Guild Wars 2

I’ve been leveling a new character lately and as is customary for me when leveling, I have been running the story modes of the various Dungeons. While doing this, I have noticed a trend in the community that really gets under my skin. It started when I decided to run the story of AC. I’m a sentimental guy and I enjoy watching the personal story and story dungeon cutscenes on new toons. This time, as much as I wanted to watch the cutscenes, my computer was having issues that caused them to run at an unbearably slow rate, even for my standards. Knowing that people normally like to rush ahead, I decided that it would be rude to force my teammates to wait for such a ridiculously long time, and I skipped them. When we completed the dungeon however, I decided to treat myself to the final cutscene, 11 FPS or no. But when I finally finished watching, I was shocked to see the following in party chat: “Dude, come on!” “Weird…” I thought. I mean the dungeon was over. At that point, people could claim the chest and their bonus and leave if they really wanted to. Why were they pressuring me to skip it?

I brushed it off then, but today I ran into a similar situation. My computer was fixed and I decided to run CM story mode. This time, I tried to watch the opening cutscene, thinking it would be acceptable now, only to find after finishing it that one of my teammates (a lvl 80 no less) said “Not skipping the cutscenes I see…” Irritated that I was once again being hustled along, I tried to semi-skip my way through the scenes before begrudgingly deciding to skip them entirely. But again, I decided to watch the last scene. “Surely, no one could have issue with that. Everything has been claimed.” Yet once again, I reemerged to find awkward coughs and cricket chirps in the party chat. Now I was annoyed. Not only could I not run the dungeon as I’d like to, I apparently couldn’t end it my way either. After that I was in a bad mood and lost my will to play.

This brings me to my concern about the nature of the community. It seems that anything that requires multiple people to complete, has become a mad dash to the finish line. The game has become centered around “playing at peak efficiency”. Now I can understand this mentality when it comes to explorable dungeons. I don’t think it gives people the right to flame about someone’s non-zerker build or berate someone for being inexperienced (how is a newbie supposed to learn the path if no one gives them a chance to?), but at least in that setting, I get it. People have money to make, skins to unlock, legendaries to craft. Skipping cutscenes you’ll probably see 100 more times before the day is out is understandable. But why on earth am I being looked at like a freak every time I try to watch a cutscene in less “hardcore” modes? I mean, we were in story mode. The rewards for completing it are practically non-existent. It has a DIRECT link to events that occur in the personal story. I would think watching the cutscenes would be normal in those modes. And it doesn’t stop in dungeons either. I’ve had guild mates (who I didn’t invite to join me, btw) tell me to skip the cutscenes in my personal story missions… something that serves no benefit whatsoever to anyone besides the instance holder. It would be one thing if someone begged you for your help, but otherwise, why on earth would you rush through that? I’ve even seen people comment on people’s builds in STANDARD OPEN-WORLD CONTENT saying their build isn’t conducive for “time-efficient play”. What? You’re playing a game. Why are you treating it like you have a work quota to fulfill?

My question is “Why?” Why is it that we as a community are attempting to view every aspect of this game from a “Time is Money” perspective? It is a game, no? Something to be done in our leisure time? So what does it matter if you take your time playing it once in a while? And again, in the more hardcore elements of the game, I understand. Running a dungeon all day can be monotonous and you want to finish sooner rather than later. But in Personal Story quests? Really? And even if you’re running an alt through a story dungeon just to unlock explorable mode, you very well could be running with a first time player. Who are you to ruin that experience for them by insisting that they rush through with reckless abandon? Have we become so focused on completing things as fast as possible that we can no longer just enjoy ourselves in any game mode unless we’re willing to go it solo?

Sorry for getting a little ranty, but to me, it just doesn’t make sense. Why would you escape to a fantasy world just to treat everything you can do in that world as if it is a chore to be completed with extreme haste?

The reward for the dungeon (the pop-up) will not happen until the final cutscene is over for everybody. That’s what they were waiting for and getting annoyed with.

I don’t mind people watching cutscenes, but I can understand why veteran players might find it a waste of time. To get around it, I’d just specify up-front in your LFG that you will be watching cutscenes.

