The assimilation of Immersive Sim mechanics
MechanicsComments
ui doesn't kill discovery, it just removes the frustration of guessing.
What if the jank you mentioned actually acted as a barrier to entry that stifled experimentation? If a player assumes a mechanic is broken rather than a feature, they might stop trying to break the game entirely.
The theory of systemic play falls apart when you look at how people actually play. Most of my friends just follow the waypoint and ignore the chemistry systems unless a walkthrough tells them it is the fastest way to clear a camp.
The issue is not just the waypoints. It is the explicit UI telegraphing that tells the player exactly how a system will react before they even trigger it.
Regarding the reliance on guides, do you think this is a failure of the systemic design itself, or a result of the increased scale of modern maps making organic discovery less viable?
We saw this exact trajectory with stealth mechanics in the early 2000s. It went from the core identity of games like Thief to a standardized crouch and hide checklist in nearly every open world title.
This is just the industrialization of game design. We are replacing artistic risks with a set of proven modules to ensure the ROI stays predictable.