I consider every mission that starts with an unskippable cut scene, especially one that lasts several minutes, to be bad. Needlessly wasting the player’s time is unforgivable.
I consider every mission that instantly fails if you step outside an invisible and unstated boundary, especially in an open world game, to be bad. Punishing the player for creative thinking is unforgivable.
So I guess I don’t get to be in your club. But I’m glad you had a good time!
Make your cut scene compelling, or at least interesting, and people will slow down and experience it willingly. Once.
Force players to slog through your cut scene whether they enjoy it or not, and you’re just being self-indulgent, ignoring the fundamental purpose of a game (entertainment) in favor of your own ego. If you want to do that, make a movie, not a game.
Forcing them to do it again after they’ve already watched it (during a subsequent play-through, or after your game crashed during the mission, or because they made a mistake and want to try again) is well beyond game designer arrogance; it’s just plain bad software design.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is particularly bad in this area, as it has cut scenes as long as ten minutes, and not only forces them down the player’s throat, but also makes it impossible to save the game just afterward, so fully retrying a mission requires slogging through the cut scene again.
Note that the emphasis here is on unskippable. Cut scenes on their own are fine. Even slow ones.
I consider every mission that starts with an unskippable cut scene, especially one that lasts several minutes, to be bad. Needlessly wasting the player’s time is unforgivable.
I consider every mission that instantly fails if you step outside an invisible and unstated boundary, especially in an open world game, to be bad. Punishing the player for creative thinking is unforgivable.
So I guess I don’t get to be in your club. But I’m glad you had a good time!
I disagree. That was deliberate because you were meant to slow down and experience Arthur’s life.
Make your cut scene compelling, or at least interesting, and people will slow down and experience it willingly. Once.
Force players to slog through your cut scene whether they enjoy it or not, and you’re just being self-indulgent, ignoring the fundamental purpose of a game (entertainment) in favor of your own ego. If you want to do that, make a movie, not a game.
Forcing them to do it again after they’ve already watched it (during a subsequent play-through, or after your game crashed during the mission, or because they made a mistake and want to try again) is well beyond game designer arrogance; it’s just plain bad software design.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is particularly bad in this area, as it has cut scenes as long as ten minutes, and not only forces them down the player’s throat, but also makes it impossible to save the game just afterward, so fully retrying a mission requires slogging through the cut scene again.
Note that the emphasis here is on unskippable. Cut scenes on their own are fine. Even slow ones.
I don’t know of any unskippable cutscenes in RDR2. At least in the open world part of the game, I’ve been able to skip aby cutscene I’ve wanted too.