作者：Matt Leslie

游戏设计师需要记住的一件事便是，为了让玩家能够沉浸于游戏中，你需要让他们从心理上，而非身体上与之进行接触。这是任天堂Wii未能成为我们所期待的改革的基本原因。没有什么会提醒你你正在玩一款愚蠢的电子游戏，而不是不断要求你打塑料对象的控制方案。你的大脑是一个非常棒的小型生物超级计算机，能够在几微妙内传达你周边的世界，但是你的身体却是由一坨坨脂肪所汇聚在一起，所以很容易被跑在后面的小孩们击倒。

现在你正着眼于几行内容，并立即将其翻译成一些可理解的内容。尝试着将其大声读出来，如此将变成更有压力的体验，可能在你摸索着“可理解的内容”时，你的一个好友却因为觉得它很奇怪而嘲笑你。幸运的是你仍然在大声地阅读这一段落，他那毫无说服力的嘲笑将被忽视。

我们并不是在讨论打击你的《街头霸王》按键，你之前提到的那个奇怪的朋友知道所有有关角色平衡与框架陷阱和其它像术语等内容，同时你还尝试着通过将手掌击向按键表面进行打斗。我们也不是在讨论快速打向按键进行打击！或者在《Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3》中为了联合体而获得额外的撞击。我们所谈论的只是愚蠢地“疯狂般打击这一个按键”，通常是以“快速反应事件（游戏邦注：QTE，一种互动式电子游戏方式）呈现出来。

这些QTE出现在最近发行的《南方公园：真相之棍》中，并真正出现于带有争议的“肛门探索”场景中。这里是前提所在，一个白色的生殖器插到你的主角的臀部，你通过打击按键而握紧所谓的臀部直至生殖器能够轻松爆发。然后会出现一个黑色的生殖器，并做着同样的事，同样的QTE会出现，但这一次会更困难。这并不是世界上最棒的玩笑，但在出现第12次时便会失去恐怖感。

让我们暂且变成针对个人的讨论。我要忏悔下；在我的生活中我从未持续打击一个按键。这是我生活中经常会出现的压力，这意味着我永远不能在《Metal Gear Solid》中获得一个好的结局，这也意味着我不得不在《Metal Gear Solid 4》中看15次左右的微波走廊场景。这只是一些我不能做到的事，尽管有许多游戏一直推动着我去实践，但是我却还是未能解决这一问题，似乎许多人也是如此。我并不在乎你是否能够做到这点，有些人是做不到的，所以添加一个机制到需要通过它的游戏中（就像在《真理之棍》中）是非常愚蠢的。

microwave(from gamegrin)

这是一些人能做到但是也有一些人做不到的事，这与技能无关。这就像在Kinect的游戏中添加QTE，即要求玩家在照相机上滚动舌头才能前进；也许这是有效的，如设计师尝试着创造一些有关基因工程等富有争议的内容，但按照实际情况来看这只是一个糟糕的理念。玩家自身并不是这里的唯一元素；如果你正在使用一个不能有效处理快速反复输入的第三方控制器的话会怎样？如果你是一个未被小型控制器照顾到的体型庞大之人，你的手将于模拟杆融合在一起，就像你尝试着去打击一样？任何不是基于技能的机制将放任某些部分的用户的行为而伤害到其他人的说法其实是合理的。

最后，即使世界上当每个人在尝试了1，2次后都能通过“按压一个按键而死亡”的QTE，它们也仍然是一个糟糕的理念，不能被添加到游戏中。这里还存在一些显著的例外；上面所提到的《Metal Gear Solif》中一个拷打的场景便是其中一个。这就像是一个灌洗器移向基地并结束了你的行动，不管你是否能够按压循环按键，但Kojima总是会尝试互动故事，加上他可能从未因为害怕PMC爆炸而离开自己的房子2周左右。

关于《真理之棍》，这真的是一款基于回合制的RPG，通过将玩家带到一个名为南方公园的城镇而传达出“角色扮演”元素，让你能够在此徘徊去寻找心中的内容。这里存在着一个问题，你会在心里记下你的目标，你会尝试自己所有的能力和装备，你会深深地沉浸于南方公园的世界中。但突然间，这一QTE会突然出现，即使你可以轻松地通过它们，它仍会需要你进行较大的身体回应。

south-park-stick-truth-3(from gamegrin)

就拿我来说吧，当我在玩《真理之棍》时，我不得不重新开始游戏，拔掉我的USB控制器，盯着笔记本电脑并打击按键，因为这是我能够通过它的唯一方法。甚至当我在经过许多尝试后设法通过它时，我会因为太晚了而保存游戏并关掉它。这并不是一种“愤怒的退出”，只是游戏狠狠地掐住我的喉咙将我拖出来南方公园的世界，并将我丢到床上恶狠狠地敲击键盘。沉浸感被破坏了，不是因为糟糕的写作或糟糕的世界建筑或诸如此类的内容，而是因为一个愚蠢的游戏机制。

所以游戏开发者们，如果你想让玩家打击控制器而死亡的话，请一定三思。最好的情况是这将成为不必要的内容，但最糟糕的情况是它将阻碍并破坏游戏体验。我的PlayStation 2控制器和手腕仍未原谅《WWE Smackdown Vs. Raw 2007》需要玩家无数次打击按键的要求，尽管这是游戏的核心机制。所以请为了你的玩家，以及需要承受疼痛的可怜硬件考虑下吧，更重要的是，不要让大家把时间浪费在如此愚蠢的想法上。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Why Mashing Buttons in Games is Stupid

By Matt Leslie

One thing that game designers need to remember is that in order to engage and possibly immerse a player you need to connect with them mentally as opposed to physically. This is basically the reason why the Nintendo Wii wasn’t quite the revolution we were promised. When it is all said and done; nothing reminds you faster that you’re playing a silly videogame than a control scheme which constantly demands that you flail plastic objects around for its own amusement. Your brain is a wonderful little biological supercomputer that translates the world around you within microseconds, whereas your body is a blob of fat held together with sticks that can be defeated by rascally children running up behind and giving you a dead leg.

