You know, i've been thinking recently: How is the US and Japan planning to pay off it's massive and absolutely ridiculous debts?

Something is about to happen sooner or later with this...

Coming from Ireland, this is quite the funny statement.

Irish national debt 104.95% of GDP

US national debt 102.94 % of GDP

(Japan however takes the crown with whopping 229.77 % of GDP)

Well you can add Both the UK and Ireland to that list, both have big problems with debt

UK 82.50 % of GDP (about EU average)

Actually, I've found them to usually be quite lacking. That is why there are things like wikis that explains everything, not only in more detail, but also more accurately than the Paradox manuals ever did. Also, Paradox is quite keen on offering "strategy guides" "beginners guides" or whatever they decide to call it for any given game, which basically works as second manuals, often plugging the gaps of the original manual.
Still, they are far better than their older manuals. Anyone remember how utter lackluster the Victoria 1 manual was?

Ah, Victoria 1. Boy, that was a real challenge. And once you finally managed to get the grips of it, they start the expansion and you best strategy is bonkers again. I loved that game!

Also, Paradox manuals are pointless after the first expansion anyway. I find it quite hilarious that they still offer the tutorial in EU 3.

2090 : first <i>Holodeck</i>.

Ah yes, Revolutions really forced you to re-work your strategy from the ground up. Things that might at first glance have looked like tiny details, like adding a small machine parts requirement for building railroads had a huge impact on the game as a whole.

The people working on jetpacks tell us that they're only a year away...

Not to mention how they made Laissez-faire a very efficient economy guide. And then, with Vicky II, they simply kept building those damn luxury clothes factories ;-).

I waited till a house divided until I gave it a go.

I remember at school we had the same question about the year 2000 and I said flying cars. Second time lucky then.

I often go for AAR (after action reports) on Paradox forums. Usually created by members, they are nicely written guides on playthrough as a particular country. They are not walkthroughs or anything, but they give you a nice tip how you should start, on what should you pay attention in early game, etc etc.

Maybe the manuals are differentiated from country to country but HOI2 manual was brilliant. Tons of pages with small text explaining almost everything.

I usually don't like using Wikis or Fan Guides, because I find them exploiting. I don't want to dig into game files to figure out that "choosing this will damage your reputation by 5 points" or "your ally will always agree with you if his opinion about you is above 75 points". It spoils all the fun and "immersion" for me.
But they (usually?) support you with an expansion manual - guide. There was one for Divine Wind if I recall.

The one we got here in Sweden (which was in English, so it was not one purely made for the Swedish market) was quite alright, but it was still missing a lot of important information.
The HoI 1 manual was by the way nice in one way because it gave you a rather good overview of what happened during WW2, explaining the overall progress of the war and when & why things happened, instead of doing the thing that most educational material focused on WW2 does (that is, go into detail about specific events and fail to give a good overview).

Usually, but not always. They did for an example not make one for "For the Motherland" (HoI 3)

Anyone ever read the Chung Kuo series by David Wingrove?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chung_Kuo_%28novel_series%29

I think we will be starting to go down a similar path to the one depicted in the novels.

Frankly, losing my Steam library seems like a small price to pay for living to 113!
And the Earth will be re-populated by inbred hicks!