RyuDragnier.9476:

The reward for the dungeon (the pop-up) will not happen until the final cutscene is over for everybody. That’s what they were waiting for and getting annoyed with.

That so? I had always thought that that all the rewards were given post final boss. You learn something new everyday. Anyway, even if I concede that fact, that doesn’t change that we’re playing story mode. The rewards aren’t THAT amazing that it HAS to be rushed. The only thing worth getting from them is the ability to play explorable, which you can skip entirely by playing on an alt if you’re in that much of a rush to get tokens. And what if you’re with playing someone who is new? Shouldn’t they be allowed to see the story?

The issue I have goes beyond just this incident though. I’ll admit that I was a bit irritated at being rushed, but why is it that these kinds of things are being rushed in the first place? Again, isn’t enjoying your playtime important at all? Are roleplaying and soaking in the “feel” of the story worth nothing at all?

The rewards are after the final cutscene – hence why people are able to change characters during lengthy cutscenes (if someone watches them). By the time the cutscene ends, they’ll be on the new character and in the dungeon.

Still, it shouldn’t bother anyone that much. People who are running AC or CM story likely aren’t after any good loot.

People watching the cutscenes doesnt bother me (gives time to manage inventory, adjust build, etc) but it might be a good idea to state that you intend to do so up front when playing with strangers.

Starsurfer.7209:

RyuDragnier.9476:

The reward for the dungeon (the pop-up) will not happen until the final cutscene is over for everybody. That’s what they were waiting for and getting annoyed with.

That so? I had always thought that that all the rewards were given post final boss. You learn something new everyday. Anyway, even if I concede that fact, that doesn’t change that we’re playing story mode. The rewards aren’t THAT amazing that it HAS to be rushed. The only thing worth getting from them is the ability to play explorable, which you can skip entirely by playing on an alt if you’re in that much of a rush to get tokens. And what if you’re with playing someone who is new? Shouldn’t they be allowed to see the story?

The issue I have goes beyond just this incident though. I’ll admit that I was a bit irritated at being rushed, but why is it that these kinds of things are being rushed in the first place? Again, isn’t enjoying your playtime important at all? Are roleplaying and soaking in the “feel” of the story worth nothing at all?

I’m always a little annoyed when people watch the cut scenes in the dungeons, I never say anything though.

You say that the issue goes beyond this specific incident. What else is there?

Heyo! Got through reading your post and would like to comment that if you hold the last scene the other players cannot and will not get an option to leave due to the fact that the dungeon isn’t officially over until the last scene is over; then they can get their XP, silver and tokens I’m sure you understand the crickets now lol
Secondly I’d like to point out many players feel the dungeon rewards are underwhelming therefore the mentality is “why spend more time than I have to in here when gold is waiting to be made in other paths”.

Additionally by now most players assume lvl 80s are exp and have ran the path a lot. Many vets still run story mode so they won’t watch scenes.

Possible solutions would be to create your own runs and state it’s a chill run, watching scenes. You did mention that you have a shoddy connection at times so this might me an issue.

You can also communicate with the party and state beforehand that you’d like to watch scenes.

You can also add certain friends that run dungeons the way you do.

I’d like to conclude that I’m 100% behind you and you have every right to take your time running dungeons. You just have to find a way that can facilitate that

Find a guild that is interested in relaxed, casual play and run the dungeons with them.

That’s what I would advise.

You’re not the only one who feels like taking the game slowly sometimes (or even all the time). You just gotta find the right people to play with and “relaxed play” is almost never going to be the LFG crowd.

Expect nothing good from pugs is my most sincere opinion.

It really is a matter of knowing and adapting to your situation. If you are going to PUG you need to consider the common attitudes of PUG players. If you are grouping with friends who insist on having a five minute victory dance over the corpse of every boss you go in prepared to spend that extra time. If you join a group advertised as a speed clear for experienced 80’s who know the path you should be an experienced 80 who knows the path.

