Heavy Pain - Do quicktime events really count as gameplay, or are they just a pain?

[Altorin]

every game is a quicktime event.

Press B to jump. Press A to attack. Attack at the right time, and you win.

The only difference between any other gameplay and "QTEs" is that QTEs break the fourth wall. They say specifically "Press B to Not die." Whether this is a bad thing or not, I don't know.. doesn't bother me, but if it makes an awesome cutscene something that I'm contributing to, it's much for the better.

my only problem is the QTEs in Assassin's Creed 2. They appear in the middle of cutscenes, and even though they don't usually have anything big as punishment for failing (Usually the scene just plays out a little differently) it sucks to miss them. I left Leonardo Hanging when he tried to hug me.. and I totally would have hugged him, but I didn't notice the "Press B Button" in the middle of the screen.

I actually turned off my system when I missed this. I didn't want the game to auto save, and Leonardo looked so hurt...

they really needed to integrate QTEs a bit better... it was really neat how the did them, but the limited time limit thing really irked me... I tend to only pay attention to the characters during cutscenes, not my hands.

 

[Plurralbles]

To thik that it's the future is a stupid statement. To say that it is a tool devs can use to convey gaemplay and peopel wont' get all pissy about it and just accept it as another form of control, is generally what I think is true about QTE's. In Heavy Rain it apparently worked, but in a shooter as the main mechanic, obviously wouldn't.

 

[ultrachicken]

It's not the future of the gaming industry. Only the creators of Heavy Rain would dare do it again.
Gameplay is pressing sequences of buttons to cause a response from the virtual world around you.
Therefore: QTE=gameplay

The difference is, gameplay is aboot control. QTEs are aboot following orders.

There is a lot of decision making in Heavy Rain. The game is not entirely composed of QTEs.
Death does not mean game over, in fact the story molds to fit death, so you do have control over which characters live or die.

You are making decisions, but you still don't have control.

I fail to see your logic

 

[Meggiepants]

every game is a quicktime event.

Press B to jump. Press A to attack. Attack at the right time, and you win.

The only difference between any other gameplay and "QTEs" is that QTEs break the fourth wall. They say specifically "Press B to Not die." Whether this is a bad thing or not, I don't know.. doesn't bother me, but if it makes an awesome cutscene something that I'm contributing to, it's much for the better.

my only problem is the QTEs in Assassin's Creed 2. They appear in the middle of cutscenes, and even though they don't usually have anything big as punishment for failing (Usually the scene just plays out a little differently) it sucks to miss them. I left Leonardo Hanging when he tried to hug me.. and I totally would have hugged him, but I didn't notice the "Press B Button" in the middle of the screen.

I actually turned off my system when I missed this. I didn't want the game to auto save, and Leonardo looked so hurt...

they really needed to integrate QTEs a bit better... it was really neat how the did them, but the limited time limit thing really irked me... I tend to only pay attention to the characters during cutscenes, not my hands.

Yeah, and I never knew exactly when they were coming. I was always caught off guard by them. I was also a bit too caught up in the story to notice them in time. More than once. I did like them though, when I remembered to watch for them.

 

[Meemaimoh]

Do quicktime events really count as gameplay, or are they just a pain stringing together a film incorporated into a game?

Are quicktime event games the future or the game industry, or is it just a way for film makers to make films more interactive?

These are not the same question. Who would ever suggest QTEs are the future of the game industry?

It's not the future of the gaming industry. Only the creators of Heavy Rain would dare do it again.
Gameplay is pressing sequences of buttons to cause a response from the virtual world around you.
Therefore: QTE=gameplay

The difference is, gameplay is aboot control. QTEs are aboot following orders.

There is a lot of decision making in Heavy Rain. The game is not entirely composed of QTEs.
Death does not mean game over, in fact the story molds to fit death, so you do have control over which characters live or die.

You are making decisions, but you still don't have control.

You do have control, just as much as you do in Guitar Hero or DDR, which are basically glorified QTEs. Or even whack-a-mole. You can control whether you pass or fail, and that's the essence of gameplay. It's just that most games let you choose which way you go about it... to varying degrees.

Of course QTEs are a kind of gameplay. It's a system designed to get you manipulating the game, albiet in an extraordinarily linear fashion - thus, it's gameplay. Whether it's a good gameplay system or not is another question entirely. I personally despise most QTEs because of that ultra-linearity, but to suggest they're anything but a gameplay system is a fallacy.