If I could write the Laws of Game Design, rule number one would be that you have to have a good tutorial before you can even think about letting anyone touch your game. Regardless of how well everything else has been developed, if you don't have a tutorial, you don't have a game.
Recently, I downloaded the beta for Mechwarrior Online, and not so recently I tried to play Dota 2. Neither has a tutorial, and, unsurprisingly, both are incredibly hard to jump into. Their mechanics are extremely complicated; Mechwarrior strives for realism (well, as much realism can be achieved in a game about giant robots), with intricate details like heat sink placement having important effects on performance, while Dota 2 carries over all of the mechanics from the original, many of which exist due to limitations of the original engine. They need a great deal of explanation before the player can grasp even the basics, and they provide none at all.
(An aside: the justification I received for both games was that they were in beta, so it was okay that they didn't have a full tutorial yet. I view that on the same level as claiming beta status means you don't have to have controls.)
League of Legends has an excellent tutorial. It teaches the essentials for successfully playing the game, and it also teaches some of the lingo and etiquette. The abbreviations for the names of lanes, the terminology used for calling out events, all explained in the tutorial. It's not perfect, but it's one of the closest I've ever seen.
The perfect tutorial is, without question, Portal. At least 80% of the game is tutorial, explaining the mechanics of portals and pushing players to find new and clever uses for them. It's paced so that just as the player learns a new skill, they're forced to use that skill in a way that introduces new skills. Every designer should be required to play Portal before designing anything.
Wow, this was kind of an angry blog. I'm really passionate about teaching players through gameplay, and so many games do it so wrong. Next time will be more pleasant, I promise.