Currently you are staring at a collection of little lines and scribbles and translating them into something comprehensible instantaneously. Try reading it out loud however and things turn into a much more stressful experience, you probably already fumbled on “comprehensible instantaneously” and one of your friends is mocking you for it like the jerk that he is. Fortunately, you’re still reading this paragraph out loud and his lame joke has now been called out for the predictable waste of air that it was…and now this has all gotten way too meta to actually mean anything so back to business; MASHING BUTTONS IN GAMES IS STUPID.

We’re not talking about your Street Fighter button mashing, where your previously-mentioned jerk friend knows all about character balance and frame traps and other such jargon, while you attempt to combat this by pounding your palm into the face buttons as much as possible. We’re not even talking about mashing buttons fast to get up in Punch-Out! or even to gain extra hits for a combo in Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3. We are talking pure “mash this ONE button like crazy” stupidity, usually presented in the form of a Quick Time Event.

This article is blessing your screen currently because these QTEs make an appearance in the recently released South Park: The Stick of Truth and it actually turns up in the somewhat controversial “anal probe” scene that was censored in Europe. Here’s the premise; a white phallic object inserts itself into your child protagonist’s rectum, and you mash a button to clench said rectum until the phallic object explodes with ease. Then a black phallic object appears and does the same thing, and the same QTE appears but is way more difficult this time. This already isn’t exactly the best joke in the world, but it really loses its thunder on the 12th showing.

Let’s get personal for a second, you beautiful people. I have a confession to make; I’ve never been able to mash one button continuously in my life. It’s been a constant burden in my life, it means I’ll never be able to get the good ending in Metal Gear Solid, it also means I had to watch the microwave hallway scene in Metal Gear Solid 4 about 15 times. It’s just something I can’t do despite far too many games forcing me to practice, and just to make sure I wasn’t a complete loon I Googled this exact problem and many other people struggle with it too. I don’t care if you can do it, some people can’t, so putting a mechanic in your game where passing it is essential (as it is in The Stick of Truth) is just silly and an oversight.

It’s one of those things that some people can do and some people can’t, it has nothing to do with skill. It would be like if a Kinect game had a QTE in it that demanded the player roll their tongues at the camera to advance; maybe this would be valid if the designers were trying to make some controversial point about genetic engineering or something, but as it stands it’s just a terrible idea. The player themselves isn’t even the only factor here; what if you’re using a third party controller that doesn’t handle quick repetitive inputs well? What if (like me) you are a larger person to which puny normal sized controllers are not catered for and bits of your hand mesh with the analogue stick as you attempt to mash? It’s not that unreasonable to claim that any mechanic not based on skill that ostracises any part of your audience is going to be frustrating for someone.

At the end of the day, even if everyone in the world definitely could pass these “mash one button to death” QTEs in one or two attempts they’re still a terrible idea to put into your game. There are some notable exceptions; the already referenced torture scene in Metal Gear Solid is one of them. Okay, it was kind of a douche move to base what ending you get on whether you could mash the circle button or not, but Kojima was being all experimental with interactive storytelling, plus he probably hadn’t left his house for about two weeks for fear of PMC-orchestrated carpet bombing when he came up with it so we’ll let it slide.

As far as The Stick of Truth is concerned, it’s a turn-based RPG which really nails the “role-playing” aspect of things by dropping you into the town of South Park as a new kid and letting you wander around to your heart’s content. Here lies the problem; you mentally take notes of your goals and objectives, you manage all your abilities and equipment (which there is a lot of) and you immerse yourself in the world of South Park. But all of a sudden, this QTE drops out of nowhere and even if you can pass these things with relatively little effort it’s still something that demands investment from you physically.

In my case, playing the PC version of The Stick of Truth I had to restart the game, unplug my USB controller and stand over my laptop and mash the keys because that was the only way I was going to get past to it. Even when I managed to pass it after another half-dozen attempts, I saved the game and turned it off for the night. This wasn’t a “rage quit” or anything of that nature, it’s just that the game forcefully grabbed me by the throat and pulled me out of the world of South Park and dumped me back into my bedroom mashing my keyboard into dust. The immersion was destroyed, not by bad writing or bad world building or any such equivalent, but just by the mere presence of one stupid mechanic.

So there you go game developers, please take more caution when asking the player to mash their controller to death. At best it’s going to be a needless, not remotely fun and immersion damaging mechanic, and at worst it’s going to be progress blocking and experience ruining. My PlayStation 2 controller and wrists have still not forgiven WWE Smackdown Vs. Raw 2007 for the insane amount of button mashing in it, it may as well have been the core mechanic. So please think of your players, think of the poor hardware that has to endure the pain and more importantly consider what a dumb idea and waste of everyone’s time it is.(source:gamegrin)