[Annette]

I can't really address points made about content because I'm not involved in the creation or editing process. But I do work directly with our printers so I can address the impression that the manual is a "photocopy". We faced a challenge with production of the WPP manual because of it's page count, but it most certainly was printed direct from file on the same digital presses by the same commercial printer who produces all our game manuals. Our selection of manual format and packaging is dictated by page count and is not something we pinch pennies over. We've printed smaller runs of perfect bound manuals (and I'm making an assumption that is what is meant by "real" manual), so again, cost is not the issue.

This manual is unique in that it's not quite enough pages to be perfect bound (with a spine like the typical ProSim ATF or AATF manual), and yet it pushes the envelope for what will fit in a safebox. Many of our games which come packaged this way have manuals with far fewer pages, such as BCT Commander or Air Command 3.0. In those cases we can upgrade to a heavier coated stock. Rather than sacrifice content to keep the page count down, we chose standard uncoated paper so the manual will comfortably fit inside the packaging (this is the same paper our perfect bound and spiral bound manuals are printed on, including Dominions 3 which many have praised).

When we received the finished product we considered starting over from square one by going back to our old style of packaging manuals with similar page counts. Some of you may remember nine and ten years ago, before safeboxes were common, we printed manuals with comparable page counts as saddlestitched bookets with cardstock covers. We shrinkwrapped the manuals with the game CD nestled inside the pages. The benefit is that the size of the page itself could be slightly larger, enabling us to enlarge the screenshots. In the end, we felt it was more important to release the game when promised rather than cause another delay by reprinting the manuals. We also felt the safebox packaging, although a bit more expensive, adds value to the product.

Your feedback is important to us, as it will help us make decisions in the future. We rarely hear impressions about our packaging (again, other than something quite out of the ordinary like Dominion 3), so I welcome your comments. We depend on you, our customers, to help us identify where we can make improvements.