Can we move past the stupidity of dungeons that do not allow skipping cut scenes?

[JLogan3o13]

I remember when this first started for MSQs, and was universally panned as a dumb idea by players from a product team woefully out of touch with the experience people actually want.

Yet here we are years later, and the dumb idea persists. Can someone on the product team not apply a smidge of common sense that anyone who wants to view the cut scenes can do so through other means, so you don't need to force them down the throats of every player? All it does it needlessly prolong dungeons that used to actually be fun to play through, and now queue for 30 minutes because they are no longer worth the bother.

Author's note: I wrote this during the intermission loosely referred to a cut scene in Praetorium leading up to the 2-minute fight with Nero. General comments among my fellow players during this lay somewhere between "going to go make a sandwich", "man this sucks", and "I want to dig out my own eyeballs with a plastic spoon".

[LilimoLimomo]

Assuming that Praetorium and friends won't be redesigned, the current system is both good and necessary.

Because here's what a first-time player's experience in those duties used to be:
- Watching cut scene
- Cutscene ends. Boss is dead. Repeat.

Or even worse:
- Watch cutscene.
- Cutscene ends, next cutscene starts.
- Cutscene ends, next cutscene starts.
- Dungeon is over gg.

These were bad experiences. First-time players deserve to be able to experience the story and the gameplay.

And history has shown us that if you make the cutscenes skippable if every player agrees, first-time players will be pressured to skip or simply group kicked, or that other players who were hoping everyone would skip will abandon the party since it isn't going to be the quick clear they were hoping for.

Thankfully, unless I'm mistaken, you can avoid all of these cutscenes by simply not doing the MSQ roulette.

[JLogan3o13]

I don't think new player experience and NOT forcing experienced players to sit through a scene for the 100th time have to be mutually exclusive. There is already a check in the code at the beginning of any dungeon for someone new to the event; from the standpoint of a developer it would be easy to add logic in that states that - if there are no brand new players, give a vote option on whether the scenes can be skippable or not. Or, as the most recent updates have shown the product team attempting to curry favor with those that want to play solo, at least give the option to skip scenes when doing it with an NPC party. My point is, with a little thought, you could make the experience enjoyable for 99% of players, not 10%.

[ICountFrom0]

NOT forcing experienced players to sit through a scene for the 100th time

You are not forced.

You specifically ASKED to watch those cutscenes in exchange for the most tomestones per hour of any content in the entire game.

You took the bribe, now you do the job.

[Rongway]

You are not forced.

You specifically ASKED to watch those cutscenes in exchange for the most tomestones per hour of any content in the entire game.

You took the bribe, now you do the job.

* as long as you didn't get sucked in by DR:Mentor

[Scruit_Bigtime]

* as long as you didn't get sucked in by DR:Mentor

you chose to queue for it did you not?

[Frizze]

This is a dead issue. In all likelihood they wont change these instances again. And even if im wrong and they do, they will not add an option to skip the cutscenes without also changing the rewards. With skipable scenes, this dungeon is Pharos Sirius. Are you asking for Pharos level exp and tomes? You know you can get that already by just running Pharos.

[Toutatis]

you chose to queue for it did you not?

That’s a bit of a cheap comment considering that Mentor roulette comprises every group duty in the game except Coils, savage mode and pvp. You just get sent to whereever a body is needed. You can end up in a lvl 10 guildhest, in an extreme or anything in between. MSQ roulette comprises only 3 out of >250 possible duties in Mentor roulette.

* as long as you didn't get sucked in by DR:Mentor

I am getting it not even 2% of the time. If I get it, I just sit back and relax and do some reading during cutscenes. Not a big deal.

As for those who queue MSQ, well don’t complain: you are actively making the choice to queue for duties that come with non skippable cutscenes in exchange for lots of tomes (and mogtomes during events) as well as XP in the case of Prae. The roulette is not mandatory.

[LilimoLimomo]

That’s a bit of a cheap comment considering that Mentor roulette comprises every group duty in the game except Coils, savage mode and pvp. You just get sent to whereever a body is needed. You can end up in a lvl 10 guildhest, in an extreme or anything in between. MSQ roulette comprises only 3 out of >250 possible duties in Mentor roulette.

With respect, if someone goes into the Mentor Roulette, they should be prepared to be a helpful Mentor and help someone with any content in the game. If a person is after a quick and easy run, the Mentor Roulette is never a good choice for that.

[LilimoLimomo]

There is already a check in the code at the beginning of any dungeon for someone new to the event; from the standpoint of a developer it would be easy to add logic in that states that - if there are no brand new players, give a vote option on whether the scenes can be skippable or not.

I covered this kind of thing in my original reply, but I'll reiterate: this would result in players dropping the group the instant that they realized there was a brand new player and they wouldn't be able to skip.

Or, as the most recent updates have shown the product team attempting to curry favor with those that want to play solo, at least give the option to skip scenes when doing it with an NPC party.

I can't remember, does doing it solo give the same rewards as the Roulette? If so you would want to avoid this, because this would discourage players from doing the actual Roulette, which exists to make sure there are groups for players looking to do the content with a group.

Players will always try to game the system, so you need to create a system they can't game.