Does tutorial harm the game?

[Toox]

I've been an advisor fairly often. I will point out that around 75-90% of questions center around the tutorial, especially the first and second npcs. Occasionally, there are questions that can be solved fairly easily, such as the unkillable rats and the inability to leave. But when you hear something about Neave, the problem can be almost unsolvable without a link to the FAQ. These first two seem to be problematic, more so than they should be. Of course, a fair amount of people having problems with these npcs do ignore my advice, or fail to follow the FAQ, but many do have problems.

I think there is enough information, not too much. But the tutorial is a little bit long to be isolated. But it's hard, trying to balance it so that it is long enough to tell people how to play, but not so short that people can escape it and then have no idea what to do. It is a little on the long side, but ever since it was implemented, newbies have been pretty high quality.  

It is difficult to give basic directions to major npcs. Rather, the game should tell people to ask other players for Harn and Trasok, which I think it does already.

On the subject of scaring away people looking for first impressions, I do not think it scares off that large of a percentage. My first hour was nightmarish, before the tutorial was implemented, because I didn't know how to play, or what to do. Questing was difficult without understanding interactions. I think the tutorial might make it a little bit easier once people do hit the world.

Yes, the tutorial can be pain-staking and annoying, but it has drastically improved newbies, and made it easier for people they befriend. NPC dialouge could be more streamlined, especially on the troublesome first 2, but the tutorial isn't perfect. It's pretty good, and the only thing we've got.

[Arlaton]

I started fairly recently and found the tutorial extremely easy and very helpful in teaching me how to talk with npcs and interact with objects. If you are willing to actually read the words the npc says as well as the help boxes that appear, you can find everything you need. The only change i would suggest is to wake the default text box large enough to fit the longest npc statement in it so newbs don't have to scroll up for instructions.

The tutorial is a great way to introduce people to the world and filter out players who wont read. Not to mention it gives the player a decent amount of tria that I greatly miss when starting alts.

[Luzino]

I had only ever played a text-online MUD game before, so I was used to reading what appears on my screen. Is that why I found the tutorial (and most times NPC interaction) rather easy? ;-)

No, the tutorial does not hurt nor does it scare away. Not in my mind. Like I said, I was totally new to games like this and with pretty much every new game I'm glad for a tutorial to show me how things work. If I remember correctly my biggest problem was an NPC not recognizing what I said due to capitalization. I spent some minutes on that dialogue... but other than that it was just very helpful.

If you're new to a game you should be willing to pay attention I think, in this case that would be reading the informatin you get in the tutorial. And I don't see how learning should do any harm.

[Doyubi]

I had tonns of problems figuring out the initial tutorial, but when I finally figured it out I met people who were actually playing their roles instead of comparing "EXP" and so forth. I think it's a good trick to keep out those who just want yet another game to play around with, and those who actually wants to make an efford roleplaying.

[Parallo]

Wow, seems there is a wave of decent new players. I wonder if the tutorial is benefiting the game.