I think game manuals are totally pointless and a waste of paper. Games are best learned hands-on, with in-game tutorials. The only case when it makes sense to place a manual in the box is if you have a lot of long charts and tables (D&D) that are not shown in the game.
Rather, she let some guests in, those guests let someone else in, and those let someone else in until it reached the critical point.
Or she did it to show on her MySpace that her gazillions of MySpace-friends are for real. *shrug*
I think the part of the fun was to find out the recipes. This way it is too easy. And not needing a bench is silly too.
What would be better is to make stronger essences giving better bonuses actually work. The crafting tip says that but a recipe never works with a slightly different essence of a similar class.
That's actually a disadvantage as far as I recall, especially drivers.
You may want to read reviews on 64bit systems and performance, there are plenty around.