Yes, rubbish. A giant step backwards in gaming. Now anyone who has seen my post in any Shenmue thread knows I love Shenmue. Adore it. But man, it has a lot to answer for. Of course Shenmue didn't invent the QTE and some whole games were big long QTEs but Shenmue seemed to spark a little revival that has carried on since. Most recently I've seen them in the new Tomb Raider and Soul Calibur 3.
But they're rubbish.
Early game controls were very simple. Twist paddle one way, paddle moves. Twist paddle other way, paddle moves other way. Very quickly in these games, the controller became an extension of ourselves. Like another muscle. As things got a bit more complicated, we grew with the controllers. Only the newest players of Super Mario Bros were thinking - 'I have to press A to jump...press A...now!'. No. We just jumped. Yes, we were pressing A but our brains were just saying 'jump'. Just as we don't have to think about the process of moving our arms to pick up an object. Movement was limited, yes, but natural.
In these cases there is direct communication between us and the game world.
In recent years, where so many options were opened up and our in-game avatars are capable of so many movements, we go through a short learning process and then we become one with the controller just as we did back in SMB. If we want to duck, we duck. If we want to jump, we jump. Roll, we roll. Yes, early on we have to think about what buttons we press and some games (Metal Gear Solid) throw us back into the real world in tutorial hints by referencing the pad that sits in our hands but that is all to get us comfortable. To lead to a point where we don't need to know that pad is there. Each button is our gateway to a move, but we don't have to think about it. The control we have is amazing. Us and the game. Direct connection. Immersion.
Beautiful.
And then come QTEs. A letter (symbol, whatever) flashes up. We have to press it in time. This symbol (letter, whatever) rarely has any connection to any action in-game. It's completely abstract. It is not us and the game any more. It's us and the controller. We are thrown right out of the game. Just as the button we press has no connection, the results of that press have no connection. We get a cutscene, or a story branch. Abstract. Some games (like the aforementioned Tomb Raider) sometimes tries give the results a vague connection to the button presses in that a button normally associated with jumping will achieve some in-game cut scene that involves a jump somewhere along the line but the method is still no less abstract.
If a game wants us to jump in a test of reflexes, have us speed towards a pit and let our reflexes tell us we need to jump. Don't flash and X. X is nothing. An abstract symbol. If we should take a quick right, have something come at us hard from the left and let our instincts guide us. Don't flash a left arrow.
Lazy game design.
It's shocking that we have come so far (just look at the level of control we have in game worlds these days) and yet are burdened by such abstract controller-reflex-testing button presses.
But they're rubbish.
Early game controls were very simple. Twist paddle one way, paddle moves. Twist paddle other way, paddle moves other way. Very quickly in these games, the controller became an extension of ourselves. Like another muscle. As things got a bit more complicated, we grew with the controllers. Only the newest players of Super Mario Bros were thinking - 'I have to press A to jump...press A...now!'. No. We just jumped. Yes, we were pressing A but our brains were just saying 'jump'. Just as we don't have to think about the process of moving our arms to pick up an object. Movement was limited, yes, but natural.
In these cases there is direct communication between us and the game world.
In recent years, where so many options were opened up and our in-game avatars are capable of so many movements, we go through a short learning process and then we become one with the controller just as we did back in SMB. If we want to duck, we duck. If we want to jump, we jump. Roll, we roll. Yes, early on we have to think about what buttons we press and some games (Metal Gear Solid) throw us back into the real world in tutorial hints by referencing the pad that sits in our hands but that is all to get us comfortable. To lead to a point where we don't need to know that pad is there. Each button is our gateway to a move, but we don't have to think about it. The control we have is amazing. Us and the game. Direct connection. Immersion.
Beautiful.
And then come QTEs. A letter (symbol, whatever) flashes up. We have to press it in time. This symbol (letter, whatever) rarely has any connection to any action in-game. It's completely abstract. It is not us and the game any more. It's us and the controller. We are thrown right out of the game. Just as the button we press has no connection, the results of that press have no connection. We get a cutscene, or a story branch. Abstract. Some games (like the aforementioned Tomb Raider) sometimes tries give the results a vague connection to the button presses in that a button normally associated with jumping will achieve some in-game cut scene that involves a jump somewhere along the line but the method is still no less abstract.
If a game wants us to jump in a test of reflexes, have us speed towards a pit and let our reflexes tell us we need to jump. Don't flash and X. X is nothing. An abstract symbol. If we should take a quick right, have something come at us hard from the left and let our instincts guide us. Don't flash a left arrow.
Lazy game design.
It's shocking that we have come so far (just look at the level of control we have in game worlds these days) and yet are burdened by such abstract controller-reflex-testing button presses.
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