This is not unique to games. Know the parameters of your situation and your impact on others. If you live in an an old apartment with thin walls you are probably need to be more conscious of the volume on your television than someone who lives in a house with a large yard between them and their nearest neighbor.

I love PUGing, but understand that it requires a very different approach on my part than does playing with my closest friends.

On my ISP, every second someone spends in a cut-scene is an increased risk I’ll lag out just before and lose credit for everything I just did.

Nah.

In all seriousness, I expect people to watch the story in story mode.

However, I do feel explorables shouldn’t have cutscenes at all. The dialogue that happens in the dungeon without the aid of cutscenes is already the most memorable stuff in the game. “Control it! CONTROL IT!”

I don’t get mad at people for watching them. I just don’t feel they are a good game feature. Best to put the story in the actual in-game parts. That way its there whether we’re smelling the roses or doing a quick run. There’s usually no reason to freeze the combat for it either.

Fernling.1729:

I’m always a little annoyed when people watch the cut scenes in the dungeons, I never say anything though.

You say that the issue goes beyond this specific incident. What else is there?

Well I appreciate that you at least allow people to watch if they want. And like I said, it’s seeping into every aspect of the GW2 culture. It started in explorable dungeons and in that context, its fine. You rush because there is a specific goal to be attained; one that may require hours of running the same dungeon over and over again. But story mode doesn’t have that incentive. In fact it doesn’t really have much incentive period. Just that you get to run explorable mode. And if you are going into a story dungeon with a " I just want to get this done" mentality, why even bother running it? It’s clearly not your first walk around the block and if you’re that desperate to get into the explorable paths, why not just switch to an alt and skip the dungeon altogether? And now you can’t even run a personal story quest with certain people without complaints. And criticizing an open world build for not being efficient enough? That’s just silly.

I guess my main gripe is that it seems like everything has become “gotta finish as fast as I can”. It’s like a factory assembly line. You aren’t allowed to take your time when assembling a product. And since this is supposed to be fun, I don’t get how such a mentality took root in the less intense aspects of the game.

Starsurfer.7209:

snip

Spoken like a person who doesnt make their own groups and expects all others to cater to his whims.

Just like you can take your time and watch cutscenes
so can everyone else do whatever it is they want to do in their groups.

be it speed, naked, all necro, RP walking, ERP

Starsurfer.7209:

I guess my main gripe is that it seems like everything has become “gotta finish as fast as I can”. It’s like a factory assembly line. You aren’t allowed to take your time when assembling a product. And since this is supposed to be fun, I don’t get how such a mentality took root in the less intense aspects of the game.

It’s always going to be a part of MMOs, love it or hate it. Some of us are just wired with preferences for more speedy, hardcore play. Something to do with getting bored otherwise, perhaps.

Like I said though, find people you can relate to. You aren’t gonna change the world on this one.

I don’t get why anyone is surprised to find that the lfg doesn’t always give you nice people to team up with. Even if you’d make your own parties and have a clear description, people don’t read it half the time.

The solution to this is fairly simple. Find a nice guild.

cranos.5913:

I don’t get why anyone is surprised to find that the lfg doesn’t always give you nice people to team up with. Even if you’d make your own parties and have a clear description, people don’t read it half the time.

The solution to this is fairly simple. Find a nice guild.

If they cant make a group then finding a guild is like rocket science.

DonQuack.9025:

Starsurfer.7209:

snip

Spoken like a person who doesnt make their own groups and expects all others to cater to his whims.

Just like you can take your time and watch cutscenes
so can everyone else do whatever it is they want to do in their groups.

be it speed, naked, all necro, RP walking, ERP

Thank you for making gross assumptions about me. I’m glad I could make you feel good about yourself at my expense.

