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I know some folks see the yellow paint discourse as repeating old discussions. But do you have any idea how much of a repeat it actually is? Here is a video from Egoraptor explaining why players feel terrible about being handheld in less than a minute. Can you guess when this video was released?

So when I see folks say 'If you're not a game dev, stay out of this conversation!' or 'You try and sit behind playtesters and see how they get stuck!' I am flabbergasted. He wasn't a gamedev, and he explained the problem in 1 minute. And he did this... 13 YEARS AGO www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Fpi...

I GENUINELY do not get why this & the related presumptive "easy modes are accomdative" discussions are built on the assumption that someone not engaging with the thing in front of them is a failure of the thing inherently. Same vibe as "Starship Troopers is bad satire bc fascists play along w/it".

And for the arguments of "Well, 20% of players will always get stuck, so we just have to have incredibly ham-fisted and immersion breaking UX in our games.", alright, but if: 1. You do not mind the other 80% are now annoyed as hell. 2. You are crunching to get it done. bsky.app/profile/ryst...

Its bleakly funny how TV discourse is having a moment around Netflix exec's going "what if someone is cooking pasta while watching this show, maybe the characters should announce what they are doing" and people mock it, meanwhile games discourse is often doing a weird defence of the same thing.

How did we come to the conclusion 80% are annoyed? What tells us it us not the 2.5% who moan loudly on internet?

In most cases the correct answer is "The level design and game design are not meshing together well, and we cannot resolve this for time, political, or expertise reasons. So, just slap some paint on that thing and call it done." and you feel this when you play it. Not your fault, but you do feel it.