games that don't include a manual and provide shoddy in-game tutorials

I'm not sure if it's still available, but the Prima's Arcanum Strategy Guide does a much better job at detailing the game, with far less text. Albeit, that guide doesn't really go into detail on skills and their use and assumes you'll read the game manual for that.

[JaMpocalypse]

The banana bread recipe is amazing.

[fauxpas]

Originally posted by BOT Josh:

Originally posted by fauxpas:

Here's your participation trophy.

The lore part is interesting, but the instruction part are, boring and long, but you don't want to miss it cause it's the only reason you read on it

What? You need TWO trophies? That's what old style instruction manuals were, especially in the days before things could easily be looked up on the internet.

[Bot yuri]

Originally posted by Kronovan:

Personally, I really like it and I applaud the author's effort to create a game manual that's written the way a Victorian era instruction manual was. They aimed for theme and flavor over simple bullet points and IMO succeeded. For sure there's lots of fluff in it, but most of it's entertaining.

I miss that kind of creativity and strongly dislike the lean collection of bullet points that most game manuals are these days. Or even worse, games that don't include a manual and provide shoddy in-game tutorials

I'm not sure if it's still available, but the Prima's Arcanum Strategy Guide does a much better job at detailing the game, with far less text. Albeit, that guide doesn't really go into detail on skills and their use and assumes you'll read the game manual for that.

I have finished it, i feel the instruction part could be shorten and make it easier to read or something, but the more part like race and technology are so good and detailed

[Bot yuri]

Originally posted by fauxpas:

Originally posted by BOT Josh:

The lore part is interesting, but the instruction part are, boring and long, but you don't want to miss it cause it's the only reason you read on it

What? You need TWO trophies? That's what old style instruction manuals were, especially in the days before things could easily be looked up on the internet.

I have a feeling that the instruction are designed for those who have never played a game before, that's why it feels clumsy and long, it feels like reading my primary school textbook

[Swordmage]

Welcome to old school game design. Manuals with a long mix of lore and info was the norm back in the day.

[alpha_9er]

Originally posted by Swordmage:

Welcome to old school game design. Manuals with a long mix of lore and info was the norm back in the day.

Not to mention manual-as-DRM.

[Saxton]

I was in graduate school when Arcanum was released, and I remember sitting in the lab reading through the manual for fun in-between classes and writing papers.