I might actually do a timed runthrough of the tutorial, and see how long it takes now that I know what I need to do. I'll even try to avoid the fights that I'm not supposed to do (I wasn't
supposed to kill the pirates at the station with my 2 starting ships...right? Or engage and kill both Jump Point fleets?
) I actually suspect it's less of a timesink than we are estimating; I've found it takes as long to get rolling without the tutorial because I am still going to salvage that Hammerhead. It's too good of a starting ship to pass up. I will update this thread if/when I time my Tutorial run.
Edit:
Normal run, including reading the text (almost all of it; I have a bad habit of skimming/skipping) and quicksaving at multiple intervals:
26:23 seconds, from the game's creation to reaching Jangala and finishing the tutorial.
/Edit
That said, it might be best to roll up the rest of the tutorials into the Campaign one. Splitting up the tutorials like that is probably going to generate confusion at some point.
Gaming has changed apparently. I despise steam for impelling developers to moron proof their games for idiot reviews.
It isn't strictly Steam's fault, although they certainly could do a better job of filtering reviews. I think it's reasonable to require the user to play a few hours mark on most games (barring refunds, perhaps...Steam's refund system is pretty limited, though). I see some reviews posted with 30 minutes or so played. Although, it is possible that they got the game or alpha/beta tested before the game reached Steam. I would at least like the option of filtering those out.
The main problem is that the game market is flooded right now, and it makes even finding a potential good game difficult. Most people go by the %'s, which can be helpful but can also be misleading. I've found the best thing to do once I have found an interesting title is to look at both Positive and Negative reviews, taking into account the user preference (when I can identify it) and time played, as well as the quality of their feedback.