I still do not like the idea of it forced and rammed down my throat, regardless of the motivation. Suggestions for newcomers. Sure. Forced to play? NO!
This. I can't remember ever playing any game that forced me to play through a 30 minute tutorial before I could get to the game. That's just weird.
One gets the impression that the people defending forced tutorials because reasons would defend literally any design decision Alex makes out of sheer principle.
Its not out of sheer principle, its because we agree from a game design standpoint. When you have a brutal and complex game like SS, people
will skip the tutorial, have a terrible time, and then pan the game. There is very little more harmful to an indie game than bad reviews - it doesn't matter that they are "wrong".
So yes. Force a tutorial.
As a side note, the tutorial is fun. Yes its on rails, but its a nice scenario that has a whole host of good gameplay in it.