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On mapping and note-taking…
There’s a difference between something that is completely trial and error (trying every single possibility until you find one that works, rinse and repeat), and getting a response that allow’s you predict what might work next time you try by something other than simple process of elimination. Mazes can belong to either type, but usually belong to the former one.
You can consider anything a puzzle, but the question is what your semantics contribute. Mine differentiate between busy-work and something you can expect players to enjoy. What do yours do?
I’m happy to answer that: Mine is an objective definition, i.e. it is a maze because it has a maze like structure, whereas yours is a subjective definition, i.e. it is a maze because it is tedious padding.
Not at all. In a puzzle the important thing is the type of thinking required. A true maze uses trial and error in mapping the terrain from start to finish. A ‘maze’ like, say, the swamp in Monkey Island 4 is a pure logic puzzle. The two types are very, very different.
This also fits with Lady Kestrel’s definition. The swamp ‘maze’ isn’t really a ‘network of paths and passages’ because it has no spatial geography. You either follow the in-game logic of the solution (partly discovered outside the ‘maze’) or you get nowhere.
Right. The swamp isn’t a maze. You cannot traverse it as a maze. It’s a puzzle hiding behind the mask of a maze.
The mouse maze from the Neverhood. A real maze, not a puzzle. Hard and tedious. Unless you find the easy way during your trial-and-error route. You either see the solution, the “cheat”, or you don’t.
See you around, wolf. Nerissa
I should probably just shut up now as this is not really something I care a great deal about, and as far as I’m concerned everybody can have their own definition of what a maze is - But when someone quotes me and claims that what I’m saying is wrong, then I simply have to respond 
From Wikepedia
A maze is a tour puzzle in the form of a complex branching passage through which the solver must find a route. The pathways and walls in a maze are fixed, and puzzles in which the walls and paths can change during the game are also categorised as tour puzzles. The Cretan labyrinth is the oldest known maze.Technically the maze is distinguished from the labyrinth, which has a single through-route with twists and turns but without branches, and is not designed to be as difficult to navigate. In everyday speech, both maze and labyrinth denote a complex and confusing series of pathways.
(My highlight)
Is the swamp in MI4 a maze in the strict meaning of the word? Perhaps not, but if it isn’t then it is because it doesn’t have the structure of a maze, or as you just said yourself “it has no spatial geography” - NOT because you can navigate it using logic or following come clues instead of trial and error.
Edit: Besides have you ever been in a real maze, well I have - a hedge maze, and there is ALWAYS clues you can follow, even if it is as simple as noticing where the grass is most worn, it is NEVER pure trial and error. In fact I will claim that a pure trial and error maze can only exist in theory and in computer games, but not in real life.
You have to play the game, to find out why you are playing the game! - eXistenZ
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