Hand holding mechanics in Single Player

[gargantual]

I can't help but ask about single player games, and how they've gotten worse about littering games with tutorial mechanics and QTE where its not needed, through the past seven years.

I'm not asking these questions in a mean way, but I'm just curious, and I suspect there's a communication gap between publishers with creative power, and the actual player base. You ever wonder if..

these guys trying to make deadline by adding dumbed-down mechanics in place of complex ones?

or

how dumb or ADD do they really believe their target audience is?

 

[Asita]

I've seen this complaint pop up time and again, and inevitably it seems that people forget about how every single game used to come with a manual explaining the controls and at least some of the mechanics. These manuals have become increasingly sparse in recent years as these same instructions have been integrated into the games themselves. This really isn't a new development, for the most part, they've just become better at integrating it into the product.

 

[Tom_green_day]

It isn't really hugely necessary in some games e.g. most modern FPS games as they have relatively similar control schemes and engines, so you aren't going to have to learn a whole new set of controls and mechanics between games like CoD, Battlefield, Borderderlands, Aliens CM, Bioshock etc.
It's a bit more useful when the game has weird controls or complex mechanics and systems such as Dark Souls, Fallout, most Sandbox games etc.

 

[gargantual]

The first mission or two may be understandable, I.E. platinum games, Devil May Cry 4, but other 3rd person games can have slightly unwieldly enemy hit boxes and script triggers, or worse those QTE cues like RYSE which is essentially trying to video game (300)

And (though I like CD Projekt Red) the early tutorial battles section for Witcher 2 didn't much help the fact that the menu system was a bit more cumbersome than it needed to be.

I figure its better for folks to go the 'japanese' route in some cases and make button combos out of complex movements, instead of trying to 'always' trigger actions out of the environment which may not happen at the time or in the way you want. For example in AssCreed you wouldnt end up randomly diving into bushes on a roof while you were in the middle of trying to catch a guy.


Good examples of tutorializing are more like the Half-life games, where you have room to get used to goodies as you acquire them, because of the game's pacing. Better to allow a player to appreciate moves and powers they gain gradually, rather than offload too many abilities at once.

 

[Racecarlock]

I don't mind things like quest markers because I get lost in sandbox games, sometimes on purpose.

However, the tutorials in the latest NFS games are just obnoxious. In most wanted you can barely control your car for the first ten minutes of the game. Sometimes it completely removes control. That is ridiculous. Let me do things and if I need instructions, put them in the pause menu or something.

Fuck forced tutorials. Even the ironic ones in Blood Dragon.

 

[remnant_phoenix]

Yeah...

This was something that really bugged me about Zelda: Skyward Sword.

It was the most hand-holding, over-tutorializing Zelda game yet. Yes, I get that players new to the series, especially younger players, would need that amount of help, but why not have a prompt at the beginning of the game asking if you are familiar with the series or not, then include a bunch of "off-switches" for the excess tutorials in the game's code. Devil May Cry 4 did this, and plenty of other games have something very similar. I know I'm asking Nintendo to do more work, but this seems like a small request that would've vastly improved the game for myself and tons of long-time Zelda players.

 

[Someone Depressing]

There's a clear line between irritating tutorials - which obviously help newer players - and the first few missions being broken up into 80 bajillion 2 minute sequences, particularly where you can't just do what the fuck you want.

It's obvious to see which should be preferred.

 

[Rolaoi]

The only game this ever really bothered me in extensively was Okami. I didn't need Issun chiming in on every obvious puzzle to remind me it's a puzzle. There was nothing left to be discovered because of that pest.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

You can NEVER make any game idiot proof. It's a sad fact. There will ALWAYS be someone who "doesn't get it".

Hence developers always making sure to super slowly and gently introduce the player to everything as simply as possible.

Then they realized a lot of the players that "don't get it" skip the tutorials in the first place.

So some developers thought it was a good idea to make them mandatory.

...*sigh* Personally, I think the tutorials should be optional, but there should be a way to replay them (or at least review them) at any time you want. As for the people who "don't get it", well, I'm sorry. I'll do my best to make sure you get it, but I'm not going to break the experience for everyone else!

(side note: It turns out even my own RPG, where I was certain I made the easiest mode "Idiot proof" still ended up with 2 players not getting it and finding it too hard at points, which was shocking to me.)

 

[gargantual]

You can NEVER make any game idiot proof. It's a sad fact. There will ALWAYS be someone who "doesn't get it".

Hence developers always making sure to super slowly and gently introduce the player to everything as simply as possible.

Then they realized a lot of the players that "don't get it" skip the tutorials in the first place.

So some developers thought it was a good idea to make them mandatory.

...*sigh* Personally, I think the tutorials should be optional, but there should be a way to replay them (or at least review them) at any time you want. As for the people who "don't get it", well, I'm sorry. I'll do my best to make sure you get it, but I'm not going to break the experience for everyone else!

(side note: It turns out even my own RPG, where I was certain I made the easiest mode "Idiot proof" still ended up with 2 players not getting it and finding it too hard at points, which was shocking to me.)

