Organic Learning vs. Lazy Design in Modern Tutorials

Discussion

I've been noticing this trend lately... where games just sort of throw you in and hope you figure it out. Like... no more explicit 'Tutorial Level 1' where you spend twenty minutes learning how to open a door. It's all 'organic discovery' now... which sounds great on paper... but then you spend three hours not knowing that a specific status effect is actually the key to the whole boss fight. It feels like this push for immersion is clashing with actual mechanical communication. But here is the part I keep thinking about... does this shift actually change how we value the game's systems? If we have to 'discover' a mechanic... do we perceive it as a natural law of the world rather than just a line of code... and does that make the gameplay loop more satisfying... or just more frustrating? Tell me about a time you felt this... did the lack of a tutorial make the discovery feel like a victory... or did it just feel like the devs forgot to explain the rules?