The fact that you are opening a cabinet and picking up an object and rotating it isn’t important to the game world… What’s important is that through affecting the game world, you’re creating (p. 131) your understanding of it.
Giving the player agency through world interaction isn't about allowing them to have an impact on the world but rather allowing the player to develop their own understanding of the world.
but unless the imaginary world is nothing more than a costume trunk of empty avatars, all of the interactor's possible performances will have been called into being by the originating author.
Wouldn't this make it so any story will always lack something to allow full agency? People will never fully be able to decide something on their own unless the story was being made right then and there. With prewritten stories, how close are we actually able to get it to full agency? How close can we get to the same type of agency explained at the beginning?
The puzzle is a satisfying one, but since there is no one there to eat the cake, the action takes us outside the immersive world instead of reinforcing our belief in it.
Does this imply that part of the enjoyment of games is building connections with others, even if those others are digetal?
One of the consistent pleasures of the journey story in every time and every medium is the unfolding of solutions to seemingly impossible situations.
This is one of the biggest reasons I love reading some of the books I do. I find it incredibly interesting when it seems like a character has no way out but then the author thinks of some solution that I would have never thought of. I feel like it also can add a sense of engagement if the reader tries to come up with a solution themself.