The Latest Scourge of AAA Game Design

[Killclaw Kilrathi]

I remember encountering multiple STEs in Bulletstorm. The game will set the scene and try to establish that it's vitally important that you interact with the events as fast as possible, but there's no way to actually fail. I tried not responding to see if I could change the outcome of a scene, but it turns out the game will swap to bullet time for a second or two before pausing completely. It was a pretty big let-down.

 

[beastro]

Isn't this whole thing just a devolved version of hitting the button on games with text to move onto the next bit of exposition?

People read at different speeds, and there is no way for the program to automatically tell whether you have read what is on screen. Fast changing text would alienate slow readers, while slow changing text would annoy slow readers and anyone who wants to skip it. So they came up with an elegant solution - press a button when you are done reading to move on.

But there is no need for this in a cutscene, because everyone watches at the same speed. There is no need to require input. It would be better if the player just stood there and watched the funeral happen, though it would be less funny.

I'm aware of that and it wasn't a criticism against its use with text, just that the visual medium has now been reduced to moving when we want it as if the developers are worried people won't pay attention without physical input.

 

[RavingSturm]

The part in Arkham City where penguin beats up Bruce Wayne; you can just watch as Penguin keeps beating up BW becuz he cant be killed, you need to counter to get the story moving though.

 

[Pink Gregory]

Well this was better put together than Movie Bob's rather immature response to the Press F To Pay Respects.

Also, I do remember QTEs being described as not as awful if they're part of the core gameplay: See Hitman: Absolution's melee system. It's the same QTE every time.

But at that point, do you really need a prompt?

 

[RavingSturm]

I remember one of the scenes in Black Ops 1 that really pissed me off. There's a scene where you're torturing a guy and it says "Press X to torture" or something. And I was like, 'you know what, I don't feel like torturing this guy'. So I didn't press the button.

I wait a few seconds trying to figure out if there was some way out of it and what happens? The character goes ahead and shoves a piece of broken glass in the guys mouth anyways.

By giving me a prompt like that, you imply I have a choice in the matter because you're asking me to make a decision (press the button or don't). So if you were just going to press the button for me anyways, why did you bother asking me at all as if there was a choice? What did you need my input for? You gave me a choice and I chose the option you didn't want me to take, so you blatantly force your choice on me anyways? Don't give me a choice then.

Yeah! The way COD orders you around or punishes you from trying to deviate from the script really sucked. Friendly fire will not be tolerated or you went to far away from the LZ or some crap like that. The mission in COD4 where you're forced to fight all the way back to the starting area blatantly shows how much whip cracking the script does on the player's back.

 

[Ten Foot Bunny]

Don't use Aeris, Sephiroth kills her.

Huh... I actually had to look up what that meant. I can't stand turn-based combat games and I also can't stand anything that resembles anime.

 

[Ambient_Malice]

As someone who hasn't played the game I can confirm. With no context that "Press 'F' to pay respects" screenshot is hilarious.

I wonder what happens if you don't? I would purposefully hold back and be deliberately disrespectful just to be awkward.

Oh this isn't a new thing. It's been around for years. It's just so much more noticeable when CoD does it because their writers are shit and their game design is even worse.

If it were a David S. Goyer CoD not paying respects would have deep and meaningful consequences which probably involve Majestic 12 in a 2deep4u subplot most players would miss.

Snark aside, I think you're being a bit unfair to CoD's writers. AW has some story problems, but I feel they're basically caused by the forced nature of the story. You do things which don't make a great deal of sense. The ending in particular.

Ghosts was a pretty well written game, and Goyer's games are a benchmark for FPS storytelling, IMO.

 

[Aitamen]

Isn't this whole thing just a devolved version of hitting the button on games with text to move onto the next bit of exposition?

People read at different speeds, and there is no way for the program to automatically tell whether you have read what is on screen. Fast changing text would alienate slow readers, while slow changing text would annoy slow readers and anyone who wants to skip it. So they came up with an elegant solution - press a button when you are done reading to move on.

But there is no need for this in a cutscene, because everyone watches at the same speed. There is no need to require input. It would be better if the player just stood there and watched the funeral happen, though it would be less funny.

