"I don't get why getting stuck in Monkey Island is an implied failure state, but getting stuck on Dear Esther is not" That'd be because the sheer level of incompetence required to get stuck on Dear Esther which is little more than a linear path is so astronomical that it might be as well be equated to a failure to even install it in the first place. That's not a failure state express or implied. Dear Esther makes zero effort to stop you reaching your goal, it intentional blocks off any and all pathways that don't lead to your goal to ensure that you can't get lost, it never even pretends to be a maze and the only way you can fail is through a conscious decision not to continue. Contrast that with Monkey Island, where the game deliberately gates content behind puzzles, ensuring that you cannot proceed without solving them. The failure to complete a puzzle is not an express "Game Over" screen but it is an implied failure state since it purposely prevents you from progressing. As much as some people seem to believe that my logic is inconsistent and that I'm twisting the facts to fit my definition, it's quite the opposite. Some people are seriously reaching and twisting my definition to try and make it fit every piece of interactive media, thus invalidating the definition entirely. Either that or they just didn't get it, which may or may not be my fault in explaining it, who knows at this point *shrug*