Today, Stephen Totilo discussed his time with Fallout 3. While Stephen liked the game overall, he also had a few complaints about it. One of these was regarding the lack of proper tutorials for some of the functions in the game. This got me thinking overall about tutorials and games in general.
I distinctly remember the day when it was a prerequisite to read the instruction manual before starting a game. This day (for me) came somewhere after Super Mario Bros. and before Castlevania (pick one). While most of the basics could be gleaned from pressing random buttons, most of the advanced techniques where hidden in the pages of the manual. Somewhere along the way, though, developers began focusing on providing detailed tutorials on basic and advanced controls for the end users (aka: gamers). For me, this led to less detailed manuals which were essentially worthless. I like to see games with fully fleshed out manuals and adding more information about the back-story which you won’t find in the game. This is just something you don’t find much anymore (it is almost exclusive to AAA titles at this point.) Maybe someday we will only find fully fleshed game manuals with limited editions of games – why pay to print if your audience isn’t reading it?
Just as I never expected the aforementioned Mario games to teach me how to run, jump, or stay away from Goombas, I don’t expect every Call of Duty game to teach me how to run, shoot, and kill the bad guys trying to blow me up. The problem is that Call of Duty and most games like it do just that – waste a good fifteen to twenty minutes teaching me the most basic of controls. I do think the best way to learn something is by practice, but rewards should be provided for obtaining knowledge as well. Just as Fallout increases your stats in-game for reading books, it also rewards you in-game for reading the manual.
Reading instruction manuals should gift players with knowledge they would not obtain otherwise. I know that I usually end up with more information and play somewhat better after thumbing through one. For example, I played through nearly the entirety of Final Fantasy VIII before I knew I could boost summoning spells Guardian Forces by holding Select and mashing square. Never did I encounter a tutorial which taught me that. If there was one, I must have overlooked it near the beginning of the game. (Which tends to be the other problem with tutorials – lack of retention.)
One final point to make before closing this out. Today’s gamers should be glad the internet exists to provide them with pieces of information they don’t glean from the instruction manual or the game itself. It seemed the only way to find out some pieces of information was to buy a strategy guide to reveal the hidden secrets of the game. Do people really think it would be possible to find every possible item in Final Fantasy VII (or just about any other RPG) without a strategy guide? Without sites like GameFAQS, I would be forever roaming virtual fields trying to find Golden Chocobos and Halo skulls.
So, to Mr. Totilo and others screaming for more tutorials I urge you to always reference your handy instruction manual. After all, someday they may not exist and all we will have left are some shoddy tutorials teaching us how to turn on a PlayStation and insert the game disc.
