What are Quick Time Events? What's everyone's problem with them?

I ask because of the comments that I see thrown around a lot. They state that of the most annoying things this generation of video games, 'QTE' are just sick and need to leave.

I recently purchased the collection GoW and experienced these button presses that make me take down the boss. I don't have an opinion on them, mostly because it turns out I really didn't like GoW that much at all. At least I got it for $25...

But what is the reasoning behind this attitude overall?

I just don't like them. I just find them annoying.

The reason why they are poorly received is because of their reliance on reaction time to complete an event. If you don't keep up, you fail and have to keep trying again. That and for the most part they are completely randomized, which means you can't memorize the pattern and get "better" at it, only keep trying until you get lucky, or your reaction time improves.

When used sparingly they can add to a game (i.e. God of War) but when they are integrated into every aspect of the game, or are used during cutscenes (RE4), they get really, really annoying.

QTE are an excuse to make a cutscene or scripted event less boring and give you that "interactive" feeling.

Theyre cheap and add nothing to actual gameplay. Imagine watching TV and your about to change the channel and all of a sudden a QTE popped up and you couldnt watch the show you wanted until you were able to punch in the combo on the remote with about 1% reaction time.

Word of advice to developers. We wanna play video games, not Simon Says.

The reason why they are poorly received is because of their reliance on reaction time to complete an event. If you don't keep up, you fail and have to keep trying again. That and for the most part they are completely randomized, which means you can't memorize the pattern and get "better" at it, only keep trying until you get lucky, or your reaction time improves.

When used sparingly they can add to a game (i.e. God of War) but when they are integrated into every aspect of the game, or are used during cutscenes (RE4), they get really, really annoying.

foxhound_fox

I'm with you on the RE4 one, you didn't see it coming and that was annoying, besides you couldn't enyoy the cutsc enesbecause you were waiting for those stupid QTE, I only liked them on shenmue because they were something new, but after that they just became generic an annoying.

Guess I'm about the only one here who really likes quick time events. And there are several reasons:

1. Cool surprise moments when you just put your controller away during a scene for a sec.

2. Funny dying scenes (dying against Wesker during a quick time event in RE5 was just epic, like he impales you or breaks your neck with a swift swing of one hand xD)

3. It just adds to the tension and makes it more interesting for me. Like when they are fighting in a cutscene and doing this extremely awesome moves I could never even hope to do in the game, it feels cool to do those quick time events. I loved RE 4 for them. Krauser knife fight anyone? That are 8 QTEs in one short fight. One error kills you. :D

I have always found QTE events relatively easy. They give you a pretty big window to input. But I guess thats just from playing fighting games and such.

Not that bothered by them, but I think they're cheap gameplay gimmicks.

QTEs suck because you can't put down the controller and give your hand a rest during cutscenes. It completely takes you out of the experience too because if you mess up you either need to rewatch the whole cutscene, which sucks, or redo just the QTE part, in which case you gotta wonder why they even put the QTE in there. When the QTE is during gameplay though, that's just lazy game development (God of War, Heavy Rain, Shenmue)istuffedsunny

Lazy development, Heavy Rain? Have you actually played the game, or just mindlessly bashing its use of QTEs? That game's use of QTEs is completely different to almost any other game out there, and you would know that if you have so much as played the demo. For one, missing one button press doesn't equal automatic failure, they're easy to spot (they'll appear on the objects you need to react to, so for example if someone tries to punch you one might appear over their fist), and most of all they're exciting. I'd much rather have QTEs in Heavy Rain's action sequences than just watch what's happening, that would make the game a lot less interesting.

The funny thing is that I just came off of playing Heavy Rain (far too much) and I have to say what it did for GTEs was pretty amazing. Then again, the game is made up completely of GTEs. So...yeah.

"Press this button not to die"

"Press this button to kill the boss, even though you already got him down to 0 health"

*fails at pushing button* Ahh, goddamnit! Back to the beginning of the cutscene! I'll have to start over again and again and again until I start to recognize the pattern! HOW FUN.

They can be used right, too. I think that Mass Effect 2 did a really good thing for them, also, since Mass Effect's cutscenes are already interactive as far as dialogue, it's great to be able to make split-second moral decisions or interrupt a blabbering character.