For one, you’re wrong. I always make my own groups, primarily because most of the runs that I see on the LFG tool are “All Zerkers Lvl 80 Exp Only” and that’s an environment I’d rather not submit myself to, so I actually am making groups to fit my play-style. My one fault in making them (which has already been pointed out by others) is that I neglected to mention that I wanted to view the cutscenes. But I always put “All Welcome” in my descriptions, so one would assume that would imply a more laid-back atmosphere. Nevertheless, I’ll make sure to be overly specific next time, lest I be viewed as “a person who doesn’t make their own groups and expects others to cater to his whims”. You clearly didn’t read my post very thoroughly if you came to that conclusion, since I specifically mentioned altering my preferred play-style in AC out of consideration for my teammates due to a computer issue I had at the time (The one exception being the end, and only because I didn’t realize that they had to stay until I was finished).

But the grand point of my post, which you seem to have missed, is that this hasty mentality doesn’t make sense in every aspect of the game. I’ve already stated that I understand why people would do this in explorable dungeons. I mean, even I skip the cutscenes in those (though I’m not bothered if other people don’t). They’re meant to be a means of attaining loot. Rushing through them makes sense. But Story mode and personal story quests aren’t like that. They are meant to be played FOR THE STORY. When I decide to join a story run on my lvl 80 alts for the hell of it, sure I may skip the cutscenes, but I don’t look at it as if it’s something to be raced through. That’s because it doesn’t make sense. What are you rushing for? The silver coins at the end? (Or in the case of another player’s PS, nothing?) Again, this isn’t to say vets can’t play a story run. I do it all the time. But why approach it with a “speed-run” mentality when there’s nothing truly worth getting at the end of it?

There’s the rub. Where once the desire to race through content was only present in specific, more hardcore aspects of the game, it is now not only prevalent in the other game modes, but apparently the dominant way do do things, even if it doesn’t make sense given the setting. My question is why? Why does this desire to speed clear bleed over into things that are clearly more leisurely in nature? Why is it that generally speaking, fun = fast in the GW2 community as a whole?

This is why I almost always run dungeons only with my guildies.

Labjax.2465:

It’s always going to be a part of MMOs, love it or hate it. Some of us are just wired with preferences for more speedy, hardcore play. Something to do with getting bored otherwise, perhaps.

Like I said though, find people you can relate to. You aren’t gonna change the world on this one.

True, perhaps that is just what you have to do. I guess rushing through everything, even for little to no reward, just seems so pointless to me. I would think you’d want to enjoy the ride during those less rewarding circumstances at least.

Starsurfer.7209:

They’re meant to be a means of attaining loot. Rushing through them makes sense. But Story mode and personal story quests aren’t like that. They are meant to be played FOR THE STORY.

What are you rushing for? The silver coins at the end? (Or in the case of another player’s PS, nothing?) Again, this isn’t to say vets can’t play a story run. I do it all the time. But why approach it with a “speed-run” mentality when there’s nothing truly worth getting at the end of it?

Says who? Even if something was “meant” to be played a certain way, that only really comes into play if the product of the design encouraged/incentivized that behaviour that was “meant to be”? Yes, story modes generally have terrible loot in comparison to other paths, but so do some explorable modes (SE P2, CoF P3 have rewards no where near what they should be).

Unfortunately, there are some actual fun encounters and boss fights locked away in story modes. Why is a player that wishes to play those encounters subject to being told that they are “meant to” play a different way?… especially when this way it was mysteriously “meant to be” is only really backed by a small minority.

It’s a game, people want to play the game, they don’t want to sit back and watch (very low quality) cutscenes that they’ve already seen. You are inconveniencing four other people by having them stand around and wait for you rather than playing the game, don’t get all high and mighty if some voice their annoyance.

Also, we’re talking about pugs. Pugs are the option of last resort for filling out a party. In the end you’re not really different from anyone else complaining about pugs, and the advice is the exact same: if you don’t like pugs than don’t do pugs, play with guildies/friends.

Labjax.2465:

Starsurfer.7209:

I guess my main gripe is that it seems like everything has become “gotta finish as fast as I can”. It’s like a factory assembly line. You aren’t allowed to take your time when assembling a product. And since this is supposed to be fun, I don’t get how such a mentality took root in the less intense aspects of the game.

It’s always going to be a part of MMOs, love it or hate it. Some of us are just wired with preferences for more speedy, hardcore play. Something to do with getting bored otherwise, perhaps.

