I have recently played 3 games that have forced a lengthy, unskippable tutorial section that runs for several hours of the game, just to unlock the most basic functions like buying the items, customizing features, multiplayer, and even 2-player split screen modes.
For 2 of these games (Armored Core 6 and Gran Turismo 7), the major draw for me was the MP and I haven’t even gotten to check out MP yet because it’s locked out until you get passed a certain point in the progression system. Fuckin’ why do any developers do this? I just wanted to play with my sister but we have to get through most of the fucking game before we are allowed to do the multiplayer modes. Such bullshit.
Bah fuck that. If you can’t drop 45 min into learning mechanics I don’t want to play with you.
That’s a pretty common take. Lots of people don’t want teammates or opponents in their multiplayer games who are still figuring out the basics of play (or in equipment/gear/level-based games, have none).
In games with skill- or level based matchmaking it’s not that bad provided there is enough of an active player base to isolate the newbies to their own pool, but not all games have either of those two things, never mind both.
I can’t say I agree with this take.
I’ve played some games where the hero gets all of their tools from the outset, and it ends up being really hard to figure out when to use each one. Comparatively, when you slowly unlock things during tutorials, you’re building a mental framework of how combat should go, and on each unlock, get some time to work out how that fits in.
In fact, it’s something I think is an issue with fighting games and their competitive-only mindset. People play the 20 tutorials in quick sequence, get confused by a Reverse Upper Back-Airdodge-Cancel input that’s only going to happen in high-level play, and feel overwhelmed.
I’m not really talking about powers or skills your character can get; I’m talking like being able to get into multiplayer, or the settings, specific game modes, etc.
Using GT7 as an example again, you can’t even get to the settings page until you have gone through a very niche “tutorial” race mode that is unlike the rest of the game, and also sit through a 20 minute unskippable cutscene (which plays everytime you run the game unless you go into the settings to disable it) before you’re presented with the main menu screen.
I mean, arguing against unskippable cutscenes or misrepresentative tutorials is basically like comedians pegging on airline food.
GT7 makes sense. There needs to be some barrier to make sure people know how to drive the cars without just immediately jumping into the game.
Tutorials under 1hr are ok. Once they go over that I stop playing.
It’s not even just online MP. It’s the split screen, too!
Besides: Why would there need to be a barrier? If you suck, you’re just gonna lose. If there was a ranking system, eventually you only match with other players who suck. 🤷🏻♂️
Because losing takes out the other players too. Racing is unique in that if you’re bad, you’ll also end the races of multiple players around you.
Because noobs ruin the race for everyone else. Just watch older SuperGT videos about the shadow realm. I say if you want to get into multilayer in racing sims, you must have a valid driving license and a hundred hours of real life racing.
iRacing has a license system. You need to pass an exam to go above the rookie rank, and you can lose your license if you drive too badly and cause accidents.
Online racing sim is one of the most bizarre “gaming” communities. I came to hate driving after years of several hours commute and have zero patience for virtual cars now, but the small amount of time I was trying out sim racing was plagued with cursed elitism. Having driven for many years with a clean license isn’t enough for these people. You could be a professional driver for races and movies both and they would probably fault you for something. I don’t know the game you are speaking of in particular so maybe it’s not that bad.
Why? What if I want to jump into the game and then learn how to drive the cars?
Get bored with games SO quickly. Part of how to keep interest is figuring out on my own how the game works. And I can, on my own, figure out games, software, very quickly.
Too many phone games try to make you sit thru insufferable tedious tutorials. So you’re not only depriving me the chance to figure out on my own, you’re also insulting my intelligence. Any game does this, instant uninstall.
I find figuring out the controls the least interesting part of any game. I would be pissed if I played a game and couldn’t unlock multiplayer without hours of play, but I’ve not played a game where the tutorial was so long that I was really bothered by it, even if I found it completely unnecessary.
Natural selection 2 forces tutorials before unlocking multi-player, but it’s absolutely needed for that game. It’s also not that long, if you can’t spend 15 minutes learning the basics of the game you are useless anyway.
