Quick Time Events or QTEs are game design device where the player must match a simple, timed set of buttons in sequence to set in motion a complex series of player movements to advance in the game. The first major title to use QTEs was Sega’s open world adventure Shenmue and was borrowed by other major titles in the years to come like God of War, Resident Evil and Heavenly Sword.

More importantly QTEs are a game developer’s way of telling you they couldn’t figure out how to make real game mechanics from their over-ambitious game plans — it’s a signal they just gave up. It’s for this reason that QTEs are known as “sweatpant events” in game development circles.