Death to quick time events!
Thank you so much for this commentary. I'm halfway through reading it but just had to say: I'm a long-time PC gamer and just recently bought a PS3, and have run into what you call these "quick time events" multiple times now. The worst offender was Prince of Persia which is otherwise a reasonably good game. The screen would tell me to press some button, sometimes really fast over and over, and I'm like "whatever dude, no, I don't want to push that button, I had something else in mind." I gave in and eventually figured how my 39 yo reflexes could beat the silly "tapping test" maybe half the time-- but I totally gave up on that "hit this button" reaction test. It wasn't so much I couldn't do it but felt like a complete idiot for even trying. If you go on like this long enough in Prince of Persia combat it eventually turns down the "skill" requirements with time or number of deaths or something so finally I would kill they guy and feel totally unsatisfied about it.
So, thank you for giving a name to one of the things that makes console games inferior to PC games. I really want to like console games, I mean sitting back on the couch in front of the TV has to be great, but I hope game designers will learn that quick time events are not satisfying gameplay or good game design.
Lots of people are bad at parallel parking, but no matter how awesome a parking job you do, people aren't going to line up on the sidewalk to give you high-fives afterward.
Not true: I drive a Chevy Silverado and live in San Francisco and, unlike quick time events, am ace at parallel parking, and though I've gotten no high-fives I've entertained many an audience and received plenty of complimentary nods. =p