In Shadow of Mordor you take control of Powerful Manfoot, a stealthy stabman. In the much-lambasted tutorial of the game, you sneak up on your wife and give her a big smooch as your tutorial to a system that will be used for brutal murder for the next twenty hours.

In LEGO The Hobbit, a game I have been playing a level at a time for months now, there is a level where you have to run around and find a pig who has stolen some herbs that the dwarves need for some arcane, plot-based purpose. After some LEGO hijinks, you find the pig and engage in combat with it. Or, rather, the mechanics that you’re using are the combat mechanics: a prompt appears on screen, you smash the button for the prompt, and then you win the fight (normally by lopping off an enemy’s head).

This time you play tug of war with a sassy, selfish lil pig.

I feel like the difference between those interactions is significant.