The problem with cutscenes

[Jennestia]

Yes, I know that everyone thinks they oogle the in game cutscenes in awe. But in reality before prime/boss fights people always encourage you to skip these cinematically. If you don't they do and many times when a player emerges from a cinematic the fight is already well in play. If a cutscene is skippable then it probably doesn't belong. People aren't interested in the cutscenes so much. They just want to win.

The biggest problem with cutscenes though is they disrupt the "flow" of the game. It. Regardless how cool they may look they act as an interruption with the gameplay. It doesn't help that cinematic often feel disjointed since they aren't often viewed in linear sequence. Ultimately many of the cutscenes feel like an interruption to the gameplay rather than an addition.

I should also add many of the cutscenes are long-winded. Other cutscenes are poorly placed (like the one that plays every time you use the lift) or the cutscenes at the start of some of the instanced dungeons.

I want to point out while I do enjoy the cutscenes, they are often too intrusive and often have little connection with the overall plot. Often they feel included for the sake of simply including a cinematic. This is a multiplayer game, and viewing a cutscene means you are forcing others to wait on you. In my opinion, cutscenes should be far and few in-between. The shouldn't exceed three to five minutes at most.

People are just impatient and while true most MMORPG gamers don't care for stories and just care for loot, this is exactly what made FFXI and FFXIV actually different from the crowd -- It had an actual storyline with actual cutscenes. Most MMOs out there have no cutscenes and the ones that do are so poorly directed a film school student would win an oscar in comparison.

They pushed past XI's cutscenes by adding your entire party into it -- that I have yet to see in another MMO. This is a FF game which are known for it's FMVs, there should be more -- even FFXI had small cutscenes for minor quest chains.