I think games like Myst succeed in cases where, when the player changes to the state of the world, the consequences of the change make some kind of sense (be it

I think games like Myst succeed in cases where, when the player changes to the state of the world, the consequences of the change make some kind of sense (be it mechanical, symbolic, imaginative, etc.). If you can follow the wire from the switch to the lamp, then you can reasonably deduce that the switch controls the lamp. If you see a rune in two place, then it's reasonable to draw a connection. Games (and software!) fail when the connections between elements are too subtle, too complex, or simply too inconsistent, and sorting them out passes from being fun to being work.