If there’s a corner a boss can’t reach, a particular attack that’s unfairly powerful, or a pause screen that enables excessive jumping, players will find it and use it, often damaging the intended play experience in the process. The blame for this reduced experience doesn’t lie with them, however - it lies with us, the developers.

Some of these easily-exploited gameplay systems are the result of bugs, normally caught before release with proper testing. Sometimes one slips out by mistake. It’s fine. I’m sure it happens to a lot of devs. But some of these systems are intentionally included in the final release, the developers having failed to consider the ramifications of their design decisions. And that's where the issue lies, because if these design decisions are a part of a successful game, there’s the potential for them to be considered good by association. They set a precedent, and before you know it every future game has a similar gameplay system without anybody stopping to ask whether or not that system is damaging the overall experience.

The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time has a rolling mechanic. Hit a button and the player rolls in the direction of travel. While the mechanic performs its intended function well, helping the player dodge attacks, it also gives the player a small speed boost. This, combined with the fact that it can be triggered again immediately after use without any delay, and that it can be used almost anywhere in the game results in a lot of players using it to speed up their travel.

And when this happens, the intended experience breaks down. There’s a loud yell from Link, the player’s character, every time he rolls. Sounds that were only intended to be heard a couple of times a minute are suddenly heard a couple of times a second. It becomes immediately obvious just how few sound files there are for Link’s yells - I counted four. It’s a stark reminder for the player that the experience is artificial.

Immersion is broken further by the sheer absurdity of Link’s behavior. While the Zelda franchise has always carried a hint of humour and unreality, the notion that the Hero of Hyrule would roll across the kingdom to fight evil is at odds with the other facts that we know about the game’s world and its characters. The same problem arises if players use more advanced speed tricks (or at least, tricks that were less well-known at the time of release), such as running backwards or hopping sideways. When players make a conscious choice to stop engaging with the game world in the intended way and start manipulating the mechanics to their own ends, any hope of achieving a meaningful level of immersion is lost.