I'd really prefer to have a speed-up button/dump-to-text button in many modern cutscenes, as I care nothing for failed dramatic timing and would much rather have the text and information than to sit around for a half-hour listening to a terribly shit, critically over-acted death scene... and the option to skip it isn't really much compensation when I'm still interested in the content.

(Sorry for the rant, replaying Eternal Sonata, and fuck is it obnoxious).

Also, I feel like this thread, with no prior mention of Shenmue in an argument about QTE, is missing something, so I remedied that.

 

[Thanatos2k]

Don't use Aeris, Sephiroth kills her.

Huh... I actually had to look up what that meant. I can't stand turn-based combat games and I also can't stand anything that resembles anime.

...That's a joke, right? Please tell me it's a joke.

Also, Rosebud is his sled.

 

[Ten Foot Bunny]

Don't use Aeris, Sephiroth kills her.

Huh... I actually had to look up what that meant. I can't stand turn-based combat games and I also can't stand anything that resembles anime.

...That's a joke, right? Please tell me it's a joke.

Also, Rosebud is his sled.

Nope. No joke. I can't fucking stand anything that resembles anime. It reminds me of someone I wish I'd never met and hope to never see again.

Imagine cleaning your eyes with a mixture of thumbtacks and tabasco sauce while listening to Yoko Ono songs performed by a tone-deaf cockatiel. That's the effect anime has on me. Same with JRPGs. I've never played a Final Fantasy game and I never will.

Absolutely no joke.

-----------------------

EDIT - okay, I'm on the late bus to everywhere!

No, I'm not joking about NOT knowing your FF reference. I also just learned what "Rosebud" is. At this pace, I'll be about 200 years late to my own cremation.

 

[Thanatos2k]

Don't use Aeris, Sephiroth kills her.

Huh... I actually had to look up what that meant. I can't stand turn-based combat games and I also can't stand anything that resembles anime.

...That's a joke, right? Please tell me it's a joke.

Also, Rosebud is his sled.

Nope. No joke. I can't fucking stand anything that resembles anime. It reminds me of someone I wish I'd never met and hope to never see again.

Imagine cleaning your eyes with a mixture of thumbtacks and tabasco sauce while listening to Yoko Ono songs performed by a tone-deaf cockatiel. That's the effect anime has on me. Same with JRPGs. I've never played a Final Fantasy game and I never will.

Absolutely no joke.

-----------------------

EDIT - okay, I'm on the late bus to everywhere!

No, I'm not joking about NOT knowing your FF reference. I also just learned what "Rosebud" is. At this pace, I'll be about 200 years late to my own cremation.

Well I am suddenly not sorry at all that you got spoiled. I assume you also don't know that Snape kills Dumbledore?

 

[COMaestro]

Don't use Aeris, Sephiroth kills her.

Huh... I actually had to look up what that meant. I can't stand turn-based combat games and I also can't stand anything that resembles anime.

...That's a joke, right? Please tell me it's a joke.

Also, Rosebud is his sled.

Nope. No joke. I can't fucking stand anything that resembles anime. It reminds me of someone I wish I'd never met and hope to never see again.

Imagine cleaning your eyes with a mixture of thumbtacks and tabasco sauce while listening to Yoko Ono songs performed by a tone-deaf cockatiel. That's the effect anime has on me. Same with JRPGs. I've never played a Final Fantasy game and I never will.

Absolutely no joke.

-----------------------

EDIT - okay, I'm on the late bus to everywhere!

No, I'm not joking about NOT knowing your FF reference. I also just learned what "Rosebud" is. At this pace, I'll be about 200 years late to my own cremation.

Well I am suddenly not sorry at all that you got spoiled. I assume you also don't know that Snape kills Dumbledore?

And Darth Vader is Luke's father.

 

[Ten Foot Bunny]

EDIT: post retracted. This isn't even worth the dignity of a response.

 

[Thanatos2k]

EDIT: post retracted. This isn't even worth the dignity of a response.

There's plenty to describe this kind of stuff for you:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ItWasHisSled

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LateArrivalSpoiler