Has it always been like this or...?

[Duuude007]

IMO, a penalty for the bonus rewards for skipping cutscenes would be ideal. New players save you time just by showing up yet some would still capitalize on that rather than return the favor.

You really didn't think this through, did you. If you do this, the 'majority' currently in parties will effectively cease to exist and you will be forced to queue on your own again.

Return players don't go explicitly for the new player bonus; they go for the efficient ratio of time:reward. Forceably take that away and they will find something more efficient re:better to do. Which consequentially leaves newbies in the dust to fend for themselves, like it was pre DF.

This punishes new players a great deal, simply because a fraction of people feel like their wants should be 'entitlements', superior to the desires of the rest of the group.

Which, of course, they aren't.

If you want to reliably have your way, BECOME the majority. That is all that it takes.

Watches a CS because that's how they intended it to be then my account gets banned because people who ran it 5k times get pissy.

No, this would not be the case. If the person watching cs is the one unwilling to cooperate with what the rest of the group is doing, which is in fact disruptive, then it would be a valid candidate. The question I would have is- did that person ask if they could watch cutscenes at the start? what was the agreement the party as a whole made? Who decided it was not in their best interest to be a team player?

GMs arent' stupid, they consider discussions before they determine fault.