Like I said though, find people you can relate to. You aren’t gonna change the world on this one.

Sound advice, efficiency play exists in every MMO I’ve played, and probably in the ones I haven’t. It’s part of the genre, which hooks people into repeating content past it’s aura of newness to obtain rewards. When the goal is the reward, the content itself is secondary. Yes, story mode rewards are inferior to explorable mode, but dungeon completion or story mode dungeon completion are sometimes part of the daily or monthly, which lead to — again — rewards.

Starsurfer.7209:

True, perhaps that is just what you have to do. I guess rushing through everything, even for little to no reward, just seems so pointless to me. I would think you’d want to enjoy the ride during those less rewarding circumstances at least.

Speaking for myself… yes, to a point. I’m kinda sorta interested in watching the dungeon stories if the opportunity ever presents itself. But the thing is, once I’ve seen them once, I’m not going to give enough of a hoot to want to see them again.

And I imagine that’s true for a lot of people. That although they may be interested in seeing the scene once, they aren’t interested in watching it again and again. Which is mostly just a poor design choice imo.

The common theme is going to be “most people have watched the scene already,” if they ever cared to watch it at all. Taking alts into account (or dailies/monthlies as Indigo just mentioned – good point), yes, even with something like “story mode.”

‘Twould be really nice if there was a story/NPC version of dungeons that could be soloed and was designed for people like yourself to enjoy the story at your own pace. As it is, the system is kind of set up to make you find the right crowd to play with – it’s certainly not programmed in your favor in this instance.

Well I have played many games. TbH I rather smell the flowers as they say then Zerg through stuff.. Now If I have run a quest or dungeon a few times then I may not watch every thing or read every text…. Thing in this day it is Hurry up.. And then most of those that do just end up waiting after all…

Surbrus.6942:

-snip-

I’m acting high and mighty by saying that approaching a Personal Story Mission (especially one that doesn’t belong to you) or a story dungeon like you’re doing a speed run in explorable mode doesn’t make sense? And what you mentioned about game design and incentive is exactly what I keep saying. Explorable mode is designed to encourage multiple runs at high speed for loot, tokens, gold, etc. Story mode doesn’t have that. You yourself said it. Therefore, what point is there in rushing like there’s something at the end that you need and you intend to do the same run 7 times afterward? I’ll give you that there are some very interesting boss battles and encounters in the story missions. I can see people running just for that reason. But that still leaves no motivation for a speed run. You’re playing it just for fun, not the reward at the end, so why on earth would you rush? One would think someone playing for such things would want to savor the encounters, the bosses and the journey. Rushing to the end just makes those awesome moments pass even faster. The only reason I could see for someone rushing through story mode is because they don’t really have enough time to go through it at leisurely pace. And if that’s the case, if it’s taking too long, you could just say “Sorry, I gotta go” and log off. It’s not as high stakes, so many people who I have played with, strangers and otherwise, have done that with no repercussions.

As for your comment about me inconveniencing people, the same could be said of the people who are running the story for the first time. Shouldn’t they be able to enjoy that experience without being treated like nuisances? Yet they would still be viewed as irritating. I also find it interesting that just because my opinion is in the minority, it is somehow less valid, even if there is little incentive for playing the mode the other way. And yes, it’s a game. All the more reason NOT to take it as if it is this high stakes event. What’s more, the cutscenes are part of the game and can be enjoyed just like any other aspect of GW2. Sure, they may not be the highest quality, but I (and others) enjoy watching them. Specifically, I enjoy them when I play a new toon, as it gives more validity to the overall story. What’s more, the mode (whether you want to admit it or not) exists to tell the story of destiny’s edge and explain certain aspects of the Personal Story plot. Are there other reasons to play? Of course. The same can be said about everything else in the game. But the primary objective remains the same.

And your argument completely ignores my comments about the personal story. You know… the thing that doesn’t give anything to other people playing it? Something that is for a specific person to enjoy? The thing where friends are optional and would be taking part strictly for the fun of it? And yet even in that setting, it is expected of me to skip all cutscenes… in my OWN PS.

