This is the exact same instinct that drives us to run away from the obvious path first. "Clearly that's where the final boss is. Let me just check what's down this way first..."

"...oh no wait, there's a point-of-no-return ledge here. Ok, so maybe that other way was actually where the secret was. I'll go back..."

"...hmm, there's another ledge on this side too. Let me just put in a save point and...ok, yeah, this one is the final boss. Let me reload and check the other path..."

"...ugh, it restarted me way back here? And respawned all the enemies when I reloaded? That's frustrating..."

"...THEY BOTH. LED. TO THE SAME. EXACT. PLACE."

That's why I find idea that no gamer in Ready Player One tried running a car backward offensive.

It's not just one game.

I still do this, and it regularly reaps benefits.

Donkey Kong Country did this to me forever

Developer: here's a fun little thing people will be excited to find!

Player: I will never trust anyone again

Every single waterfall I find I must check behind it, forever.

Donkey Kong Country…

Credit to Tim Buckley for briefly becoming one of the most widely mocked people on the internet and spawning a meme that lives on to this day but just rolling with it and continuing with his dream of making webcomics.

That's what's bugging me about Ready Player One the most. You can't tell me it took YEARS for gamers to figure out the secret about the racing track.

I always try to figure out which direction the game wants me to go so I can try going the opposite way first.

TIL CAD is still going and it looks different.

In Sega Genesis/Mega Drive Aladdin in several levels in the beginning you have go forward a bit and then return back to the start to find the secret. Needles to say, it also messed me up for life.

Also in this list: checking under stairs and behind waterfalls

Jeff Buckley was better tbh

Kids these days didn't know how to video game.

Sonic 1 for Master System...Bridge Zone, act 3...

is this loss?

And then the movie adaptation of Ready Player One acted like placing something before the starting line is some kind of super-sneaky hiding method.

Bum Tickley is still going after all this time?

As a Wolfenstein 3D player that checks every square centimeter of every wall for secret passages, I feel this pain.

For me it's waterfalls - have to check behind every single one for a hidden cave.

This has proven to be problematic in real life, like when I visited Niagara...

In Serious Sam there was a secret you could only reach by starting running backwards while the level was still loading. The hint was that you heard a "door closing" sound from behind.

Doom ]['s chainsaw.

Tons of games did this in the 2d side scrolling period.