Yeah see that's where I'm starting to sense that good level design and pacing is important. They're different parts of a game than a tutorial but they ultimately influence how a player is introduced to content at the games' easiest or hardest. The more time and space a player has to get used to mastering mechanics or game devices, the more equipped they'll be for harder parts.

But yeah. idiot proofing reminds me of when Cliffy B's statements were tagged in an old Gamespot vid about hard games.
essentially' wasting time trying to get a wii-mote parent interested when they're missing out on the new young audience that would readily adopt to the type of game they really want to make.

 

[josemlopes]

For me a simple "Are you familiar with X genre? We will only teach new mechanics unique to this game if you are" question at the start of the game would be enough for me. I really dont need to know that the left thumbstick is needed to move the character.

 

[OneCatch]

I've seen this complaint pop up time and again, and inevitably it seems that people forget about how every single game used to come with a manual explaining the controls and at least some of the mechanics. These manuals have become increasingly sparse in recent years as these same instructions have been integrated into the games themselves. This really isn't a new development, for the most part, they've just become better at integrating it into the product.

Yeah, this. If you remember back to the N64 era, there were pages and pages of the manual dedicated to the different attacks and jumps and so on. http://zs.ffshrine.org/album/ocarina-of-time/inst-us/20-21.jpg

All of that is incorporated nowadays which can be a bit annoying if it's time consuming and unskippable, but you can't fault game devs for making an effort to cut down on how much you have to go back and forth to a guide or whatever.

 

[gargantual]

I've seen this complaint pop up time and again, and inevitably it seems that people forget about how every single game used to come with a manual explaining the controls and at least some of the mechanics. These manuals have become increasingly sparse in recent years as these same instructions have been integrated into the games themselves. This really isn't a new development, for the most part, they've just become better at integrating it into the product.

Yeah, this. If you remember back to the N64 era, there were pages and pages of the manual dedicated to the different attacks and jumps and so on. http://zs.ffshrine.org/album/ocarina-of-time/inst-us/20-21.jpg

All of that is incorporated nowadays which can be a bit annoying if it's time consuming and unskippable, but you can't fault game devs for making an effort to cut down on how much you have to go back and forth to a guide or whatever.

I can see where their heart is. I just believe that whatever one employs should be employed effectively.

If you look at the recent Need for Speed game, thats an example of tutorial being used as a hinderance. If you look at the first minutes of halflife or halflife 2, thats deliberate level building, used to give the player time to familiarize themselves with the environment and how to move.

So what I'm saying is it pays to be subtle and gradual when they're trying to instruct the player. There are creative, cerebral prompts that can motivate players to make smart choices without feeling like they're constantly interrupted during an game experience but instead engaged, and I think a lot of meddling by naive non-gaming investors and cynical salesmen who came into the industry only because they smelled cash, have hampered the continuation of these subtle foundational principles of game design from being in AAA games.

There are so many audial, visual cues and subconscious irks or demands in digital entertainment that creators deliberately practice to logically hint to the player what they could or would be better off doing without breaking their engagement. Its like asking yourself why do directors choose certain angles to depict a shot and not others, or why certain sounds.

But with the amount of continued layoffs, closures and new indie outfits being formed faster than ex nuclear scientists finding post-cold war work. Hopefully more designers will remind us not just in flash 2d side-scroller fidelity but cry-engine unity and unreal 3 worlds, what made our favorite single player titles so intuitive, personal and fun.

 

[Mr.Cynic88]

I generally like the hand holding. My thing is, I play a lot of games, and while the engines are all quite similar, there are always little differences in each game, and to best enjoy a game you should play it the way it was intended to be played.

Also, I'm not gonna lie, most of the time when I play video games I am also getting intoxicated, and you can sometimes miss things when you game that way.

I like those little reminders that remind me of game mechanics I may have forgotten about.

Should there be an option to skip the hand holding on a second playthrough? Sure, more options is always a good thing, but I'd probably leave it on anyways.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

And here I thought this was going to be a thread about literal hand-holding, like ICO.
Pop ups I can handle, mostly because they can be turned off.
What I definitely don't like is when the whole game stops and makes a big deal of your NEW OBJECTIVE. Like what happens in Kingdom Hearts 2 in between cutscenes, the whole game freezes and a HUD drops down on the screen which spins around and you're informed of what you have to do in so much time and once you're done the screen freezes again and you get another cutscene, repeat. So damn restricting.

 

[Vicarious Reality]

This mornin i played the tutorials in Team Fortress 2 just because they were fun

Captcha:
you win

 

[haruvister]

they've gotten worse about littering games with tutorial mechanics and QTE where its not needed

I agree with the bit about QTE, which is a substitute for compelling gameplay, although I would argue tutorials and a certain amount of hand-holding are necessary because of the relative complexity and openness of games these days. As the standard has gradually become three dimensions, and as the days of three-button pads has passed, the need for in-game guides has increased. It's surely less irritating to have optional arrows/tooltips on the screen than it is to wander around aimlessly without a clue what you're meant to be doing..?