Which brings me to my main point. This isn’t just something that occurs while PUGing. Yes, my dungeon examples would fall into that category, but the personal story anecdote does not. That was a former guildie; one that I didn’t even initially invite to join me. But he had the same “skip the cutscenes and let’s get this over with” attitude and then got irritated when I decided that I actually wanted to watch my story cutscenes. And what of the comment that was made regarding a person’s build “not being conducive for time-efficient play”? That was said in map speak while in Dredgehaunt Cliffs, not a dungeon. That’s what I’m trying to draw attention to. It’s more than just explorable dungeons or even dungeons in general. It’s bigger than the PUG community. It seems that this haste-focused mindset has become popular with everyone, even in settings where there’s little motivation (or none at all) to do so. I’m not just whining. I’m trying to start a discussion; One that’s deeper than “That’s just the way it is. Get used to it.”

Labjax.2465:

‘Twould be really nice if there was a story/NPC version of dungeons that could be soloed and was designed for people like yourself to enjoy the story at your own pace. As it is, the system is kind of set up to make you find the right crowd to play with – it’s certainly not programmed in your favor in this instance.

That would be very nice indeed. Perhaps a decrease in enemy difficulty or having powerful NPCs with decent AI to take up empty slots, with enemy strength and AI increasing with the number of actual players in the instance.

The loot and gold rewarded for completing it could even increase in value with the number of players, giving incentive to play with real people. Heck, that would fix most of the problems right there. An option for people just looking to enjoy themselves and motivation for people seeking to speed run for reward… There wouldn’t happen to be an Anet suggestion box, would there? Lol!

Starsurfer.7209:

That would be very nice indeed. Perhaps a decrease in enemy difficulty or having powerful NPCs with decent AI to take up empty slots, with enemy strength and AI increasing with the number of actual players in the instance.

The loot and gold rewarded for completing it could even increase in value with the number of players, giving incentive to play with real people. Heck, that would fix most of the problems right there. An option for people just looking to enjoy themselves and motivation for people seeking to speed run for reward… There wouldn’t happen to be an Anet suggestion box, would there? Lol!

Heh, if you ever do want to make a suggestion, I believe the encouraged method is just to make a thread about the topic and put “[Suggestion]” in the thread title to denote what the thread is intended to be.

I believe the idea has been suggested before actually, though it probably wouldn’t hurt to talk about it again.

When I run a story mode (usually just for the daily), I’m always surprised when people who says it’s their first time don’t watch the cutscenes.

@DonQuack – making a group does not give you any proprietary rights over it. I know you’d like it to be that way, but at present it is not. Don’t argue like it already is.

Olvendred.3027:

When I run a story mode (usually just for the daily), I’m always surprised when people who says it’s their first time don’t watch the cutscenes.

You’d be surprised how many players skip any and all cutscenes in ALL games. It’s not just for RPGs; shooters and other genres are notorious for this. This has sometimes resulted in some humorous situations where players who skipped the cutscene get stuck at certain points in the game because they skipped the part where an NPC informed them what they needed to do, or gave context for the situation.

I agree with OP somewhat. It bothers me when I try to run a dungeon (full) people getting upset because I don’t skip this mob or I pulled this other mob. I like to play for fun and don’t want to feel like I’m being rushed especially when playing a video game. Why can’t we just play the game as was intended? The mobs were put there for a reason. Isn’t the whole point of running dungeons to have fun in the map and kill stuff? Not just rush through it to run it again to rush through it again. But I guess I always have a choice to just not run with ppl that rush….. even though that seems to be the majority of pugs…

It annoys me when people watch cutscenes. The issue is that very few people do, so it is expected that you will skip them by default. When something is the default, there is no need to put it in your lfg, when it isn’t standard you do. I never ever join groups that have “watching cutscenes” in the description because I don’t want to watch and don’t want to wait for anyone else to watch it either.

And I’m not the only one. Groups with “watching cutscenes” in the description can take a really long time to fill, but if you want to play with “nice people” that is what you are going to have to do.

