Should Tutorials in MMOs be strict and mandatory or loose and optional?

DrDread74 · April 2016

Tutorials in MMO games are USUALLY welcomed but done harshly become almost an obstacle to the fun of the game. On one hand they will walk you through the basics of the game in (hopefully) minutes and on the other they will but you through some sort of enslaved nightmare akin to going through high school again. I'm working on a game with a tutorial and I debate on where to draw the line.

Should tutorials be totally optional or should you half-force players to go through them in order to get starter items and early bonuses?

karter64 · April 2016

Loose and optional is my preference. I like a well done tutorial, but most of the tutorial gear is quickly replaced anyways, so no need to do it once you've been through with one or two characters.

Sovrath · April 2016

loose and optional.

sunandshadow · April 2016

How about, mandatory the first time per account, and afterwards optional?

ceratop001 · April 2016

Depends on how complicated the game is...

sunandshadow · April 2016

When I think back on it, my favorite tutorials have all been missions or quests with some actual story content that are treated as part of the main game.

Vermillion_Raventhal · April 2016

It seem some MMORPG the whole leveling process is a tutorial with all the bad quest you have to do. But most MMORPG play like the next fundamentally.

Rusque · April 2016

Loose and optional, bordering on none. But! With the expectation that the game is well designed so that most things are intuitive.

If you have to explain a million little things, someone failed at their job.

Flyte27 · April 2016

I really dislike tutorials. This ties in with having overly complex UIs and tools in many cases. A game should have less focus on it's UI and more focus on the game itself. Finding out how to do things and where to go is often the only interesting thing in a game. Without there is just repetition. Even a child should be able to figure out how to play a game through trial and error. That's how we used to do it in the old days. The games were less complex, but at the same time didn't show you have to do things (more complex).

LackingMMO · April 2016

I like the way eq2 did there tutorial island but going forward they should be completely optional. Every game out there plays exactly the same, yeah maybe the combat varies a little bit but the premise and concept of the controls are the same.

in Elite Dangerous you have optional training things you can do and videos you can watch that are separate from the game and I thought that was great, when I wanted to figure something out, I can watch a video that teaches me how to do it or test it out myself without having to die in game(not that mmos have penalties for death anymore).

DrDread74 · April 2016

Interesting. I forgot to consider the modern age where most people will jump onto youtube.com or a wiki and have the details of the game explained to them probably better than any tutorial you can make would have. In depth tutorials don't seem to be too important anymore

mgilbrtsn · April 2016

Neither. They should be strict and optional. If you're gonna have a tutorial, and people want to do them, it should be done in such a way that helps them. However, you should have to have the option to skip it if you wish.

Flyte27 · April 2016

DrDread74 said:

Interesting. I forgot to consider the modern age where most people will jump onto youtube.com or a wiki and have the details of the game explained to them probably better than any tutorial you can make would have. In depth tutorials don't seem to be too important anymore

I don't recall them ever being important. None of the games I played on Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Genesis, Playstation, or PC had tutorials. I don't think they started to come along until the PS2 or perhaps even the PS3. I don't recall Ultima Online or Everquest having tutorials on how to do things in Vanilla. Even World of Warcraft Vanilla I don't recall having tutorials. Everyone seemed to manage. The community was often better for it as it was more interdependent in terms of having to rely on other players to give them information.

waynejr2 · April 2016

sunandshadow said:

When I think back on it, my favorite tutorials have all been missions or quests with some actual story content that are treated as part of the main game.

I liked what city of heroes did.

Personally, I would have a game where you gain skills based on content. Put some skills you can only pickup in the tutorial and let anyone to bypass the tutorial.

Quizzical · April 2016

A lot depends on the nature of the game. A generic WoW-clone that doesn't try anything new has no need of a tutorial other than to introduce entirely new players to the genre. Of course, such a game barely has any need to exist. Something that goes far off the beaten path like Uncharted Waters Online or A Tale in the Desert has far more need to push players toward doing a tutorial just so they don't get confused and quit.

Kyleran · April 2016

ReallyNow10 said:

Vanilla WOW did it best. No cutscenes, no instancing or phasing, just a small starting area with a few simple and helpful (and optional) quests. Learning was very fast and the players felt free to adventure.

