Should cutscenes be skippable?

It's all a matter of opinion, and I'm interested to hear what everyone else believes about this. However, here's a reason why I personally believe that players should NOT be able to skip scenes, or at least without playing the game on the first run.

For one, I believe that, when players skip scenes, they aren't truly getting a proper grasp of the entire game. When a scene is skipped, information is missed, and the game would be played entirely without the proper context. I believe that a proper game gives the proper context and is willing to play through it. For example, whenever I play Sonic Unleashed, to just play the stages... it doesn't give proper meaning behind it. However, when I DO watch the scenes, everything just fits together properly. I know this is just a matter of my OWN point of view, but skipping the scenes really LOWERS the quality of the game, believe it or not. Like, when I get to the final boss and I skip the scenes... who am I fighting? Don't know, I didn't watch it. Then I replay the game and actually watch the scenes, and... OH! Let's fight, then! Context was given.

I don't know. Maybe it's just me, but skipping scenes feels like skipping LEVELS too. Then again, it's probably just me.

Anyways, your thoughts?

Cut scenes should absolutely be skippable.

they should be skippable, pausable and available as an option in the menus to rewatch once that part of the game has been reached

Personally I don't skip cutscenes especially on the first play through. I will sometimes skip them on subsequent play throughs. I'm fine with developers putting the option in though for those that want to skip them.

Yes. While I almost never skip them (excluding ones I've already seen) there is absolutely no harm in giving the option to people who want it

If it's your first play-through a game, I never skip a scene but if your gonna do your second play, then the option should let you skip them cause you already know what's gonna happen. The Order: 1886 however, you can't skip any cut scenes at all making it unbearable to play a game that forces you to watch sense. Every game should be giving an option and I see no reason why the player shouldn't have the option to skip sense at his/her free will.

There should always be the option. I never skip them on the first playthrough, but on subsequent ones I do if I need to rush certain sections.

/thread

Yes, all of them, but get rid of that "Press B to skip" prompt some games have: we're not idiots.

I'd rather have cutscenes that you can't skip then blank loading screens though.

Yes. I only skip cutscenes after the first playthrough. But no one should be forced to watch them regardless of what playthrough they're on.

I can see making it so they aren't skipped the first time through.....after that they should be able to be skipped.

Of course you should be able to skip them. Leave it up to the player.

Yes they should.

Some people want to watch, some don't. When cutscenes are skippable, people who want to watch can watch and people who want to skip can skip. Everyone's happy. When you can please both parties so easily, why wouldn't you?

Unskippable cutscenes just piss me off, stop with that crap. Something like The Order: 1886, I want to replay it because I really enjoyed it, but then I remember I have to watch all the cutscenes again.

I don't really mind because I rarely replay games and this feature is most likely for that reason. And if people want to skip cutscene at first play, I don't mind either.

So it take development time with some system to make the scene skip so I would not do it. Of course optimal system should have the option to make that quick and so the game will replayable with more fun.

Umm yes? No reason not to

Cut scenes give the developer a short cut to intertwining the story inside gameplay. If they weren't skip-able, then we'd see further decreases in the quality of gameplay.

Books and movies allow you to skip any single part of it. So games should too. That's the way I see it. However, gamers shouldn't use this option unless they've already seen the scene before. But there's no use in the game trying to prevent it. And besides, I don't think gamers should cheat in games by looking up help or videos, but making unskippable cutscenes doesn't solve that. Sometimes you just have to trust the player to play correctly. If a game shows a cutscenes, that generally means you're supposed to watch it. That doesn't mean you should be FORCED to watch it. Like book. Once you read page 23 youre supposed to read page 24. That doesn't mean you need to be forcibly prevented from accessing other pages.

That said, skippable scenes should be set up in a way so I don't skip it on accident. The best system I've seen in a game is pressing start during a cutscene pauses it, and the pause menu contains the option to skip it.

Yes, this, absolutely. In addition to be skippable, the ability to pause and rewatch should be freaking mandatory. Considering how many gamers are responsible functioning adults with real world responsibilities, this should be present in all games. If you get a business call or if the wife needs you or if the baby wakes up and starts crying, it should NOT be a choice between "neglect my real world responsibilities" and "miss the cutscene".

If I don't need to see it, let me skip that shit and stop wasting my time.

If I'm in the middle of a cutscene, let me pause that shit so that I don't miss out by tending to stuff that's actually important.

And in the event that I do miss the cutscene, let me watch it through an options menu so that I don't have to lose my progress and replay shit just to get the cutscene to trigger again.

EDIT: Along with this there should also be the option of manually saving your progress whenever you want. Yes, I realize that that won't work for some kinds of games, but for most games there's zero reason for me to ever have to keep playing until I reach a checkpoint or save station. This falls into the exact same category as cutscenes: STOP WASTING MY DAMN TIME. I'm an adult and I have other things to do. If I'm planning to get 15 minutews of game time in before I go to bed at night, I shouldn't have to spend 30 minutes playing the game just because I'm having difficulty reaching a point where the game actually lets me save my progress. And some people say, "but that'll make the game too easy." And I say "nuts to that." That's why I'm talking about a MANUAL save option. The people who don't want to do it can simply NOT DO IT. But the option will still exist for those who have limited time to play games. Seriously, I do not for the life of me understand how all of this shit is not a basic requirement by now.

