Why do cutscenes in the MSQ Roulette play if the instance has no new players?

[Enkidoh]

It's because the cutscene is not a recording, but the game is simply loading that cutscene back into memory, so naturally there is no other party members other than you there (this is also why the cutscenes for the Ceremony of Eternal Bonding are not in the Unending Journey, without your partner there it simply would not look right). It is also why it will show your character wearing whatever your are currently wearing, rather than what you wore back when you did that quest/duty.

This is why it's important not to skip cutscenes as they not only lose a lot of cohesion narrative wise in both pacing and narrative as well as not having other party members there to make it look 'right', some story cutscenes are not in the Unending Journey at all, so if you miss them once they're gone forever (unless you use New Game+ or just create a new character and ultimately play through that part again).

ANNNND, I goofed, I misread the title as about lack of other players in cutscenes in the Unending Journey for some reason, not about MSQ Roulette, I'm a silly cat! :P Sorry!

As far as that particular topic is concerned, others have summed it up - roulette bonuses are a carrot to ensure old duties (especially main scenario ones) are able to be filled for new players, unfortunately, human nature being what it is, older players are exploiting this and speed running dungeons to get through them quickly to get their rewards as fast as possible, to the detriment of new players.

This was especially bad in Castrum Meridandium and the Praetorium, with new players being forced by higher level players to skip the cutscenes so as to rush through it. SE retaliated by locking cutscene skip in CM and Prae. Having it set even when there are no new players in the party is to prevent new players being victimized by older players if they happen to end up in a DF queue with new players and thus having to watch cutscenes.

"This is why we can't have nice things" and all that.

[MellowMink]

Then you would kick the new player, abandon instance without penalty(there is no penalty for leaving if the group isn't full), and que again and hope not to get new player.

If the new player is kicked for unjustified reasons, then the person who initiated the vote would ideally get in trouble, since the new player would report that the voting feature was misused and then a moderator would be able to review who kicked off the vote for inaccurate reasons (like the new player being kicked for harassment despite said new player saying nothing offensive).

Also, the game doesn't automatically tell you who the new player is, just that there's at least one.

[Jojoya]

If the new player is kicked for unjustified reasons, then the person who initiated the vote would ideally get in trouble, since the new player would report that the voting feature was misused and then a moderator would be able to review who kicked off the vote for inaccurate reasons (like the new player being kicked for harassment despite said new player saying nothing offensive).

Also, the game doesn't automatically tell you who the new player is, just that there's at least one.

It's generally easy to tell who the new player in a group is by looking for the sprout icon then checking their gear (a first time player almost always has an eclectic collection of gear equipped because they're stuck relying on MSQ rewards).

A GM may have a hard time determining if the vote kick was being intentionally misused short of someone saying the wrong thing in chat. A lot of new players may not even be aware that misuse of vote kick can be reported and so wouldn't do it.

The simple solution here is the one that players don't want to accept - don't queue for MSQ roulette if you hate sitting through the cutscenes. Use the time to do other content for XP and tomestones.

[Frizze]

For a castrum or prae run, if you cant tell who the new player is than its probably you. The people kicking the sprout would rarely get in trouble for the reasons that Jojoya points out. And thats if they even kick the new player. Maybe they kick a veteran instead(someone who wouldnt report), then all leave? New player is now all alone. Do they know how to replenish group? Do the replacement players stay? Because its still free to leave until the group gets full again. How long does it take to get enough "join in progress" players to start making progress? And if these ways of abusing the system arent good enough, people will think of others. Again i guarantee to you, if the game has 2 versions of the same duty which offer the same rewards but one takes 2-3 times as long then some players WILL find a way to make sure they get the shorter one, and they will be more then willing to hurt the experience of any sprouts that get in their way.

Side note: I would guess the kick would be for afk/offline, not harassment. If asked by a GM they can always say that the player had pokeballed which is basically impossible to disprove. Solution to make sure no new players are subjected to any of this(and to make it so i never have to see another thread complaining about the issue from either side) is to make these solo instances. I dont generally support using present dev time and money to fix past issues that we've gotten used to, but i would understand if they did for this issue.

[MellowMink]

It's generally easy to tell who the new player in a group is by looking for the sprout icon then checking their gear (a first time player almost always has an eclectic collection of gear equipped because they're stuck relying on MSQ rewards).

Not necessarily; I've done main scenario roulettes for non-main jobs that only just reached level 50, which can also be the case for sprouts or returning players. Sprout icons can also take a long time to go away on their own, or someone who's still pretty new can remove their sprout icon manually. There's no consistently accurate way to tell who a new player is for an instance, or even how many new players there are if there's more than one for said instance; all the game tells you is that it knows there's at least one new player.