Is being able to skip cut scenes a fundamental right?

Yes, but not on PS games. Those developers worked hard on those cutscenes so they could be used as cow SW ammo. Plus if gamers weren't allowed to skip, the actual game completion time would be 2 hours. Maybe 3 at best.

@lamprey263: "I like cutscenes you can still hit pause on, and ones where if you hit a button say hold such-n-such button to skip or if you hit pause has a skip option there. I hate when I try to pause a game in a cutscene but it instead skips it because the developers never thought people like to take a break during cutscene moments."

Other than MGS, what other games cutscenes are long enough to consider a pause button?

Yes Final Fantasy X you have a very lovely 5 minute long cutscene after a 4 minute long pointless minigame at the end of the fucking game.

Wait I can't skip this cutscene and I've just died 10 times so I need to do that horrible procedure AGAIN, **** YOU.

In short, yes we should be able to skip cutscenes whenever we want.

Any game that has cutscenes. If you get a phone call or the baby starts crying or whatever, you shouldn't have to wait so much as a second before addressing real life. The fact that the cutscenes are short means nothing.

[MGS1 SPOILER ALERT]:

@aigis:

I like that example, however, this goes back to why cutscenes should never be mandatory. That scene didn't add anything to the game, but Sniper Wolf's backstory and a few things in that scene could've easily been incorporated into the gameplay. Okay, picture this:

(Skipable) Cutscene: Snake and Sniper Wolf's Conversation

After Cutscene (Gameplay): Sniper Wolf tells you to kill her and you could shoot her whenever you're ready, you could wait to see what Octagon has to say first, or continue with your mission. If you do decide to shoot her, it'll do the same flash effect, then Snake would place the handkerchief over her face, and walk away like before, except it becomes more interactive and the player gets his way, no matter who it is.

TL;DR: Cutscenes are good for extras, but they should always be optional. Leave the important bits in the gameplay and nothing will be compromised.

@paradocs: My only thought on that would be with the gameplay it implies different paths. Cutscenes are more singular and are what devs want you to see. I agree you should be able to skip them if you want, but if they are good and are interesting then you can watch them. As long as the devs are able to keep it interesting than I dont have a problem with them. I would be fine with gameplay, it kinda sounds like the boss fight in 3, but even that had cutscenes if memory serves me.

Same with Halo5. Jesus did they put a lot in there didn't they??

Any particular game you are talking about?

@aigis: Yeah, I won't skip them as long as they're interesting, but relying on cutscenes for 100% of the story progress takes away from the actual game.

@paradocs: For sure, cant have a game without gameplay. I think a mix is the best way to go, but good games can be done without cutscenes. Most of the exposition should be done though gameplay, but some impactful scenes can be done in cutscenes

@aigis: "but good games can be done without cutscenes. Most of the exposition should be done though gameplay, but some impactful scenes can be done in cutscenes"

Too bad developers don't it see it that way. But can you imagine Uncharted without cutscenes. Like you said exposition can be done via gameplay. Can Uncharted pull that off?

@MrGeezer:"Any game that has cutscenes. If you get a phone call or the baby starts crying or whatever, you shouldn't have to wait so much as a second before addressing real life. The fact that the cutscenes are short means nothing."

Is it safe you enjoy cutscenes?

I hated having to sit through the cutscenes in FC4. After two playthroughs, I'm never playing the campaign again. The Reset Outpost is perfectly fine with me though. No cutscenes. No limits in how I want to play the game.

At least I can skip the FC4 intro via "-skipintro 1" parameter.

It should be, video game stories are way too shit, for this to not be an option. And **** what Chaz said, not even once, if I don't want to sit through trash even once, I shouldn't have to. When Hideo Kojima has skippable cutscenes in his game from the fucking get go, you have no excuse.

I'd like to switch them off in the menu (like how you can turn off blood or battle animations etc). That way I can get on with playing the game I bought.

Also, if we can skip credits we ought to be able to skip animations.

I think Uncharted's thing is to be cinematic though. They do have some exposition during gameplay, but to take out cutscenes in Uncharted would make it something that really isnt Uncharted

I enjoy some cutscenes, I dislike others.

But whether I enjoy it or not isn't the issue. I enjoy lots of movies, but I still want the ability to fucking pause. I enjoy The Pixies' music, but if I'm listening to their stuff I still want the ability to pause. And there I can't even use the excuse of "it's short, so what's the harm?" The average Pixies song is like, 2 minutes, but I still want to be able to pause it.

There's no reason for cutscenes to be either unskippable or unpausable in this day and age. But lacking the ability to pause is actually WORSE. At least with skipping cutscenes, there's the excuse that SOME cutscenes can't really be skipped because they're basically just load screens. The game HAS to load, so you've gotta put SOMETHING there. But as far as pausing...that doesn't apply. Even if the cutscene is serving as a load screen, there is still no reason whatsoever why the player can't pause the cutscene and still have the game finish loading in the background. Lack of the ability to skip cutscenes is bullshit, but the lack of ability to pause cutscenes is just the dumbest bullshit ever.

@MrGeezer:

Don't get me wrong, I'm in favor of skipping/pausing cutscenes as an option.

I guess my point is that this is the 1st that Im hearing people asking for the option to pause during a cutscene.

Is this widespread?

You should be able to skip cutscenes at will.

The only problem would be in games like -----> THE ORDER 1886, that shit is one big cutscene from the beginning to the end ( no wonder why it´s on sale for $20 just a few months after launch )

This ain't the constitution

But yes, games should let you skip cut scenes if you've seen them already. Having to sit through a cut scene multiple times is a waste of time.

It used to be a standard for gaming to let you skip cutscenes at will... Now for some bizarre reason devs want to force you through their stupid stories...

Some games even had a feature where you could go back and watch every single cutscene, it was preety awesome

Not when they disguise load times, which they often do. And if they are a crucial part of the story and you still want to skip them you may be playing the wrong game.

I don't really care much either way, but yeah depending on the game if the cutscenes are too long and you find yourself getting bored rewatching them a lot, then that is bad game design. Sometimes it is a design decision that in your first playthrough only you cannot skip them , but you can in subsequent playthroughs.

The thing that really annoys me is games that can be played co-op and where any player can skip a cutscene.....that power should be only given to the host.