I agree with everything the Starsurfer said in their original post except that I’ll like to point out that the part where you get some silvers, 20 Empyreal Fragments and a ton of EXP only pops up when the final cutscenes are completed for all players.

Although ArenaNet could just fix this by giving each player the reward immediately after they end their own cutscenes, it doesn’t really take away this obsession with efficiency in dungeons.

I sympathize completely with Starsurfer. I’m not very big on the social aspects of MMOs and I don’t like to take the effort to make friends in games, thus, I have to join PUGs on LFG to do my dungeons. Unfortunately, this also means that I’ve yet to see a single cutscene on the hundreds of dungeon runs I’ve done on explorable mode since I’ve started the game (I have Dungeon Master achievement, FYI).

I’m lucky enough to have joined casual groups for Story Mode and seen ‘em all, but I’d love for the chance to really play through all the cutscenes on all the explorable paths for once.

I’m not against the efficiency-obsessed. I’ve crafted a Legendary, 3 sets of Ascended Armor and other hard-to-acquire stuff so I know how much a test of patience it is in the game to run explorables with people who not only don’t know what to do but unfortunately also refuse to listen to instructions from the more experienced ones, as well as people who aren’t geared properly for dungeons.

However, Starsufer’s original points are also valid, which means at the end of the day, it is ArenaNet’s duty to fine-tune the dungeons, such that there’s an incentive for more people to play casually, to enjoy ALL the content that the developers spent time working on, while still maintaining the dungeon’s difficulty.

And lastly, I was very disappointed to see that such a well-thought out and meaningful original post invite such vitriol, from people who can’t disagree without making things personal and that such an important discussion has now descended into a back-and-forth of snide remarks.

Efficiency often becomes the goal in end-game content in MMOs. Nothing really unique to GW2’s community. Not even players being rude is extraordinary on the internet.

Then again, story mode isn’t even end-game content, and anyone complaining about time wasted in AC story (the fastest+easiest of all stories) is a fool anyway.

So enjoy them cutscenes.

Efficiency-obsession is a direct result of the insane grind requirements to accomplish anything.

Starsurfer.7209:

I guess my main gripe is that it seems like everything has become “gotta finish as fast as I can”. It’s like a factory assembly line. You aren’t allowed to take your time when assembling a product. And since this is supposed to be fun, I don’t get how such a mentality took root in the less intense aspects of the game.

I dont think the attitude is special to this game. These days speed and eficiency seem to be valued highly in large parts of our daily lives. It’s just real world values rubbing off and being projected onto game values by a substantial amount of people.

That said, isolated cases like your examples of some big-mouth going all “I know best” in map chat or your former guildie harassing you in your personal story are just that: isolated cases. There are people like that around, you can’t really avoid them, but it does not mean that the majority of players is like that.

If you want to have an enjoyable dungeon run, post all the things you’d like to have (watching cut-scenes, no skipping, whatever) in the lfg. Don’t take anything for granted. Even with posting there’s still a good chance that people will come in without reading your requirements (happens to all groups really, no matter the preferences), but at least your chance at getting an enjoyable group together increases a lot.

Personally, I really enjoy playing dungeons (story and explorable) in all kinds of different settings. I’ve got friends who don’t care at all about builds, traits, or any kind of eficiency, but love to rp-walk through pleasant areas. I can spend an enjoyable hour or two with them in TA (yes, you can take more than an hour for a TA explorable path ), clearing out everything slowly but steadily, having a picnic inbetween, or just enjoying the sights. Other days, I prefer to run with friends who play (close to) meta builds and strategies, and love how we just breeze through places if the team meshes perfectly.

All kinds of playstyles (in dungeons and open world) can not only be viable but enjoyable. It’s when people with different playstyles clash instead of mesh that things go messy, and in the end nobody feels satisfied with the experience. The trick is not to look at the people who don’t agree with your preferences, but to find those you mesh well with, and build up a network of friends and guildies who you enjoy playing with. As convenient as the lfg is, you’ll always have a chance of meeting up with people that you don’t enjoy being around.

