I understand the reasoning the Devs gave for doing the start of Reborn the way they have gone as compared to the old Orbus Tutorial, however I do believe that the old way of starting off in a single instance without other people and having most of the basics given in one small area was far better than what is currently implement.
I get that the issue was that many new players skipped the start area (and still do) and directly enter the game without knowing mechanics and then sometimes complain about not know what to do or say that the game is complicated (not saying that is what is happening here) but at least, in my opinion, the old tutorial did a better job at guiding players at the start and introducing the lore of the game.
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Those who chose to skip tutorials and donât have a clue what to do is on them, not because the tutorial was bad 
So, Iâm in favor of it.
People do not skip tutorials because they have an internal hate towards all tutorials, they skip them simply because they are boring. For this all to work, the tutorial needs to be engaging and fun.
I do not think you can hold it against people to choose not to engage in things they find boring (skip it) . It is the basic of human nature.
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I have to somewhat disagree here:
I donât think that it is solely based on the idea that tutorials are boring, I believe that a better reasoning is that people are lazy. Much of the tutorial is text based we know that in many games the players like to skip the given info just to jump in and figure it out. Again, not that this particular thread is about skipping the tutorial but the current way Reborn is set, I believe, is about feedback / data they gathered in old Orbus where many just skipped it to go right into fighting. They then complained about not knowing what to do or where to go.
The current argument is not that the present tutorial is boring (although it is not that I do not agree to some extent), it is that there is to much information presented at one time. VR in and of its self is also new and players need time to figure out the mechanics on how 1st person games work on this new platform.
I think this youtube video where a husband runs an informal experiment on his wife where he has her play a sampling of games to see how, after a lifetime of not playing games, she would do, is a another issue of not being able to keep new players interested. I think this illustrates how a new platform (VR) and a players unfamiliarity with how the system works contributes to the sense of being overwhelmed.
I mean I understand what you are saying, but you described a situation where a player believes he has two options:
A) Read the tutorial, follow it and hopefully engage in some action somewhere in the future
B) Skip right into the action as that is why he downloaded the game
Laziness is simply a lack of motivation, so if a player does not feel like he is motivated to do the tutorial, he will simply not do it if possible. Having fun is a motivation as well, since people want to have fun, but might not feel motivated if they feel like they will not have fun if they do the tutorial.
And if it would be true that people somehow have a grudge against tutorials, there are still ways around it. Simply do not make it feel like a tutorial, but rather a journey. If the player does not even know that he underwent a tutorial and has all the knowledge he needs at the same time, you have won.
There are some good examples from well know games like Skyrim, where most of the people did not even know that the tutorial for the game happens before you get out of the first cave (with the bear) and sometimes in the middle of the game (like learning shouts etc.), yet nobody minded because it was engaging and actually fun. Tutorial in the Witcher (the very first scene) was kind of descriptive and had quite a bit of text with it, but nobody really minded (most of it was lore). And as said in the video Asmund posted above, Portal was 90% tutorial, but everybody was okay with it (a perfect demonstration of showing features as they are important).
I know we are talking about the overwhelming factor of the current tutorial, but all of these go hand-in-hand. If a player will have to read walls of text and run around the big city in which he has no idea how to navigate, he will not have fun if the reason why he downloaded the game was to learn and immerse into his class. Being overwhelmed ruins your first impression and makes you feel like not knowing what to do in the game (which is definitely not fun). It all comes down to the fun factor which if it is compromised, the player has no reason to keep playing the game.
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Agreed, the tutorial is lacking. I just hit 5 hours in and Iâm glad I stuck it out, but I felt some things were either glossed over or I totally missed them. I was taught to make potions, but only a few minutes ago did I figure out how to use them. The teleportation deviceâŚdid I totally miss the explanation on that one? Once I figured out the potion thing, figuring out the teleportation device was an easy. I thought I was screwing up Critter Catching until I got an achievement. Lore quest vs Daily selection, pure âwhat does this doâ luck. The tooltip pops once you figure some of these things out which is kinda backwards. Maybe I missed some of these explainations in the first hour, maybe it was multiple text boxes on top of each other, but I felt a bit lost and I have been playing mmos since EQ launched. Someone New to VR coming from Retail WoW is going to have a bad time, and if they canât figure it out in less than two hours they will be asking for a refund through the Oculus Store.
Just my 2 Dram. Love the game, keep it up!
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I agree with OP. As someone who just started playing 4 days ago, the experience would have been much smoother if I were locked out of Highgarden (or whatever the cityâs name is) until I finished the tutorial.
Also item management is very confusing. When I got my pickaxe, I didnât know which slot I should equip it into. Even now, if an item doesnât belong in a slot, it will appear quickly and then go back to where it was. I would rather that slot just be grayed out (same for all of the chests in my home). Not being able to tap an item and drag it around to another slot feels janky.
The last thing that made the tutorial difficult is how close to your face the text is when talking to the NPC. Itâs so close, I walk backwards. Then when I press next, it appears right in front of my face again. Other players talking to the NPC were walking around the text so I had trouble reading what it said, or would accidentally press it which would go to the next line of text. (And even after completing the tutorial I would love for the text and pause menus to be a bit further from my face.)
I also made the mistake of choosing shamen as my class. So all of the additional objects around my player was overwhelming. Perhaps a system where you slowly gain objects as you complete the tutorial would be helpful?
Sorry if it sounds like Iâm complaining. I am loving the game! But the tutorial was so confusing, I wasnât even sure if I had finished it or not. Some missions I passed without understanding why. For example, I was supposed to go to my house and brew a potion. But I think I picked up a healing potion as a drop, and the NPC noticed that, which prompted him to tell me I passed that mission.
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Just a reminder that by going to the beginner weapon npc in Highsteppe, you can get weapons for every class. Youâre not restricted to what you choose at the beginning.
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I liked Everquest 2âs tutorial island. New players started on an island with weaker versions of enemies. As you run around and level youâd unlock new skills and the final tutorial quest was to kill a mini boss. Itâs essentially a short, compact version of the game.
Have quests introduce class mechanics and add voice acting for the tutorial. Voice acting alone would make a difference as blocks of text and images arenât always engaging.
Cap the island at level 5 so they get their first perk before leaving the island. Also treat the tut quests as a storyline quest chain so they feel progression from level 1.
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