But yes, if QTEs are a) reasonably challenging, b) make logical sense in the context of what’s going on (like the ledge-grabbing example I mentioned), c) follow the previously established rules of the game and d) are mainly player-initiated, then there’s nothing offensive about them and they can actually be a boon to gameplay. Unfortunately there are very few games that use them like this.

1) Involve an action that is complicated to the point that no reasonable person could expect to be able to perform that action as part of the game. Programmers are human beings, and I don’t expect miracles. Needless to say, if you require a huge number of these, you might want to rethink your game design ambition. (Notice that God of War, one of the big reasons QTEs are popular, uses most of its QTE allotment on optional finishers. You can kill everything but bosses without them, which means they make up a very small percent of playtime)

2) Be initiated by the player. Exceptions are allowed if rule #3 is followed.

3) Rules for the QTE follow rules within the game. For example, in God of War, Kratos typically grabs things with his hands or his blades by pressing the circle button. If pressing the circle button during a QTE causes Kratos to grab something, then it’s fine.

That’s really it, but so many games ignore these. And that’s not even getting started on the fundamentals, such as making sure the player has enough time and that the prompts are easily visible. Those don’t even count as rules, those are just simple functionality!

Although to be fair, most food in Scotland tries to murder you.