Master of Orion III manual

[drsparnum]

Manual

Well, if someone did post a link to the manual's PDF I wouldn't tell on them and I would be grateful for the entertainment while I wait (crosses fingers for this Friday) for the game to arrive.

Seriously, I buy all my games legit and I feel strongly about that. But who cares if I download the manual.

[General Ludd]

Re: Manual

Originally posted by drsparnum
But who cares if I download the manual.

The same people who care if you download the game (minus some of the corporate sycophants), it infringes on copy rights and such. But most notably would be the owners of apolyton, who wouldn't want to get into legal trouble by allowing people to post pirated material on their site.

[drsparnum]

Okay, I agree that downloading the manual would be illegal. But being illegal does not make it wrong.

It would be illegal to obtain a cracked game, even if you later buy that game (not to mention doing this really has no point). However, if one had full intention to eventually buy that game and made good on that intention they would have commited no moral wrong in my estimation.

I play an UT2003 game with people from work on Sunday nights and out of like 15 people I am the ONLY one who bought the game legally, because to me they are all clearly be stealing. In fact, I secretly hope that the guy who organized the whole thing and his inner circle of croonies gets caught. So, I can't believe I am actually arguing in favor of a form of piracy.

However, in this case, since I will definetly buy the game, and because the only reason I don't actually have the game right now are:
1. limitations of game packaging/production capacity.
2. IG trying to seperate the release of this game from Unreal 2 (which makes little sense to me)

I would definetly download a PDF of the manual and read it cover to cover.

As for your point about this website getting in trouble for posting a link to download it from, I can't argue with that. You could be right. If anyone wants to email me a link where I can download the manual I would greatly appreciate it.

drsparnum@yahoo.com

[leiavoia]

Originally posted by drsparnum
If anyone wants to email me a link where I can download the manual I would greatly appreciate it.

drsparnum@yahoo.com

You must be joking.

no, like i said before, the manual contains harvester info that should not be made public. also those under NDA's are not legally allowed to do such a thing on a forum or email or anything, secret or not.

[rhofman]

Many people make up their moral compass as they go along. Here's my two cents worth.

I don't thing it is wrong to try a cracked game provided there is no demo for it. I don't think an individual should have to lay out $70 (canadian) to try a game. If you play MP regularly you are not trying the game to see if you like it. Trying it means installing it, playing for a week or less and uninstalling.

As for the manuals there is no moral reason to keep it private once a game is released. It is just supplementary material.

[drsparnum]

So it would be wrong for me to have info on the harvesters today because it would violate the NDA, but it won't be wrong for me to have such info on Feb 25 when it is no longer illegal. Plus, harvester info was contained in the strategy guide which came out months ago. I know the designers were not happy about this but it still isn't wrong to have bought the strategy guide.

I used to agree with you Rhofman. When I got Monopoly Tycoon last year (I guess it might be two years now, man we are all getting old fast) I tried to encourage my friends to copy it so I would have people to play with. I rationalized for them that since they were not going to buy the game (and none of them were) any way then they wouldn't be stealing from anyone. The developer/publisher/store wouldn't be losing any money because they were never going to buy the game anyway.

I personally, have now switched to a stricter interpertation. Just about any PC game that is good is easily worth $50 (i'm not rich, i'm just a grad student-but $50 for hundreds of hours of entertainment is the best deal around). For me I am more short on time then cash for these games and I don't play many great games each year just because of time. Therefore, any PC game I buy, I will invest a significant amount of time into, get alot of entertainment out of, and I will "owe" the games creators fair compensation for their efforts. Plus, with so many websites and magazines out there reviewing games I basically never buy a bad game anymore. But Rhofman you are definetly right about everyone setting their own morale compass.

I'm sorry for bugging everyone by trying to foster my morales on other people. It is the kind of thing I absolutely hate when other people do it. I guess I am just still PO'd about my UT2003 crowd and I cannot vent to them, and everyone else I know would not understand the situation at all.

