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The unfortunate issue with making an immersive sim these days is that everybody is so used to looking up things. Look up the best routes, the best choices, the best weapons, the most efficient way to go through a level, the meta builds. www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/di...

Genuinely asking, how do we even solve this? How can we make sure that each player has a unique experience? How do we encourage them NOT to check for the answers online? or is this simply a non-issue and I'm way off here?

we dont have statistics about how much players use guides, and how many of them play it "for real" , which is to say, un-aided I think both players have always existed for as long as games have been frustrating, I dont see it as an immersive sim problem.

0% irony. this is what you do. you have to separate the system-level Achievement/Trophy stuff from the actual nitty gritty of your game and keep it anodyne, then make it as clear as you can that you're doing this. keep everything secret, missable, rare, mutually exclusive or emergent native in-game

the reason achievements are poison is because they tie the average person's conception of what the "complete" game content even *is* tied to a completely inflexible format; doing 100% of this exact list of things with no options or interpretation

Game with one and a half solid, intuitive routes that will be the default, expected experience, where the player doesn't get stuck much, so they won't want to look up anything to beat the game Leave leads to "true ending" or trickier but fun weapons or strats as hints along the way.

One problem is overcoming the psychology that whatever choice you make you're stuck with for a 20+ hour campaign, which I'd say is the root to looking up what choice will lead to the most desirable EXP/outcome.

That also said, statistically most players don't finish long games, let alone play them again. So they'll only ever see that one mode of play they grooved into, which doesn't often compare to a game focused on that play style.

imo the problem is the length of the game, in a 20+ hours game, usually the player will get the safest most boring rout that will get to the end game and MAYBE try new things on a subsequent newgame+ with strong weapons etc... if it ever finish the game, since most players never finish long games.