I really like this question, because it is not something I've previously given much thought to. Here is what I've come up with, in no particular order:
Dense atmosphere. There's a lot I could talk about here, but suffice it to say that the game needs to have The Vibes.
High interactivity. I'm spending most of my time engaged with the game world, as opposed to transitional elements like menus, lobbies, or cutscenes.
Low friction. This doesn't necessarily mean no challenges, but I shouldn't have to feel challenged if I'm not up for it.
No pressure to advance. I can just dick around for hours at a time for any reason, without consequence.
This can be applied generally to any activity, but when interacting with Lemmy starts making you feel anxious or upset, then it's too much. It's OK to spend a lot of time online, just make sure to take care of your mental health!
Thanks for the heads up. I'm fine with X11 for general usage, but I've read that games tend to perform better under Wayland, so that's probably going to be an important factor.
Thanks for sharing your experience! It sounds like Mint is mostly pretty manageable for a casual user, which is good news for me.
I think a lot of Linux programs have moved to a distribution format called "flatpak" which I am not super familiar with, but I believe behaves the way you prefer (just download the app file and run it). Though fwiw, the command-line script installers are generally not actually doing much different from installers on Windows or Mac - they're just not hidden behind a progress bar.
The person in question loves their Steam Deck, but occasionally wants to play a game that requires a little more processing power. My first thought when I started researching was to check whether SteamOS was generally available for PCs (sadly, it's not).
I appreciate the concern, friend. They are absolutely getting a debloated Windows install if Linux doesn't work out for any reason. And I'll probably be avoiding Gentoo for this particular use case, which should hopefully minimise the issues with drivers and compatibility software. ;)
A Short Hike is A+ cosy for sure!