Coffee Talk #364: Quick Time Events and You

I don’t know that gamers are clamoring for more quick time events, but developers are implementing them into more and more games. One explanation I heard is that developers…

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I was talking about the proliferation of quick time events with some industry friends. The trend is curious. I don’t know that gamers are clamoring for more quick time events, but developers are implementing them into more and more games. One explanation I heard is that developers like quick time events because they keep players engaged. During cinematic sequences, gamers interact with the scene instead of just watching it.

This doesn’t work for me for two reasons. Firstly, I’ve been conditioned to enjoy cutscenes as a reward. Cinematic sequences are a nice treat for finishing a level or a chunk of a game. Secondly, during quick time events I get so focused on the area of the screen with the button commands that I block out the rest of the graphics. For me it’s more enjoyable to sit back and watch a beautiful scene instead of pressing simple button commands to interact with it…

…but that’s just me. What about you? How do you feel about quick time events? Do you love ’em? Do you hate ’em? Or are they just kind of…there? What do you think of them being implemented into more games and more genres?

Author: RPadTV

https://rpad.tv

33 thoughts on “Coffee Talk #364: Quick Time Events and You”

  1. I've always hated QTE's. Mainly for the negative reasons RPad spoke of.

    The first time I saw them was in God of War (first one). And as I recall, they were a HUGE part of the gameplay being as how they broke the monotony of hacking and slashing. I wasn't impressed and I thought the concept of a mini game based on reaction time was stupid.

    I haven't liked the GoW series since and have never played the others.

  2. @ Unrelated Rant

    So… I was driving home earlier today, and I was stuck behind a truck at a red light.

    (If I haven't captured your interest yet… just wait)

    What made this truck special, was that it had a bumper sticker that read:

    "With the exception of Slavery, Fascism, Nazism, and Communism… WAR HAS NEVER SOLVED ANYTHING!!!"

    Now… from a global perspective… that's total bullshit. All 4 of those things still exist in major form. COMMUNISM??!!?? Has this d-bag forgot about China??? China aint forgot about him!

    Speaking strictly in America… ALL THOSE THINGS ARE STILL HERE TOO!!!! Some may take some liberal definitions (like slavery)… but the rest are alive and well living in America.

    The really crazy thing… is that this is not the stupidest thing I've seen on the back of someone's car. I have a picture of a dude's SUV who took stickers of individual letters and spelled out exactly this:

    "GOD LOVE'S YOU"

    I keep playing the scenario of why he insisted on putting an apostrophe there… and I laugh my ass off at the thought of some dude standing there pondering:

    "I know it goes somewhere… but where?… GOD'S LOVE YOU?… no, that can't be right… maybe no apostrophe!…. GOD LOVES YOU…. NAH…. that don't look right. It DEMANDS an apostrophe."

    Hilarious.

    1. My favorite Violence statement is "Violence is never the answer….unless the question is what does V-I-O-L-E-N-C-E spell'

      1. The "violence doesn't solve anything" line is a complete farce as well.

        The truth is… violence solves everything. You have a problem… kill it or yourself. Problem solved. However… it's just way too simple of a solution to be given any worthwhile credit.

        It's also an extremely unfair debate tactic.

  3. QTEs are only acceptable for events where you are moving really fast. Like going 300mph or something. They take away from the action on the screen. God of War did the QTEs because Kratos got real violent but I never noticed the animations since I was waiting to see a button on a corner of the screen.

    Shenmue incorporated them well though.

    1. Tough call there. If you have a back up I'd try and use that for about 2 months until the GS II comes out!

      I'd go with Evo 3D though as much as I love the samsung phones. The slider keyboard is just something I don't need. Besides, you'd be the king of UPS with a 3D phone :)

      1. i already am the king of tha U

        but thanks for your opinion–im kinda leaning the same way, already used to the HTC sense

        by the way, insurance on my 2 year old htc hero is 7 bucks a month, had it for over a year, and the deductible is 100 bucks? And they send you the same phone?? HTC heroes sell for 50 bucks on ebay now….

        i just went ahead and cancelled my insurance, lol

      3. I would get a phone to tide you over until the SGS II comes out. I have had to keep myself from just buying it from overseas.

        mostly unrelated -> When I want a new phone (and it isn't actually damaged) I will find the smallest software or hardware flaw I can and complain that this isn't the way it is supposed to be. They will send me a refurb. Find the same flaw, rinse and repeat 3 times = Different device….still a refurb but it gets you out of a the same phone. I got 4 LG Incites (if texting while getting a call, the pop up call notification wouldn't appear until after reboot) and then 3 BlackBerry Bold 9000s in just over 1 months time. At one point I had all 3 BlackBerrys in my hand. They aren't supposed to do that, but I was angry!!!

        And AT&Ts phone insurance is a huge RIP-OFF. I pay $5 per month and it costs me $150 deductible.

      4. All insurance is like that if you think about it. It's basically a bet. You're betting that an accident will happen without you trying within the time that the contract is for. The sooner it happens, the higher the jackpot.

        Like all gambling games, it's stacked towards the house.

        Let's face it. If people who supply insurance didn't do that… they'd be belly up in no time. It's been like that since the day someone realized they could charge another person for an invisible service.

