There’s a popular belief in modern game design that tutorials should get out of the way as fast as possible. Players are experienced now. Controls are familiar. If someone wants to learn, they’ll figure it out. It is an idea that sounds good, only until you look at how different games actually handle onboarding, and how often players leave the game without ever experiencing it fully. Some games lean heavily into long tutorials. Others offer almost nothing at all. Both approaches show why tutorials still matter, even when players swear they hate them.
Games That Explain Too Much
A classic example of the “too much tutorial” problem is Red Dead Redemption 2. The opening hours are slow, detailed, and relentlessly guided. Movement, shooting, hunting, horse care, camp systems, everything is explained, often more than once. For some players, that works. It sets the tone and immersion. For others, it’s exhausting. The result of this is that many players never make it past the opening chapters, not because the game is bad, but because the tutorial phase feels like a commitment rather than an invitation.
Another example is Monster Hunter World. It throws pages of text, layered systems, and pop-up explanations at new players. Crafting, tracking, weapon mechanics, buffs, debuffs—it’s all there, but rarely at a pace that feels manageable. Players who push through are rewarded. Players who don’t are often gone within the first few hunts. These games show the risk of over-explaining. Too much information too early turns learning into friction.
Games That Explain Almost Nothing
On the other end, there are games that set a standard of offering minimal to no guidance. Dark Souls is the obvious reference. The game drops players into a hostile world with minimal instruction. You’re told how to attack and dodge, and that’s mostly it. Everything else, from stats, scaling, shortcuts, to even basic survival, has to be learned through failure. For some players, that’s the appeal. For many others, it’s a wall. Not because the mechanics are impossible, but because the game never confirms whether you’re learning correctly. You’re left guessing.
A more modern example is Escape from Tarkov. New players are given almost no explanation of maps, extraction points, inventory systems, or survival mechanics. Even experienced shooter players often rely on external guides just to understand what’s happening. The lack of onboarding doesn’t create mystery. It creates dependency on outside help. These games prove that skipping tutorials entirely doesn’t make a game elegant. It makes it inaccessible to anyone without the time or patience to experiment endlessly.
Good Tutorials Don’t Feel Like Tutorials
Some games get this balance right. Portal is often cited because it teaches mechanics without ever stopping the game. Each puzzle introduces one idea, then quietly tests whether you understood it. There’s no menu explaining physics. You learn by doing.
Breath of the Wild uses a similar approach. The Great Plateau functions as a contained tutorial, but players don’t experience it as one. You’re free to explore, fail, and experiment, but the game subtly ensures you encounter every core system before opening the world. These games respect intelligence without assuming knowledge. That’s the difference.
Online Poker Shows the Same Problem
This issue isn’t limited to video games. Online casino platforms face the same challenge, especially with skill-based games. Take someone learning how to play online poker in Ohio. They may already know hand rankings and basic rules. That doesn’t mean they understand the platform. Table limits, blind structures, time banks, auto-post settings, multi-table controls, and all of that are specific to the environment. Platforms that drop players straight into real tables without explanation often lose them quickly. Not because poker is hard, but because the interface is unfamiliar and mistakes feel expensive. The best poker platforms don’t teach strategy. They teach orientation. Where to click. What happens if time runs out? How to leave a table without panicking. That’s a tutorial doing its job.
Why Tutorials Still Matter
Modern games haven’t become simpler. They’ve become denser. Systems overlap. Interfaces hide complexity instead of removing it. A good tutorial doesn’t slow players down. It removes the fear of doing something wrong. When tutorials fail, it’s rarely because players don’t want help. It’s because the help doesn’t respect how people actually learn: through small steps, safe mistakes, and early confidence. That hasn’t changed. Even now. And it’s why tutorials, whether in massive RPGs or online poker platforms, are still one of the most important parts of the experience and even when players claim they don’t need them.