They made it! They really made it!

Zoatebix · Nov 16, 2004

KnowTheToe said:
Why not just read the rules. 384 pages is way too long and the dummies books are usually worthless crap anyway. Anyone ever read one?

Yes, in fact. Massage for Dummies is one of the best references I've seen on the subject, and is useful in a wide variety of applications; from simply figuring out what to ask for when you make a massage appointment, to finding a massage school.

Of course, the Massage book could be a significant statistical outlier, but you're the first person I've heard complain about the Dummies line, though I didn't quite "get" Psion's opinion from his post, either...

How good or bad is the Dummies line, generally?
-George

howandwhy99 · Nov 16, 2004

diaglo said:
Yes... 7 years of pestering the muckety mucks has finally paid off.

Sebastian Francis · Nov 16, 2004

Zoatebix said:
Yes, in fact. Massage for Dummies is one of the best references I've seen on the subject, and is useful in a wide variety of applications; from simply figuring out what to ask for when you make a massage appointment, to finding a massage school.

Of course, the Massage book could be a significant statistical outlier, but you're the first person I've heard complain about the Dummies line, though I didn't quite "get" Psion's opinion from his post, either...

How good or bad is the Dummies line, generally?
-George

I think the Dummies books are excellent, though you'll hear a lot of pretentious comments from people on these and other forums that say things like "A DUMMIES book? What a joke! Those books are garbage!" and stuff like that. For what the Dummies books are trying to accomplish, they do it extremely well.

I was on the sjgames forum today and a guy was complaining that when he saw "Philosophy for Dummies" he almost puked (or something like that). Typical condescending attitude. The truth is that "Philosophy for Dummies" is an excellent, entry-level introduction to philosophy.

Personally, I'm hoping that "D&D for Dummies" gives a lot of background on the subculture of D&D, the history of D&D, and its role (get it?

) in the larger RPG subculture.

Henry · Nov 16, 2004

I'll say this much: Unix for Dummies was my first serious exposure to Unix, four years ago. It gave me not only the groundwork for understanding terminology and learning where to go for more help, but has been by far the MOST I ever learned about the OS in one book - it was the bootstrap by which I pulled myself into basic competence with maintenance of the OS.

It's also been a good starting point I've found for most of the subjects I've ever seen them tackle. ALL their Microsoft titles are pretty good for beginners, and most all of their other software titles are, too. The owner of the trademark definitely has a penchant for grabbing the most knowledgeable people in each field and giving them the reins - my Unix book was written by John Levine, a Yale Prof who's been writing code since 1967, and working with Unix administration since 1974. Man knows his stuff.

KnowTheToe · Nov 16, 2004

Maybe I am getting them confused with the idiots guide, I can't remember.

Anyway I had read Time management for idiots/dummies and adoption for dummies/idiots and I found them both long drawn out guides that beat around the bush. I felt they were so broad in their scope, they did not offer any concrete help in either subject. I had to go find other sources which in the end were much much better with less page count.

I will probably buy this just to see what it says. People usually aviod dorkdom as if it were contagious and I am intrigued to hear what it says.

BOZ · Nov 16, 2004

freakin awesome.

Testament · Nov 16, 2004

Oh...my...god. We've made it people!

Aeric · Nov 16, 2004

Rodrigo Istalindir said:
I learned the 'let's pretend' bit real well. It was the 'get's along well with others' and 'can sit still for 10 consecutive seconds' that gave me trouble.

I've met gamers who to this day have troule with those last two concepts.

Darth K'Trava · Nov 16, 2004

I found myself laughing my arse off at this! :lol:

We really need that rolling laughter emoticon that's on the wotc boards.... it'd be more fitting here!

Mark · Nov 17, 2004

30 years and they finally have a manual for everyone. For the ultimate in Surrealism, it really needs to be bought and reviewed by Gygax.

They made it! They really made it!

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