I did some messing around, and it seems to me like it may be based on the hint level that's currently set. I waited for a long time with a 0 hint level, and nothing happened. But when I increased my hint level to 4, the knocking on the pipe cutscene happened immediately.
Unlike most of the other suggestions in this thread, this one makes a little sense. The hint level increases the frequency of certain types of events. These events are usually someone voicing a hint out loud, but presumably they can be any sort of periodic event. It looks like the "frequency at hint level 0" setting for the pipe knocking was set way too low, resulting in, perhaps, the guy only knocking once in a blue moon for people with a hint level set to 0. The fact that you need him to knock on it first, combined with the low knock rate, results in a major design flaw.
This would be an incredibly easy fix, I'm sure. Any idea if there's an official place to send a bug report?
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