Required Reading

[Connorrrr]

FFXIII was basically one huge narrative tutorial leading up to the actual fun, challenging gameplay of completing all the hunts. The fact that you can't actually unlock the top tier of skills for your characters secondary roles until after you have beaten the final boss and watched the credits roll is testament to this.

 

It definitely wasn't the way to go, as evidenced by the consumer backlash. In fact, I think FFXIII thought it was a lot more complicated than it is.

 

Yeah, Final Fantasy XIII is one fantastic example of how not to make a tutorial (and I might argue, how not to make a game).

 

I think a great example of how to teach players how to play the game is the Grand Theft Auto games and Red Dead Redemption. You're pretty much taught as you play with little pop ups during missions and free roaming and it ensures for a very, very smooth learning curve, to the point where it doesn't feel like a tutorial.

 

As for the actual question here, I much prefer to be taught the game while I'm enjoying it, like Grand Theft Auto did, and like, as Johnny mentioned, Portal did. I don't much mind reading the manual when it is needed but I enjoy it a lot less.

[Hot Heart]

I have to say there are moments in RDR and GTA IV (TBoGT at any rate) that really pissed me off. First time I did a duel in RDR and it's got you trying to read little boxes up in the top-left corner (doesn't even introduce them properly until you hit Mexico). Same again for some shitty mission in TBoGT involving boats and bombs; never got finished reading the pop-up because I was already dead!

[Baconrath]

Well as I said in the Witcher thread Manuals used to be in-car reading for coming back from town with the latest game.

Preferably not while you are driving D:

[deanb]

Nah, this is when I was a kid. These days it's more what I do waiting for it to install. (since I'm more a PC guy these days)

[TheRevanchist]

Could it be part of learning to do anything isn't always by reading about it so much as doing it?

 

Let's take one of the most difficult/best books ever made. As I Lay Dying by Faulkner.

 

The book isn't a sit down and read on a lazy afternoon. Part of the greatness of the book is learning how to read it. Part of the fun of games is learning how to play them. So, manual or not? I can't say. There is fun to be had in both ways of the process, but I do prefer learning the hard way.

[RockyRan]

Could it be part of learning to do anything isn't always by reading about it so much as doing it?

 

Let's take one of the most difficult/best books ever made. As I Lay Dying by Faulkner.

 

The book isn't a sit down and read on a lazy afternoon. Part of the greatness of the book is learning how to read it. Part of the fun of games is learning how to play them. So, manual or not? I can't say. There is fun to be had in both ways of the process, but I do prefer learning the hard way.

 

That's kind of the reason why I loved Demon's Souls so much. Yes the tutorial only covered extremely trivial things, but the game NOT telling you everything else (like the entirety of the crafting system, including the fact that there's two blacksmiths in the game) meant everything was there for you to "find". Not telling the player these things and giving them reason to find these things makes the player more involved and giving a larger sense of wonder and discovery, provided that they're given reason to be willing to learn these things. The fact that DS was so challenging certainly gave me the reason to take every upgrade I could. Soon I was scouring the land (and the wiki) for any ring, shield, weapon, and piece of material that might give me any advantage because it would actually be useful for me.

 

I feel that if the game had told me a whole bunch of things in any way (like providing an in-game map or encyclopedia of some sort) it would've taken away from that experience. In that way the lack of tutorial/documentation actually made the game better. Then again, Demon's Souls is its own special kind of game so that probably wouldn't work for games out there, but I do like to see devs "hiding" more things like that for us to find. Way too many games these days meticulously document and lay out every single piece of content out for us, to the point where everything a game has to offer is spoon-fed to us with little to no effort from our part.

 

Belgh, I'm veering way off topic. I'll be quiet now