[leiavoia]

So it would be wrong for me to have info on the harvesters today because it would violate the NDA, but it won't be wrong for me to have such info on Feb 25 when it is no longer illegal. Plus, harvester info was contained in the strategy guide which came out months ago. I know the designers were not happy about this but it still isn't wrong to have bought the strategy guide.

Yes. if for no other reason than whoever is giving you the manual will be in trouble per Rantz. I'm not just talking about info, but screenshots, artwork, backstory, everything.

It would also be common courtesy to the devs

[raghar]

Are you scared to download manual just becouse you could see Harve. info? Boy, there woud be lots of info about Harve, web sites, forums, mail lists, usenet, encrypted comunication, and so on. I just hope there wouldn't be TV ads about it. Imagine, you'd leave your home and see ti right in front of your house.
Then again why would you dl manual when you have it on CD? I thought just I'm such creasy to dl thing that I have on HD, somewhere between 150000 files and without knowledge about its name... (BTW I think pir distros would be with pdf manuals.)

[rhofman]

I used to agree with you Rhofman. When I got Monopoly Tycoon last year (I guess it might be two years now, man we are all getting old fast) I tried to encourage my friends to copy it so I would have people to play with. I rationalized for them that since they were not going to buy the game (and none of them were) any way then they wouldn't be stealing from anyone. The developer/publisher/store wouldn't be losing any money because they were never going to buy the game anyway.

That's not the same thing. If they played you a couple of times and decided they wanted to play more they should buy the game. If they don't like it or just don't want to spend the money on it they should uninstall it.

All the games that I've spent hours on I've bought.

[Harry Seldon]

I don't mind playing burned copies of games. It keeps me from wasting money on games that s*ck. When I find one that's good, I go out and buy it. If it's horrible, I chunk it. I get tired of buying games, music, movies, etc and feeling like I've been ripped off and the execs are laughing all the way to the bank with my money. As for the pdf manual, I'm content to wait knowing I'll probably buy the game when it comes out. Downloading it now will give you a, what, two hour head start than if you just waited? Plus there's no telling how much sh*t would go down if you were too excited to keep your yapper shut about it, for you and whoever gave it to you.

*sigh* kids these days...

[Mr.Moustache]

Whats the harm in waiting? I have been waiting awhile now to play this game, just like probably most of you here. I want to find out everything about MoO3 while playing the game itself (the races, ithkul, the 5 X's, magnate races and etc), and not from a pdf file that someone leaked out. It just wouldn't be the same, and it would kill a big part of the mystery in MoO3.

About copying CD's and etc, well I do burn/copy CD's that I buy. Not to give to other people, but to keep the original CD from getting scratches. I have little people in the house, and I noticed that they somehow can't place a CD on a computer tray nicely. So I don't really care if a burned copy of MoO3 gets damaged, atleast I still got the original some place safe.

[rhofman]

*sigh* kids these days...

You sound like the ancient Greeks. Kids will always be impetuous. Deal with it.

[drsparnum]

Rhofman: Well it didn't matter much. Nobody would play me in Monopoly Tycoon even when I was offering the game for free. Too bad too, cause I had some technical difficulties playing online with gamespy and it seemed like it would have been a great multiplayer game.

Seldon: I would agree with you if I was made of sterner stuff. I know that I personally would find it very hard to actually go out and buy a legit copy of a game I really liked when i had been playing a cracked one just fine. If I could trust myself then I would feel more confident about using that policy myself. I recognize my temptations to do wrong and so I personally am doubtful I would buy it for real.

However, none of this has persuaded me that getting the manual early, although legally wrong, would be morally wrong because it wouldn't be hurting anybody else. Plus, I would then actually read the manual before playing instead of trying to immediatly struggle through a first game (which is what will definetly happen). And I would have something to do tonight instead of check this forum because I am obsessed with this game. But it is all just my opinion.

[ikilledmybroker]

Manual or .pdf ?

Does anyone know if the UK version will be shipped with a proper tree-unfriendly manual, or are we going to habve to put up with a sucky .pdf again ?

[Grumbold]

I don't know IKMB. Rantz has offered to pass on any information he has once he knows for certain. Last I heard he wasn't even sure what was definitely in the US box although we do now know the size and shape of its manual.