The obligiatory tutorial introduction for games

As games entered the mainstream and onto consoles it became ever more necessary to allow a simple just play style, which in turn led to the creation of the tutorial portion of games. After all why read a manual when actually doing it teaches you so much better?

And so every game now comes with a small section at the beginning that tells you how to play, assumes you know nothing about games and tries to gently lead you to full immersion.

The mentor/instructor now asks "Hey [insert name] before you go out into the wilds can you pick up my zumzums from the garden? Oh and watch out for the grrrs they can be ornery" and on-screen prompts show you how to use the sticks to move and look, you'll have a zumzum placed far away teaching you to zoom or use a first-person camera view, a zumzum will be on a ledge teaching you to jump or grab ledges, and one zumzum will be next to a grrr teaching you rudimentary combat.

And they all do this, and to make it immersive they make it part of the story which you can't skip. I know how to use the analogue sticks and yet for every new game of InFamous I have to go through the same motions to demonstrate to the game that I understand how to move and look.

Now fine this is the beginning of the game, but this method highlights a problem when you're playing it and that's when you're not playing it. It seems that developers have these ideal gamer models in their heads in that once someone starts playing a game they'll see it through to the end with nothing else in between. Oddly enough that rarely happens, even if it's just mates coming round for Little Big Planet gamers switch between games; an ironic consequence of the just play ability.

So you've played the beginning of the game got some way in and then ditch it for something else, then a while later you turn back to it. Start it up, run around, and die quickly. What were the controls again? You can dig out the manual or you can use trial and error, but they both have their problems.

The manuals often try to cram all the controls onto one page with a diagram of the controller, or they spread it out for the entire manual; the former is too 'big' to grasp in one go and the latter to tiresome in this just play world. So how about trial and error?

Well sure if you're still near the beginning of the game, but if you're part way through the law of videogames states that enemies get tougher the further you progress. So you're trial and error'ing against enemies that are designed to assume that you know and are competent with the controls.

Some developers are becoming aware of this and have their own methods to deal with it. The majority ignore it - hey if you can't play my game all the way through and appreciate my art then sod you!

Some tell you what to do every single time yes I'm looking at you Prince of Persia and your R2 to block. Some keep the controls on screen at all time such as Assassin's Creed; and some note this is a new loaded game and flash up instructions for the first time you encounter something then stop. Some even combine the two (again Assassin's Creed).

In Playstation games there has been only one that I know of that tried something different and allows you to return to or even skip the tutorial stage at any time without starting a new game or losing your current progress, and that's a PS2 game - Half-Life. The Force Unleashed on the PS3 tries it with the combat rooms, but the lengthy loads and fixed checkpoint system makes this painful to use so I'm not counting it. Sly Cooper 3 tries it, but again it's a checkpoint system so using it means having to start a section from scratch. Likewise Assassin's Creed has its courtyard practice ring that allows you to test out some (but not all) of your techniques, but you have to return to headquarters to do so. Oh and the first time you encounter any of these they're not skippable so you have to do it for every new game.

In Half-Life you can run through the tutorial room from the starting menu screen if you want to and then load up your current save and carry on - a Playstation 2 game can do this, so why not any others?

Well it's that whole immersion/story thing. If you can jump out at any time for the tutorial then that breaks up the story and how dare you ask to compromise my art! It's a catch-22 for developers, they want everyone to be able to jump in and play and so to teach the controls they weave it into the storyline. Once that's done, however, it can't be unwoven and run at anytime.

There are ways around this. Without the need for fixed checkpoints being able to jump straight to the courtyard ring, or training grounds and back again should be a doddle and keeps it in the storyline. Some use of the system from Assassin's Creed that recognises a new load and puts up reminderss as you play for the first time is a good idea. Likewise recognising existing saves of the game when starting a new one and allowing you to disable the instructions through the tutorial level.

None of these should be hard to implement, yet no-one seems to want to do it. So as it stands gamers returning to games either suck-it-up or start afresh. Sure, you might say, why should the designers care they're not getting any more money from you returning to their games, but they are - Downloadable Content! DLC can draw people back to games they haven't played for a while and this is a problem that's going to crop up time and time again.

I don't want to start a whole new game to try out "The Pitt" or that new skin that allows me to run around as a grumpy elf I want to just play; developers please help me do that.