By the way, there is one benefit to running story dungeons that you are overlooking: every character created after the April 15 patch needs to run each of them (except AC) to unlock one of their traits. I have run a variety of story dungeons for that alone lately (aside from the 5 or so pre-April characters that have all stories unlocked for convenience in dungeon opening), and depending on group and personal mood, I have sometimes watched all the cutscenes, and other times skipped them all just to get it over with and get my trait.

Because people have ran the content so many times they know it by heart.

Because legendary weapons and top-tier gear and skins cost a lot of money and it isn’t going to make itself.

Because a lot of experienced players have pretty much given up on “new” players and have burned out on trying to wait up/teach/help newbies ( I know I have).

Because the best time to play an MMO “for the cutscenes and the experience” is at launch. Everything after becomes a “mad dash to the finish” since people don’t have the patience to do the same thing over and over and over again.

The vast majority of the content in this game ( and every MMO ) is played by players for one reason : Loot. Money. Rewards.
Rarely do people play for the gameplay and challenge – and even then they won’t repeat it unless they do it for the loot.

It becomes a way of thinking and doing things – every minute wasted is a world boss you could have tagged.

Every 20 minutes lost were a dungeon path you could have done and so on.

Honestly as bad as it seems and i do agree with you there….90% of mmos are the same. The major difference between them and GW2 is, in other mmos players who already know the game and are high level, don’t go to low level zones to do dungeons. They do it purely for profit. They have only the highlevel dungeons. In GW2, because of the downscale lvl system, high level players can go into low level zones to grind. That’s when the problem u described appears.

At some point people know almost everything or they’ve seen everything. Because of that only thing left to do is achiev the best looks or gear in the game. That in turn means lots of gold…and one of the main sources of gold are dungeons…so it’s only normal for a game that supports grinding as it’s main source for “everything”, to see people obsessed with efficiency & trying to cut every corner possible just to reduce the grind time spent in a dungeon because of very obvious reasons.

It’s not the players fault it’s the games fault.

All i can give u as an advice is to find a dungeon friendly guild and ask them if u can watch the clips and such. I am sure if it’s a guild group they won’t refuse. If it’s a pug group, u will get people who don’t know eachother, are not part of a guild and so on, and who just want to score fast. U can’t blame anyone for what the game forces u to do in order to have fun in the so called end-game.

DarkWasp.7291:

On my ISP, every second someone spends in a cut-scene is an increased risk I’ll lag out just before and lose credit for everything I just did.

Nah.

In all seriousness, I expect people to watch the story in story mode.

Sounds like what a personal problem would be like if it were true. :P

I agree on the explorable part too, the cutscenes are a waste – they could easily remove the cutscene (and keep the recordings) and just fit it in as dialogue that appears. Still, the fact there are cutscenes means if somebody wants to watch them – it’s not really a bad thing. It’s one of those situations where it’s a developer issue that players are indicting of other players.

Harper.4173:

Because people have ran the content so many times they know it by heart.

Because legendary weapons and top-tier gear and skins cost a lot of money and it isn’t going to make itself.

Because a lot of experienced players have pretty much given up on “new” players and have burned out on trying to wait up/teach/help newbies ( I know I have).

Because the best time to play an MMO “for the cutscenes and the experience” is at launch. Everything after becomes a “mad dash to the finish” since people don’t have the patience to do the same thing over and over and over again.

The vast majority of the content in this game ( and every MMO ) is played by players for one reason : Loot. Money. Rewards.
Rarely do people play for the gameplay and challenge – and even then they won’t repeat it unless they do it for the loot.

It becomes a way of thinking and doing things – every minute wasted is a world boss you could have tagged.

Every 20 minutes lost were a dungeon path you could have done and so on.

Not everyone’s played since launch. In fact, most haven’t.

People who really believe this sort of thing need to take themselves to the nearest psychiatrist and admit themselves.

People in the game really focus on what’s profitable for them. I have no idea why would they act that way in Story Mode, but in anything else it’s all about profit. Best to make your own party in Looking For Group tool and put information that you want to watch cutscenes in it. That should help.