Quote Originally Posted by Post View Post
I imagine this is how they design because it's cheaper. I don't like the way that it is. I call trying to create an environment where there's a limited potential amount of player friction a noble goal, not what we actually have. You know what they say about the road to Hell.
Yes, it's absolutely because it's cheaper than designing and moderating a more traditional and social MMO.

I'm not sure what you mean about e.g. Toto-Rak, people just pull the boss all the time in those dungeons. I've never heard of their enforcement getting in the way of that. I assume that duty support gives a skipper more of an argument to tell the new player: 'if you want to watch cutscenes, use duty support,' and now they have even less of an incentive it chances to bump into people and make friends.
That used to happen; people would pressure cutscene watchers to skip and say crap like 'the inn room has your cutscenes'. The culture shifted because the developers didn't want us doing that anymore, and took steps to stop it -- but, notably to our conversation, without going back and amputating the relevant game content.

The same could have been done if they had chosen to keep a more meaningful skill design with more possible 'wrong choices'.

Hell, the game itself will interrupt your cutscene if you're locked out of the arena and the timer to join the battle tics down. You can select 'no' and it'll still force you in. It was a huge pain in the ass in Castrum Lacus Latore... It's always been the players letting others view the cutscenes themselves unless it was old old Prae or places like Bowl of Embers where you're just trapped in the starting gate.
IIRC the boss arena lockout ejecting you from cutscenes is a recent change. The first time I had a tank not wait for a cutscener in old Toto-Rak (which was easy to do accidentally because Graffias would vacuum-suck everyone right off of the ledge that used to be there and you couldn't climb back out), we just had to do the whole boss fight with three people.