Tutorials are need TBH. I don't like them that much, but if anything they should be optional rather then forced upon. There are some games out there where I skip the tutorial and later on it requires me to do something that would have only been taught in the tutorial. That can be a bit frustrating.
For example,I was playing MK for PS vita and at one part I had to make the other player head explode. Weren't for the tutorial I would have just used the bottons rather then the touch screen.
Yeah I do agree that people who are on the 3 third game should know the controls by now, but hey not everyone plays the first game. Sometimes they just jump in and then go back and play the first game.
I think Tutorials just need to be really short and right ot the point.
You know we lost the Booklet magic machine, the machine that actually put pertinent information into game booklets...like controls, and what the fuck is going on in the game.
The last booklets i remember reading were the elder scrolls:oblivion and fallout 3 since they contained helpful info. I miss those beautiful booklets :(
Tutorials insult the intelligence of the person playing the game.
And the worst tutorial is the kind that acts as the first chapter of the game, where it's disguised as being a training run or something. Examples include Call of Duty 4 and Halo 1, 2, and 3, where the player must undergo a tutorial to adjust the controller sensitivity (such a waste of time). It also happens in Fallout 3, where you have to shoot roaches as a kid in order to learn how VATS works. They add nothing to the story and tend to break the immersion for me.
I'd rather just start playing the game and learn as I go than spend even a minute being told by some NPC to aim and shoot at something.
And considering that most games have a similar button layout, I don't need to be told what the right trigger does and what the left trigger does. I'll find out when I'm playing or else the dev can just put the controller layout on the screen during a load sequence (but only once at the beginning of the game).
If you guys really want to tutorials, developers should include them as a separate, optional mode in the menu.
While this would be ideal, there have been a number of times where mechanics were in optional places that almost no one read/knew. A fantastic example of this was Lost Planet 2. Most of the Vital Suits had unique functions that made them special. Some could transform, two could become one, some could turn translucent, others could turn into other stuff like motorcycles, yet even others had special attacks assigned to weird inputs. Most of this you would never know, but it is all listed in the pause menus "how to pilot" area. Needless to say I rather have it forced at me so I know helpful stuff like that, over having a choice I would never make.
What developers need is a way to still teach without making it painful.
I kind of liked the tutorial in Modern Warfare 2, where you were demonstrating the proper techniques for local militants. While still painful, you also felt like you were teaching, as well as being taught.
this is the kind that feel among the worst to me actually . They try to pretend its woven so cleverly into the story , when it just feel like pointless fillers .
At least the forced regular tutorials you can force through via mashing the buttons to skip the text .
I agree with the author and agree with the general sentiment here. Tutorials lately are getting annoying. AC: Revelations was bad but AC: Brotherhood was even worse. The whole first 4 chapters were together a tutorial (and if you don't believe me go back and see). Optional tutorials are definitely the best so it doesn't get in your way if you know what you're doing and so you have the option and chance to get stuck into it if you're new and so you'll be ready once the actual game begins.
Just because you don't need them doesn't mean everyone else doesn't. Not everyone is an experienced gamer and might need a little instruction if they are unfamiliar with gaming.
I do agree experienced gamers should have the option to skip them.
I fully understand this, and I mentioned in the article that I have no problem with in-game help and optional tutorials :) What I do have a problem with is, and Assassin's Creed is always a good example to use, when I've played the first three games in the series, and really want to jump into the new one and get on with the story, but then there's a twenty minute section explaining to me basic mechanics I've already mastered and forcing me to carry them out as though I've never played a game in the series before.
Ideally, there should be a great balance. We exist in a gaming world full of both hardcore and casual gamers, and I don't think it's too difficult to cater for both in this aspect. Making a game "accessible to newcomers" shouldn't compromise the experience for those who aren't newcomers.
Off the top of my head, this is an example of how a balanced game could work. I already spoke about Deus Ex: Human Revolution in the article, which I thought had great optional tutorials, but let's take Prototype 2. Ideally, you would have a menu option to turn tutorials off. If you keep them on, then in an early mission it would say "Consume this target, take his identity and infiltrate the base." That's all well and good. But I played the original, so I know exactly how to do all of this. So for me, turning the option off should change that sequence to say "Find a way to infiltrate the base" and set me to it.
That's a very basic example of what I mean. Tutorials these days are too mundane and stock standard. They are rarely integrated seamlessly into the experience, optional or subtle. They're often forced onto players and redundant, which takes away some of the magic of exploring the game mechanics for yourself and figuring things out.
Being an experienced gamer doesn't mean you'll know what to do in a given game any more than having never picked up a controller.
