I've just been thinking about this sort of problem after playing through (most of) Discworld 2 over the weekend. It's a prime example of Keyring Syndrome -- each item in the game has, for the most part, one and only one use.

However, it frequently had a kind of conversational keyring as well: go talk to person A, so that when you talk to person B, you get conversational option C, which is cleverly hidden among conversational options D,E,F, which all hint at C. I'm not sure why Yahtzee didn't see that as an extension of Keyring Syndrome. I'll have to email him and ask what he thinks is the difference.
 

I will say that I always enjoy reading commentaries like this, so thanks for pointing it out. I would also add that this is a topic that has been discussed by numerous individuals in the past, so although it's a good perspective it's also not exactly an original one.

I also thought I'd point out that we're really talking about two separate issues: (1) command entry in adventure games, and (2) good puzzle design.

The problem is that the two actually go hand in hand. Good puzzle design is hard, just like good story design, and all too often we see games that seem to put puzzle design near the bottom of the priority list, right next to story design.

But when graphical adventure games came into being, as Ben points out, the command structure became more and more simplified. And so, with fewer commands to choose from, puzzle complexity followed suit and we end up with far too many games with keyring syndrome.

I'm glad you pointed it out, since this is really one of the main reasons I chose to pursue 3d interactive fiction.
 

I think it's a problem in any game design regardless of genre --- but it's particularly a problem with adventure games, which are supposed to be puzzle-oriented.

The best puzzles are the ones where everything was in plain sight, and the solution just seems blatantly OBVIOUS once you've solved it, and you can't blame tiny hidden hot-spots.

This is one that is making me ponder in RPG development, too. Back in the day, RPGs and adventure games were joined at the hip, and the best RPGs had some good adventure-gamey puzzles in them. Not ones that would make veteran Zork players too confused or anything, but some things to make you pause in the monster bashing for a half-hour or so.