Is there a word or phrase for those occasional times when you get stuck, and have (you think) tried every possible action, in every possible room, with every possible item or permutation or combination of items?  And you're just wandering around repeating things, looking for something else to try?

You are tempted to think that this must be a bug, but you know you're wrong; you're just pre-rationalizing the inevitable decision that's bubbling up to look at a walkthrough.  The shame of knowing that others (many others) have figured this out is beginning to loom on the horizon.

It's not a good feeling sometimes.  It's these times that I most wish point and click adventure games were not so constrained.  I guess good "smart" hint systems can help here, but that can be equally unsatisfying.

Anyway, I was wondering if there was an industry term for these... ditches?  Valleys?  Ruts?

Welcome to the forum, Outrageoustugofwar!

I believe this to be the answer to your question about an industry term:

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/M...Everything

I think there are several words for being frustratingly stuck, and most of them are spelled ^!(@#/~!!!!!  However, whenever I feel stuck, I try one of these:
   

The shame of knowing that others (many others) have figured this out is beginning to loom on the horizon.

Not necessarily, for instance Brok the Investigator is an extremely well-made adventure game with branching solutions to most puzzles. The game has built-in statistics shown on a timeline for how often players would pick certain answers to resolve problems. Some of the statistical numbers were astronomically low. The kind which barely anyone would even think of doing, despite it being programmed in as an option. I think this illustrates that even with robustly-made games with branching choices, there shouldn't be any shame attached to not knowing an answer to certain puzzles.

I guess good "smart" hint systems can help here, but that can be equally unsatisfying.

Providing branching solutions to puzzles is a flexible way that bypasses the need for a hint system altogether. Any adventure game you encounter that descends into the unenviable situation known as the 'Try Everything' trope is just a fundamental indication of bad game design management being at fault and not the player.

That’s the point that makes me not like a game anymore. My term for it is, “I’m going to throw this $@(&! game out the $*@&# window.” And then ultimately I don’t, because the game is on my computer or iPad, and I don’t want to chuck those outside. And then I quit said game and move on to something that’s actually fun. Seriously, players getting to that point speaks more to poor design choices on the part of the devs, not any failing of the players. I like difficult puzzles but not nonsensical ones.

Welcome to the forum, Outrageoustugofwar!

I believe this to be the answer to your question about an industry term:

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/M...Everything

Thank you for the welcome, Legerdemancy.

This is great, I had no idea this site did video game tropes, too.

Welcome! Good question, is there an industry term for it?

Funny how you've come up with a fundamental AG experience that I've never seen described this accurately.

Whether you frantically click around or methodically exhaust every (im)possible solution, you're going a little nuts. And when you look up a hint or a walkthrough, you feel like you've played yourself.

Thank you for the welcome, Legerdemancy.

This is great, I had no idea this site did video game tropes, too.

Yeah, despite it being named "TV Tropes" it does actually have numerous video game examples and related gameplay mechanics. It's an excellent resource that I am simultaneously both thankful and sorry for sending you on an inevitable wiki walk. 

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WikiWalk

Along with a link to your most likely starting location, filled to the brim with knowledge and opinions:

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/M...entureGame

Welcome! Good question, is there an industry term for it?

I think it's important for adventure game developers to take responsibility for badly designed puzzles, so that they can improve their game formulas, rather than having a normalised industry term to sugar-coat the truth of the matter.

And when you look up a hint or a walkthrough, you feel like you've played yourself.

I've been giving this thread's topic some extra thought, and I've now come up with my ideal ranking list:

1. 'Failing forward'

2. Multiple solutions to the same puzzle

3. Built-in hint system

4. Patch the game with updates

5. Read a walkthrough

6. 'Try everything'

The Council is a prime example of implementing failing forward mechanics. The protagonist can severely mess up puzzles but still continue through to the ending of the game just with various health ailments as a compromise.

I've already mentioned earlier in the thread that Brok the Investigator is great for branching solutions to puzzles.

The Sam & Max series by Telltale Games contains an excellent hint system. Sam & Max already speak in non-sequiturs for both jokes and commentary. So the developers cleverly made the two characters drop occasional hints in this style of talking to keep everything diegetic. As an added bonus you can also adjust settings in the main menu for how frequently to receive these hints.

Sometimes bugs, glitches and softlocks actually are at fault for hindering progress in an adventure game. I was stuck for awhile in Nancy Drew #23 - Shadow at the Waters Edge. Installing an official patch resolved this issue. Specifically, Nancy has a recording device in her inventory which becomes unusable once all the channels are full on the device and you cannot delete them because of a bug.

As a final resort, look up a walkthrough for the section of the game you are currently trying to figure out.

Please do not believe the lies of the false deity known as 'Try everything'. They make promises of providing you with unlimited fine leather jackets and rubber chickens with pulleys in the middle. Unfortunately, all of it is a facade. Their nefarious grandiose plan is to make you squander your precious real-life time on circular thinking patterns that get you nowhere. 

The "Try Everything" article frames the problem in an interesting way: it suggests that if you're reduced to randomly trying things, that's not much different from just looking at a walkthrough. Are either of these things a problem? For the player? For the developer?

Is it bad puzzle design? Or does the player need to think harder or longer?

Obviously, these are just games, and so the player can do whatever they want to have fun.

But I think this question gets at a central problem of adventure games (or maybe a central feature?), which is that they are on invisible rails. And that can be frustrating when you are lifted out of "solving a puzzle" into "guessing what the devs want me to do here."

And I think the meta-problem is: adventure game puzzles are usually not really "puzzles" in the sense of a jigsaw puzzle or a math problem. They're something more like embedded riddles that must be solved to advance the plot. Sometimes really obtuse riddles.

The mechanisms you list are ways to deal with times when the flash of inspiration needed to reason through such riddles is not forthcoming. I think these kinds of puzzles are fun, even when they are incredibly obtuse, as long as you're still actually thinking instead of just acting randomly. That's where the line is.

Is it bad puzzle design?  Or does the player need to think harder or longer?  

With enough playtesting and quality assurance before the release of the game, that would hopefully prevent the cause from ever being labelled as bad puzzle design. For smaller budget games, the lines blur whether it's the fault of the player for not brainstorming a rational solution or the developer for not implementing diegetic and logical puzzles.

But I think this question gets at a central problem of adventure games (or maybe a central feature?), which is that they are on invisible rails. And that can be frustrating when you are lifted out of "solving a puzzle" into "guessing what the devs want me to do here."

I personally view puzzles as pacing elements for the storyline, which is the primary reason I'm playing the game in the first place. Non-linearity helps prevent things from feeling railroaded in general.

I think these kinds of puzzles are fun, even when they are incredibly obtuse, as long as you're still actually thinking instead of just acting randomly. That's where the line is.

It's interesting in those rare instances where a puzzle is considered by the broader public to be so difficult and obtuse that it merits its own dedicated Wikipedia article. Feel free to offer your opinion on the Broken Sword puzzle. From memory, I think I did solve that section without hints or a walkthrough, when I played the Nintendo Wii remastered edition.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Goat_Puzzle