In one project, I had an early story moment warn players to NOT read any books they came across – they contain only Lies.

After we added that to the opening, the number of books players read in the game tripled.

We started using this for other tutorials too. I called them “Reverse-Tutorials” because they used reverse psychology, creating motivation to do something by telling you the opposite.

Players were forgetting they fish? A reminder came off as patronizing to players that remembered. Same feeling as “putting paint where you’re supposed to go”.

So we posted a sign that said, “ANNOUNCEMENT: Fishing is ILLEGAL by order of [Villain]. All fish belong to [Villain].”

Not only did fishing go up…. Some players even started posting gleefully defiant screenshots of all the fish they’d caught.

Rocks have hidden objects you can find if you press the interact button next to them? We can teach that by telling players, “Warning: Do not talk to rocks! Taling to rocks is a CRIME.”

Players instantly turned to the nearest rock and pressed the “interact” button, finding the hidden item. Every time.

There’s a trick to it though, you’ve got to make it sound like an overbearing authority figure.

Outer Wilds originally had well-meaning NPCs say they didn’t understand why anyone would want to go into space – assuming players would want to push back against this attitude. However, it had the opposite effect. They flipped it for the final version.

“Huh? You want to go to that dark cave? Why? That’s kind of weird…” gets a very different reaction than, “The cave to the north is OFF LIMITS. If you know someone who has entered the cave, IGNORE their words and report them to the nearest Watchman for safety. Have a pleasant day!”

Be honest, do you kinda want to see what’s in that cave now?