Tutorials: Are they Necessary?

     When you first start a game you likely have no idea what you are doing or even how to play. Luckily, every game usually comes with an instruction manual that tells you how the game works and what rules to follow. It covers many basic controls and aspects of gameplay, but never mentions the more advanced topics of the game. Those the player tends to figure out as they progress. For those of us who never read the manuals, today's games feature in-game tutorials that perform the same functions. But are these tutorials really necessary?

      The purpose of a tutorial is to explain how the game works. Without this the player may find themselves lost and confused. As for veteran gamers, figuring out gameplay is very easy. For newcomers, not so much. It may take a little longer for a novice to grasp the mechanics of a game, but today's tutorials seem to think the average player needs to have their hand held constantly. These tutorials will pop up on the screen with an excessively detailed explanation on what a particular function does and how to perform said function. Not only that, they pause the game to do it. This interrupts pacing! Worst of all, it is for the most trivial of commands. Even a newcomer can realize that the directional buttons are used to move around. They can easily guess this just by pressing the buttons. They can even figure out what the other buttons do by pressing those, too.

Yet, tutorials are still needed in most games due to the complexity of the game's mechanics. They just have to be implemented properly. How is this done? First, I would gauge how difficult it is to play the game overall. Second, I would see what aspects of the game require a little explaining in order to fully understand. Finally, I would put these hints in places that do not disrupt the flow of gameplay and do not obscure the screen.

      You see, if the game is so simple that the player needs to only focus on one goal, then a tutorial is completely unnecessary! Even if there are a few rules to follow, the player should only have to see them once before starting anything. If they forget something, they can always check a manual or pause the game and see if the pause menu has any option to view the rules. But what if a game is more complicated than that? What if the game has mechanics that expand and change as the player progresses? I'm just going to use Braid as an example. One of the first rules you see in Braid is that you, the player, control time. Magnificent power, that time controlling thing is! Anyways, the first thing a player will notice is that time can be turned back. There is a little hint that explains this, but it only shows up once and never again. Simple mechanic, right? As you progress, the game introduces new mechanics such as rewinding time to create a shadow that performs your previous actions. Through observance, the player can see this. There is no explanation nor hints that tell you how to do this. The mechanics are so simple that a tutorial is hardly needed.

      More complicated games, however, do require tutorials. Let's say the player is trying a role-playing game. If anyone who has played RPGs knows, they tend to have a lot of stats and numbers. Most of these games do not describe what each stat does or how it affects gameplay. Over time, I learned that terms such as “STR,” “PWR,” or “ATK” generally affect how much damage (more specifically physical damage) you deal against a target. Those may be easy to figure out, but terms such as “AGI” or “DEX” are enigmatic. What do they affect!? Does AGI mean Agility? Is that how fast I can attack? Does it affect critical chances? Is it meant for dodge mechanics? It's hard to find out what this term means unless there is a manual or in-game tutorial explaining what the attribute stands for and how it affects gameplay.

      As I mentioned before, implementing tutorials is usually done wrong. Pausing the game to tell the player how to rotate the camera is not necessary! A little hint box at the bottom of the screen will suffice. Shoving it in the viewer's face comes off as overwhelming and intimidating. It's like trying to read a popup book about cooking. The game is pushing information into your head and you're not quite ready to take it all in yet. This is why we chunk our information so we can internalize it faster.

      I say tutorials are necessary for games with complex mechanics, but not for games with simple rules. What do you all think? Do you believe tutorials are necessary in every game or just some? Should they stop the gameplay so you can read it carefully or not disrupt the flow at all? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.