Running before I can walk

I've never been very good at following examples in order to learn. What I mean is that if a tutorial for a new piece of software has been written to show my how to do something very simple, you can guarantee that before the tutoial is over I will have subverted it to my own ends and have done something more complex or something that interests me. Why should I use the tutorial to create what everyone else doing the tutorial has done? Where is the creativity in that? Hello World? Please, can't you come up with something better than that?

Part of what I think is behind this is the fact that reading about how to do simple things often means I understand how to do it just in the reading, so when it actually comes to doing it myself I'm ready to move on to something more complex. Another part is because software tends to follow along similar principles because it would be foolish to do otherwise. What would be the point of developing a windows application that didn't make use of the established vocabulary of such things as copy, paste, etc?

I was thinking about the above in terms of gameplay. We clearly see that certain games have established a common vocabulary of interface, which means that if you enjoy a particular genre it's easier to play a new game in that genre because you aren't fighting the interface. The downside of this can be that as an experienced player you may feel that the first section of a game may be too easy if it's designed to introduce the uninitiated into the way the game works.

We should never disregard the new player when designing a game, but it's really difficult to know where to put the tutorial. Should it be a completely separate section so that the experienced can get stuck straight into the action without the need to refer to this? Or should it be an intergral part of building the player's involvement with the character(s) and story at the same time as introducing the different aspects of gameplay in a controlled manner?