Would anyone have watched “AVP 2” without having suffered through the first, or bought “Meatloaf’s Bat out of Hell II” without knowing the all the lyrics to “Paradise by the Dashboard Light”? No, it would be absurd to think a true connoisseur would be so ignorant.

I have always hated the tutorial missions at the start of a game. I’ve been playing video games for nearly 90 percent of my life. Trust me when I say that I can figure almost anything out without some random n.p.c. character (I can only call them wannabe Mr. Miyagis) telling me that one presses button x when event y happens.

Without their guidance I never would have known that one needs a key to open a door, or that when I take damage I lose some life.

Tutorials are not a new idea for gaming, nor is the idea that killing something gives one experience or that some random thing can’t do something that another random thing was designed to do – but somehow we always must be refreshed on that.

What I find infinitely worse is that a game’s developers feel the need to put the exact same missions into a game’s sequel. If I have taken the time in my life to play the sequel, next installment or spin-off of a game, it means that I have enjoyed playing the previous version and liked most elements of that game.

I really don’t need to be taught how to play the game again. I should already know the basic idea of where the game is going or what is going to change. So give me 20 minutes and a few restarts and I will have all the knowledge that I will need to get through.

Most people will say that tutorials are in there for people who haven’t played a game before. To that, I say: bullshit. If they are playing the second game, they should have the decency to have experience the first in some capacity.

Would anyone have watched “AVP 2” without having suffered through the first, or bought Meatloaf’s “Bat out of Hell II” without knowing the all the lyrics to “Paradise by the Dashboard Light?” No, it would be absurd to think a true connoisseur would be so ignorant.

In my opinion, this is done to put players in their place. Reminding them that no matter how quickly they defeated the previous game in psychotic mode, they are relatively fresh chowder for the grinder again.

Now, where is this going? Well, here we go. In my experience, the tutorials are the same as constantly reminding someone to do something that the asker really doesn’t care if it was done or not. It a power move and that is all. The question is what to do about that. Both parties normally know what is going on in this situation, yet neither ever really knows what is the best course of action to get through it and see another day.

Just like those horrible intros to games, this is something that a person can experience on a weekly, monthly or hourly basis. And all people can do is grit their teeth and grind through it.

I won’t say that one simply goes through the motions and just verifies what they have said and will do whatever is asked and pretend that it’s not that they think you have forgotten, but rather they are the absent-minded party. Turn it around, just go through the experience and pretend it’s an all-new conversation.

If anything, you can then play the cute card and move on with regular life.

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