In other words, the tutorial was part of the game, but done in such a way that you didn't really know you were in a tutorial phase.

There are those who would argue the first 60 levels were all just a tutorial for the end game raiding.

DKLond · April 2016

Whatever you do, just don't make it boring.

Theocritus · April 2016

I've probably quit 1/4 of MMOs due to a horrible tutorial....With the exception of a couple of games we dont need much more than a 5 minute tutorial and just make it one time....I dont want a tutorial every time I make an alt.

Kyleran · April 2016

Quizzical said:

A lot depends on the nature of the game. A generic WoW-clone that doesn't try anything new has no need of a tutorial other than to introduce entirely new players to the genre. Of course, such a game barely has any need to exist. Something that goes far off the beaten path like Uncharted Waters Online or A Tale in the Desert has far more need to push players toward doing a tutorial just so they don't get confused and quit.

EVE is a title which a new player really should complete all tutorials, several times if needed to comprehend the many systems.

But they are optional of course, but probably should not be as in some cases players rage quit without ever really understanding the game.

cameltosis · April 2016

MMOs are incredibly complex compared to most genre of games. Yes, for those of us who've been playing for years they seem straight forwards and quite carbon-copy of the same 'ol formula, but for a new player it can be quite overwhelming. This is doubly true for sandbox MMOs.

So, I believe tutorials of some sort are essential for short term success.

You really want your game to be accessible to everyone. This is one of the major reasons for WoWs initial success - it was the first MMO that made itself accessible to the masses.

However, implementation of a tutorial is going to vary wildly. Do you go for some sort of standalone, instanced tutorial? Do you baby your gamers and hold their hand? Or do you build the tutorial / learning curve into standard gameplay? Can people skip it?

Like @Rusque said, with a well designed and implemented game, you really shouldn't need much tutorials. I think in a perfect game, how you play a game (combat, travel, movement etc) should all be intuitive. What you do in a game may still need tutorials. For example, when I first played and launched SWG xmas 03, it was obvious how to play the game (wasd movement, F1-F12 actions etc), but I didn't have a clue what to do! If it had explained mission terminels, grinding mobs, selecting professions, auction houses etc it would have made my first few hours / days far more enjoyable.

Mendel · April 2016

I prefer loose and completely optional in any piece of software, not just MMORPGs.

What I'd love to see is an expanded pop-up type feature, where a mouse-over brings up a pop-up, with the ability to expand into an extended demo for that specific feature. The pop-up also can be streamlined to omit the prompt for the demo/help/tutorial once I'm finished with the tutorial.

nariusseldon · April 2016

sunandshadow said:

When I think back on it, my favorite tutorials have all been missions or quests with some actual story content that are treated as part of the main game.

This ^^

Buccaneer · April 2016

Like others have stated it depends on how complex the game is. If it's a typical MMO just a quick few minute tutorial, inter-weaved in the game play will suffice. If the game is more complex a gentle shove in the right direction is needed to help players engage in the game. Spawning into a new game world without a clue what to do doesn't help retain new players if they feel lost and are not having fun.

Mwahaha · April 2016

Loose and optional. I'd make 2 tutorials, an in-depth one for MMO newbies which covers things such as movement, buying and selling from merchants, grouping, etc. plus game-specific features and another for MMO veterans that just covers the game-specific features. Anyway tutorials should be optional, it gets annoying for people who like to make alts to have to click through the same tutorial time and time again.

Flyte27 · April 2016

Mwahaha said:

Loose and optional. I'd make 2 tutorials, an in-depth one for MMO newbies which covers things such as movement, buying and selling from merchants, grouping, etc. plus game-specific features and another for MMO veterans that just covers the game-specific features. Anyway tutorials should be optional, it gets annoying for people who like to make alts to have to click through the same tutorial time and time again.

This is part of the social decline of MMOs IMO. When there were no tutorials people had to actually ask people in game how to do things. Now they are show by the game. MMOs are a social beast and interacting should be part of the game experience.

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Should Tutorials in MMOs be strict and mandatory or loose and optional?

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Should Tutorials in MMOs be strict and mandatory or loose and optional?

Comments

Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV

Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV