The scareactors aren’t “trained” to do anything except push a button and appear (unless they have an advanced effect).
The “hand in your face” is both parts lazy and easy if you figure out the trick — the hand doesn’t stop moving. It’s typically a “swipe” (though sometimes more akin a jab). Some guests develop tunnel-vision when in a house or zone, so the only part of the “swipe” is the moment it’s in front of their face.
You typically don’t bother with guests who scan around them unless you can time it right.
No, I mean streets, for the most part. It much more rarely happens in houses. It’s mostly Vanity Ball and Zombieland where it’s happened; they’ll scare and step in front of you, putting their whole body in the way without moving for several seconds. When they reach at your face but continue to walk, that’s one thing, but I’ve come really, really close to stepping on a lot of feet because of a dead stop. There’s one girl in Vanity Ball that I was centimeters away from running into, and that’s what freaks me out. I don’t want anybody to get hurt because I didn’t stop for them, but I don’t feel like you should have to. Like you said, I’m not sure if it’s just “laziness” like they’re trying to take up all of my attention to make sure they startle me as opposed to doing a real scare, or if they were told to be more aggressive. All of this is only compared to last year’s zones, though, so that was the only basis I was going off of in terms of direction.
Oh, but speaking of direction, to tie it all back to Yeti, who’s been watching the “shhh” man? I haven’t seen him going as crazy with his shaking/spams/elderly-man trembles, but he was super active last night. The scare is already sort of comedic with the door thing, but him going over the top is so fun. The more that I think about it, the more that I realize that, somehow, the Yeti cast still has their energy up even at the end of the night. From the “what the hell are
those things guy, to the man with the gun right before the ice caves, to almost every single Yeti (especially Big Bad Yeti at the end), everyone just looks so animated. I say somehow because I’m familiar with just how heavy those Yeti costumes are (not as bed as Depths, but close), so I’d expect them to be worn out by close, but they were just as savage as they were at open if not moreso. Even just three runs between 1:45 and 2 actually let me see an
increase in energy with only a few exceptions. Yeti kicks ass.
