Quick Time Event

The actively nodal version of a cut scene is called a quick time event . Some of the games that make different but integral use of quick time events are Heavy Rain, God of War , or Shenmue . The game that popularised quick time events in video

43 CRPGs like Skyrim and adventure games encourage the player to collect items from the game-world . In adventure games, items are often used to solve problems, by applying them to other parts of the gameworld; in CRPGs, items can be combined to craft other items that the player character can use or sell.

games was the 1980 arcade game Dragon’s Lair , one of the few games that almost entirely consist of quick time events.

Quick time events are pre-rendered video sequences that can be interacted with by the player. Compared to normal gameplay situations, there is a dra-matically limited range of options, as well as a strict limitation on when options become available. A passive video sequence will be shown to the player until a node is reached, which is indicated by visual prompts telling the player that she can now interact, usually by pressing a specific button. The nodal situation is timed, that means it is available from the time the prompt appears on the screen until a specified time when it disappears. In the case of a single input option (for example ‘press x’), the options available to the player throughout the nodal situ-ations are ‘press x’ and ‘do not press x’. At the end of the nodal situation , if the player has not reacted, the choice of ‘do not press x’ will be actualised. Depending on the choice made, a different visual continuation or a game over screen will be shown, or the game will return to normal gameplay. This branching can be made visible by a cinematic cut, or it can be made to appear seamless, as is often the case in Heavy Rain .

The timed nodal situations of quick time events are often extremely short, forcing the player to react as fast as possible, for example in a fight sequence.

In these cases, there is generally no deliberation involved in whether the offered option is desirable, as the player will always assume that it is.

One could distinguish two main structures of quick time events that could be called teleological and branching. In the teleological form, a fixed sequence of events unfolds, and the task of the player is to make sure that the sequence continues uninterrupted. An interruption usually means the end of the sequence and is not an accepted option. An example for this is the boss battle in Resident Evil 4 : a single wrong prompt will get the player killed, which leads to a game over situation. Since all game over situations are identical and none provides any sat-isfactory narrative closure, ⁴⁴ they cannot be regarded as valid branching options.

There is really only one true course of events that either happens or does not happen. In the branching form, on the other hand, a sequence of events is shown to the player, followed by a prompt for a specific action. Depending on whether the player follows the prompt correctly or not, different sequences are shown as a consequence, none of them leading to a game over situation. This is used most

44 An exception to this was the very early quick time event game Dragon’s Lair : “Part of Dragon’s Lair’s appeal was that the hero’s deaths – not just his triumphs – were unique animations. Dying is part of the game. Seeing each of the hero’s deaths is as essential to earning encyclopaedic knowledge of the game as seeing each of his triumphs.” (Rogers)

consistently in Heavy Rain , ⁴⁵ but has already been used in earlier games such as Fahrenheit or Shenmue . The advantage of branching quick time events like those in Heavy Rain is that they combine branching storytelling and visual representa-tion in a seamless way. Though there is no structural difference between them and the prompts in a CYOA -movie (except for the element of timing), the experi-ence is much more fluid and natural, though at a cost on the level of agency .

Quick time events are actively nodal but they can hardly be said to involve real player agency . The only real choice involved is (potentially) whether to enter the situation that will start the quick time event or not. After that, the player is less of an independent agent and more of the executive tool of a decision made elsewhere or earlier. The way the player experiences these situations, it seems that the decision is often made by the player character (who decides, for example, to dodge an incoming threat instead of blocking it) and the gamemaster then asks the player to enable the character to act out that decision. As this happens in a quick succession, no deliberation on the part of the player is possible (as in ‘do I want the character to dodge?’) and usually also not necessary, as the decision will be presented as one without alternative.

A significant variation of this can be found in Mass Effect 2 : Most conversa-tions here are presented as cut scenes with a dialogue tree . Occasionally, these cut scenes will become recognizable as quick time events (called ‘interrupts’) through the appearance of a prompt that needs to be followed in time in order to be activated. But here, these prompts are neither self-evident in their neces-sity, nor obligatory for progressing, but represent instead optional ways to sig-nificantly change the course of the conversation and situation in ways that are marked as either ‘paragon’ (i.e. honourable) or ‘renegade’ (i.e. more selfish and cruel). Thus, the player knows that a specific prompt will make her character behave in a certain predefined way (though the exact consequence or sequence of events is not known when the prompt appears), and it is her conscious deci-sion whether to activate the prompt or not. These quick time events are always of the branching type and do not cause game over situations. ⁴⁶

45  Heavy Rain is strongly dependent on quick time events. On the other hand, its quick time events attempt to use the full potential of the PS3-controller to establish a relation of similarity between the player’s input and the character’s action. This is (presumably) even enhanced with the move edition of the game.

46 For more on Mass Effect’s interrupts, cf. “Interrupt”.