- Quick Time Event -

I have tremendous respect for Yu Suzuki as a designer of enjoyable and innovative games. However, because he apparently coined the term 'quick time event' in reference to gameplay aspects of his Dreamcast actioner "Shenmue" I would heartily endorse a custodial sentence on him, and perhaps some form of mild torture (being made to play a game composed entirely of 'quick time events' for example). Is it my imagination, or does nary a video game review, preview, sneak peek, feature or any other sort of coverage miss out on mentioning this stupid term? What it means is a portion of gameplay in which a timed press of a button resutls in a choice or decision being made, or - as is the case more often - the player completely misses the fact that they were supposed to press a button and either die or end up having a choice made for them. While these portions certainly not at all fun, my main problem with the term is it's similarity to the Apple media playing software QuickTime. Is the term just becoming more popular now amongst lazy game reviewers who can't be bothered with coming up with an actual description of a part of a game, or are more games coming out featuring parts that could be (uninformatively) described this way? I don't know and I don't care, because it is a dumb term and people should stop using it.

- Set Piece -

This term is only acceptable for use in two areas: film and football (soccer). It is occasionally, and with an alarming increase in frequency, also used to refer to part of a video game in which the main gameplay breaks away in favor of a dull and frustrating linear mechanic that forces the the player to do stuff they have no interest in in order to get back into the main meat of the game. It is also used by game journalists in lame and unnecessary attempts at legitimizing the medium by comparing it to the more respected medium of film. People who play and enjoy video games don't need to listen to or read these attempts and people who don't play games won't be swayed by them, so why bother? It is a stupid term and should be banned from video game descriptions.