CeleryMan

I am often the same way, Ben X. I remember Rob and Danielle discussing this exact issue on Idle Weekend. The player keeps holding off using that BFG or whatever for when it's really necessary...and then the game ends without the player having used it. This is a funny case of what Problem Machine in their link calls the Tyranny of Optimal Play (the idea that the player figures out the optimal strategy and proceeds without variation): the player abstains from a certain behavior in order to do it when its usage would be most optimal. I recently played through Titanfall 2's campaign and found the presented play style of rapidly swapping weapons for whatever shows up to be a decent way to encourage variety (at least in that FPS). Granted, the weapons were not all that different from one another.

Regarding Mark Brown's video, he points out Blizzard's "rest bonus" to XP as a case in which a mechanic intended to discourage certain behavior (overplaying) was transformed into a mechanic to encourage logging off. This flip makes me think of training dogs with positive reinforcement (clicker training). The general idea there is to set the dog up to succeed by getting them to perform behaviors they are rewarded for rather than by punishing them for doing what they aren't supposed to do. I really like how this discussion of protecting players against themselves (a negative approach) essentially boils down to how gameplay tends to be determined by the game's design (a positive approach). Beyond scoring systems or "perks" awarded for trying different guns (Wolfenstein: The New Order), there are also narrative-based examples. I'm thinking of playing Dishonored and wanting to play according to dialogue from characters. In Dishonored 2, I played as a high chaos Emily because I had heard her voice over better matched that style. Happy Dishonored Halloween!

When the question of the origin of "blink" came up, as a verb to describe short-distanced teleportation, I thought of a precursor that still gets brought up: "to jaunt." I first saw it used in SuperGiant's Transistor. The earliest usage of "jaunt" I know of is Alfred Bester's sci-fi novel Tiger! Tiger! (aka The Stars My Destination), which came out in 1957. Great episode as usual, by the way! I'm going to play some of Asher's games now : )