My nephews of six, five and three have learned quite a few games entirely on their own. Granted, they're not all that complicated, but if a five year-old can play without a tutorial, why can't a 17 year-old(mentioned because M-Rated games have tutorials in them)?
There's a video on youtube- probably posted in someone else's comment- about how Megaman X teaches you everything you need to know about the game and your goals in the first stage WITHOUT a tutorial, but simply through level design and plot progression. Sure, it was a simpler time back then, but developers hardly even bother with that these days.
A threat to the experience? That's overstating a bit. Tutorials are like any other game mechanic. When done well they are fine, and when done poorly they can be an annoyance. Either way, most of the time they are over quickly and it's less immersion breaking to have them in the game than to pause and look at the instructions, either ingame or in a booklet.
With the departure of instruction booklets we have in game instruction sequences... Often annoying, sometimes helpful.Stick them in the options menu,a separate detailed entry. Kingdoms Of Amalur does a decent job of it,using various folding menus.
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I don't like them that much, but if anything they should be optional rather then forced upon. There are some games out there where I skip the tutorial and later on it requires me to do something that would have only been taught in the tutorial. That can be a bit frustrating.
For example,I was playing MK for PS vita and at one part I had to make the other player head explode. Weren't for the tutorial I would have just used the bottons rather then the touch screen.
Yeah I do agree that people who are on the 3 third game should know the controls by now, but hey not everyone plays the first game. Sometimes they just jump in and then go back and play the first game.
I think Tutorials just need to be really short and right ot the point.
http://www.youtube.com/watc...
And the worst tutorial is the kind that acts as the first chapter of the game, where it's disguised as being a training run or something. Examples include Call of Duty 4 and Halo 1, 2, and 3, where the player must undergo a tutorial to adjust the controller sensitivity (such a waste of time). It also happens in Fallout 3, where you have to shoot roaches as a kid in order to learn how VATS works. They add nothing to the story and tend to break the immersion for me.
I'd rather just start playing the game and learn as I go than spend even a minute being told by some NPC to aim and shoot at something.
And considering that most games have a similar button layout, I don't need to be told what the right trigger does and what the left trigger does. I'll find out when I'm playing or else the dev can just put the controller layout on the screen during a load sequence (but only once at the beginning of the game).
If you guys really want to tutorials, developers should include them as a separate, optional mode in the menu.
Most of the Vital Suits had unique functions that made them special. Some could transform, two could become one, some could turn translucent, others could turn into other stuff like motorcycles, yet even others had special attacks assigned to weird inputs. Most of this you would never know, but it is all listed in the pause menus "how to pilot" area. Needless to say I rather have it forced at me so I know helpful stuff like that, over having a choice I would never make.
I kind of liked the tutorial in Modern Warfare 2, where you were demonstrating the proper techniques for local militants. While still painful, you also felt like you were teaching, as well as being taught.
At least the forced regular tutorials you can force through via mashing the buttons to skip the text .
It needs to be optional period
I do agree experienced gamers should have the option to skip them.
Ideally, there should be a great balance. We exist in a gaming world full of both hardcore and casual gamers, and I don't think it's too difficult to cater for both in this aspect. Making a game "accessible to newcomers" shouldn't compromise the experience for those who aren't newcomers.
Off the top of my head, this is an example of how a balanced game could work. I already spoke about Deus Ex: Human Revolution in the article, which I thought had great optional tutorials, but let's take Prototype 2. Ideally, you would have a menu option to turn tutorials off. If you keep them on, then in an early mission it would say "Consume this target, take his identity and infiltrate the base." That's all well and good. But I played the original, so I know exactly how to do all of this. So for me, turning the option off should change that sequence to say "Find a way to infiltrate the base" and set me to it.
That's a very basic example of what I mean. Tutorials these days are too mundane and stock standard. They are rarely integrated seamlessly into the experience, optional or subtle. They're often forced onto players and redundant, which takes away some of the magic of exploring the game mechanics for yourself and figuring things out.
There should be a balance :)
Ahh, who am I kidding? That sounds like work.
My nephews of six, five and three have learned quite a few games entirely on their own. Granted, they're not all that complicated, but if a five year-old can play without a tutorial, why can't a 17 year-old(mentioned because M-Rated games have tutorials in them)?
There's a video on youtube- probably posted in someone else's comment- about how Megaman X teaches you everything you need to know about the game and your goals in the first stage WITHOUT a tutorial, but simply through level design and plot progression. Sure, it was a simpler time back then, but developers hardly even bother with that these days.
Often annoying, sometimes helpful.Stick them in the options menu,a separate detailed entry.
Kingdoms Of Amalur does a decent job of it,using various folding menus.