Yes, I too wonder sometimes why kitty lumpkins exists.
As far as Poole’s final question goes—what are we going to replace joypads with?—nothing. It’s a stupid question. Joypads aren’t going anywhere. I could be wrong about this, but then again, no, I’m not wrong. Deal. Also, judging from his post, Poole’s a shitty writer, and some of his sentences get fucking incomprehensible.
Indeed, discomfort as often alienates the player – as the struggle with the hunk of moulded plastic in her hands wrenches her attention out of the virtual space – as it increases her empathy with her gameworld avatar. What is difficult is to decide when this is going to be the case, and when by contrast it can be a useful technique. Mention the absolutely stunning ‘corridor scene’ to those who have completed MGS4 and they will nod sagely – it’s the best excuse for button-mashing since Track & Field.I have no fucking clue what the second half of that paragraph says.
But that’s not the point! He does raise a good question, about the purpose of quick time events, where you just, y’know, kinda press a button really fast; they were great in Shenmue because they’d never really been done before, and they were fine in Resident Evil 4 because that game was just too cheesy and wonderful for that particular gameplay element to be replaced by anything else. But let’s face it—the QTE is stupid, and it’s basically a lazy way to inject interactivity (if you can call it that) into your cinematic masterpiece.
Developers know a good thing when they see it, though; the QTE isn’t going away, which frustrates me beyond belief. (we’s gettin into sum serius biz here guyzz) You know what I think would be an awesome like-QTE-but-not-QTE replacement for QTE? Slow motion—the game would slow down for a second or two, Prince of Persia style, and the player would use the regular controls to overcome this scripted, otherwise QTE encounter. This solves the problem of QTEs being a lazy way to express highly stylized action, because the player is still in control of said action; the not-QTE could unfold like the player wants to—within limit.
The downside: it’s basically QTE without telling you so. Plus, any game that would take advantage of this would, honestly, have to be built around it. And this entire idea needs work, anyway.
BUT IT’S PAST MY BEDTIME SO WHAT DO I KNOW
