Exactly. “Yellow spray paint” has become a derogatory term in the industry to talk about these patronizingly obvious visual cues devs add to 3D games these days to let them know where to go.

I think part of it has to do with reasonable software design principles around affordances and discoverability making their way to game dev. I think the relationship of user::app is completely different from that of player::game. When a user takes 2min to find the button that means the button should be easier to find. When a player takes 2min to find the chest, it could mean a lot of things but it doesn’t necessarily mean the chest needs to be easier to find.

That’s my morning subway take, at least.