I just grabbed an Android remaster of "Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars", a 90's point-and-click adventure that has been added a hints system which pops up automatically after a timeout of the player not progressing.

This can be set as far as 1h of being stuck. Can also be 5 minutes. But by default it is 30 seconds.

My inner kid was screaming "that's cheating!" :-D but on second thought it is a very cool feature for us busy adults, however it's sad the extremes that gamedevs have to go in order to appease the short-term mindless consumers of today's tik-toks.

But more seriously, where's the joy of generating long-standing memories of being stuck for a while on a puzzle that will make you remember that scene for 30 years? An iconic experience that separates this genre from just being an animated movie with more steps.

I couldn't imagine "Monkey Island II but every 30 seconds we push you forward". Gimme that monkey wrench.

TFA and this comment just made me have this thought about today's pace of consumption, work, and even gaming.