        Personally, I think the insurance companies stole the idea from the churches.

      5. I can't stand insurance companies. Raise rates because others around you are unsafe, raise rates due to them writing the legislation and contributing to the candidate. Amazing how they can get laws put in place that deem it illegal to buy their product. They seriously collude as much as telcos. Ridiculous.

        The worst though: "Sir that water in your house from the hurricane is flood insurance and your homeowner's policy does not cover flood. Please take up the matter with your flood insurance provider." me: "The water is in the house because the roof has a gigantic hole in it"

        them: "Water damage = flood. Have a good day"

        It should be legal to shoot ppl like that.

        Reason they put all that off to flood is because the Fed gov is the only entity that will underwrite flood insurance. So the more they can put off on them the better.

      6. That's just one story amongst millions of moral atrocities committed by insurance companies.

        My car insurance bill when I lived in PA was 4 times what I pay now for the same coverage. Meanwhile… I think every motorist in the U.S. that has driven in both states will attest to the fact that CA is a MUCH more dangerous state to drive a car in. Snow be damned… I never saw real human brains on the road in PA… in CA I've seen it 3 times.

        Drivers are total idiots out here. Being as how they seem to outnumber the safe drivers out here and a democracy is based on majority rule…. mandatory car insurance is probably a good idea. I don't see why PA costs 3 times as much.

        Full disclosure:

        Liability alone, I pay $30 a month here and paid $120 a month in PA.

      7. I have full coverage on my truck. When I had my own insurance policy with State Farm I paid $320/mo. I have a clean record and get a discount for taking defensive driving, having etched windows and a car alarm. It started going up slowly from about $220/mo. So I asked why. It is because I have bad credit. That shouldn't affect car insurance, that is the DUMBEST IDEA EVER!!!!

        My dad added me to his policy and full coverage costs me $56/mo now.

      8. At least the insurance deductible on my truck isn't even close to what my truck is worth. $500 deductible on a $7,000 vehicle, but on my phone the ratio is WAY skewed $150 deductible on a Captivate that is $450 via AT&T or ~$300 or less on Ebay or Free from Amazon (with contract).

        So that is my only reason for saying its a rip-off.

      9. Smartguy could probably come up with an equation much better than I could.

        Maybe it's because insurance companies have to stay competitive whereas your cell phone insurance is through your carrier. Maybe you could get your next phone on your dad's car policy.

      10. THose contracts with the pesky ETFs are what allows them to charge that large ratio. Not to mention that most ppl in this country have no idea what the devices really cost to make or at retail w/o subsidy. The contracts are the biggest thing though. Oh and handsets not working on different carriers. That's huge.

        My Silverado can be insured by anyone insurance company…not just Geico :)

      11. I know that AT&T doesn't actually insure the phone, a company called Asurion does. I don't know if you can go to them directly though. So I would like to think you could have your phone insured by any company, but it is just far more convenient to do it via the carrier.

      12. You can… but it's one hell of an ordeal. The customer service is crap, overdrawn, and not in english.

        My old boss replaced a dude with me. The guy I replaced had gotten a copy of my boss' ID and filled out a form with Asurion saying that my bosses phone was stolen so he ended up with a new phone and a cloned SIM.

        He apparently sold the cloned SIM to someone in Venezuela, and my boss was being charged as if he had been casually making phone calls from Venezuela for the last 4 months (thousands).

        I had to deal with all that after I figured out what happened and attained proof.

      13. Actually played with the Euro GSII. Some of my Euro dev friends have them. The screen tech is fantastic, but I wish the res were higher. Text is still much better on the iPhone 4. The build quality is garbage. The plastic feels so cheap. Didn't really spend enough time to get a sense of the new TouchWiz.

      15. acually sir, i wont ask like that, im on sprint, im assuming those are the two best phones available….should i wait for something better within the next month or two?

        Thank you for your opinion as always…youve forgotten more about mobile telephony than i could hope to learn in several lifetimes!!!

      16. Epic 4G is a little old. There's a Sprint phone coming with a qHD display and dual core Snapdragon this summer. I think it's worth waiting for. It's also by HTC, but without the silly 3D stuff.

      17. Those were 2 of the major complaints for Engadget also. Was the build quality bad enough to keep it from being a necessary purchase????

      18. It depends if build quality matters to you. Some people only care about the internal components. If that's the case then the Galaxy S II is fantastic. It certainly doesn't feel like an $800 device.

  7. I enjoy QTE during game play and sometimes during (with in the game, not pre-rendered) cut scenes. Bayonetta used QTE perfectly.

  8. I'm not a big fan of them. I can't recall a quick time event cut scene that was very clear in its objective or enjoyable for me. I would agree on both points that I tend to focus only on the area of the screen where the commands are coming from, this conditioning comes from Mario Party style mini-games where there isn't a lot else to look at except the button commands so you can be the quickest in the game. Maybe younger generations of gamers will feel differently on this based on their experiences with such games, but I also enjoy just getting to sit back and watch a cut scene and take in all of the little things that are going on in the background. Maybe user interaction is going to far in this area, or maybe we are all too old.

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