Ah. Well, I guess my point of view was based on missing a large chunk of the game, so I guess here's the perfect way to resolve the cutscene issue in games. If you're watching a scene, you can press pause to bring up a menu.

[Resume]

[Skip Scene]

[Restart Scene]

[Exit Game]

Well, you can fast forward movies, so why not fast forward cut scenes? Yes, by skipping cut scenes, you are not giving the developers who worked on those scenes the respect they deserve, but at the same time there are people who just care about the gameplay and not the story.

Personally, though, I will never skip a cutscene if it's my first time through. However, it pisses me the hell off when a cutscene isn't pausable.

In my opinion, all cut scenes should be both skippable and pausable. That way if I'm playing a game with long cut scenes but need to get up and do something, I can come right back to it without missing story beats, and if I'm replaying that game and just want to play it without cut scenes, I can do that too.

If the cut-scenes make up like 50% of the game THEN YES by all means give me an option skip the 2 hour long cut scene so that i can go back to play the game!

skippable after watching them for the first time

Imagine trying to get through a game like the Witcher 3 without the option to skip. Even then you can't really skip cut scenes just speed them up because of all the dialogue prompts and what not which in my opinion was all a really obnoxious feature of an otherwise amazing game. Over done cutscenes are also a horrible drag. I love good story but if a conversation/scene doesn't push the story forward, get rid of it. This is the same for books and movies. If it isn't necessary then it's just a waste of time and in a game like this (as my example) there are massive amounts of other things to do without wasting 5 mins watching cut scenes of dialogue to get to a fight scene that lasts maybe 20 seconds.

Cutscenes should be skippable all the time regardless of whether or not the gamer has seen it before. Unskippable cutscenes are grotesquely annoying and should not exist in any modern day game.

Yes, absolutely. It's one of my biggest pet peeves in games. Especially, if it's a case where you can't cut them even if you've seen them before.

@chad_devore: You failed to mention if you meant them being skippable overall or just first playthrough. For subsequent playthrough they should ABSOLUTELY be skippable. I can't imagine replaying MGS4, having to watch 9 hours of cutscenes all over. For first playthrough? I don't know. There are many reasons why you shouldn't be able to, but I'd still keep as an option, tbh. You have these rare cases of people losing save files, rebuying the game on another platform etc. If people decide to intentionally ruin the game for themselves by skipping the story, it's their own fault.

There should be an option for those that don't wish to know the story of the game they're playing.

I agree. Have the option to remove all cutscenes. This is especially important for games that require several playthroughs.

I am attempting to try to look at it from a different perspective. Some gamers really don't like the story lines in video games. Others only enjoy the game play. Regardless of what type of gamer you are... I personally think the developers should make it accessible for everyone. For example: if I have played the game...or that level before and I want to skip the 15 minutes of cut scenes to get back into the game, I should have the option to do that.

No, it's not.

Any developer that puts in unskippable cutscenes in making a terrible design decision. Not everyone will care for the story that they have made, and people playing the game again will only grow to dislike the game they played already. Metroid Other M would be a better game if it had skippable cutscenes.

I love MGS3, but it has one of the slowest and most boring intros in video game history. I absolutely skip all the overly long codec and pointless cutscenes.

@chad_devore: Yes no brainier here! Particularly after a 1st play through!

Yes they should be. If I wanted to watch a movie I'd be at the theater.

There is no valid argument against cut-scenes being skipped.

Well that depends on whether the Dev thinks the cutscenes should be skippable or not.

I would love to the skip the cut-scene in haft life 2 but you can not.

What if the cut-scene also acts as a hidden load screen.

Then that's a load screen.

It is still a cut-scene.

I agree that cut scenes should be able to be skipped, paused, and re-watchable from a menu.

The way I see it, a player should not be forced into anything when it comes to games. People enjoy games differently and more choice is never a bad thing. I used to get frustrated with my brother for never paying attention to a game's story. But, he truly did not get any enjoyment from it; he only had fun playing the actual games. And you know, there's nothing wrong with that.

@chad_devore: Yes.

yes they should be skippable

Sure they should.

I don't skip them either way though.

They should, especially if it's a scene you've already seen. There are a lot of games out there, primarily RPG's, that forcefeed you these clips right before a boss, and while they can be grand spectacles, they're also really annoying.

At that, long animations for attacks should also be skippable.

Skip-able only after pausing the cutscene.

Have it pause then it gives the option to skip. This way there is far less accidental skipping for first time play through. Then an option for some of those games that we have already played, and cutscenes we have already seen, that we would rather not be forced to sit through. RPGs for instance. Metal Gear for instance (this one gives the option exactly like I mean, and it works)