Fallout 180 Experiment

BrainyGamer reports of an interesting lil’ experiment both in set-up and in results, where a group of students played the original Fallouts to form an opinion on the upcoming sequel.

My students have been playing Fallout 1 and 2 for a couple of weeks, preparing for the release of Fallout 3.
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So when I handed them Fallout (half played the original, half the sequel) with no instructions or special preparation, they struggled. A lot. They had the original manuals, but almost nobody read them. After exiting the vault, they had no idea where to go or what to do. Their movements were limited for no apparent reason; “action points” made no sense; and they died within minutes nearly everywhere they went.
(…)
Suddenly, they got Fallout. They grokked the mechanics and embraced the non-linear gameplay. They made peace with uncertainty. But more importantly, they built a relationship with the character and the offbeat but perilous world.
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But this takes time. Fallout doesn’t greet you with a getting-to-know-you opening level or a hand-holding tutorial. My students were willing – granted, at my insistence – to keep plugging away, and they were richly rewarded for their efforts. It’s nice to be right. I may have even gained back the credibility I lost with Planetfall (which is a great game no matter what they say!)

And so we met again this morning. After a long and productive conversation I asked them how they were feeling about Fallout 3. “They’re totally gonna screw up that game,” said one student. “They’re gonna say shoot this guy in the eyeball, like they’re giving you all these choices, but you know they’re gonna make it run and gun. You’re gonna be running around blowing stuff up, and all the shooter players are gonna love it. But it won’t be Fallout. I promise you. It won’t be Fallout.” “It looks pretty amazing,” observed another, “and it should be fun. But yeah, it probably won’t be Fallout.”

It does lead to an interesting point that the article kind of skirts; can you actually offer an experience like Fallout does without automatically being somewhat unforgiving? Doesn’t handholding automatically destroy the experience that the originals offered? Is tough gaming required to make these kind of games good and rewarding?