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Can We Add a Skip Story Option?
Sometimes I don't have time to sit down to read or watch, or quite frankly, care about some of the story content. This is emblematic for blockbuster and the current story progression for the Black Mage event. I think it would be nice to have the option to skip it, even at a cost. Sure, I can still technically skip dialogue and such by holding down a button, doing a few QTE's or if I pay attention, but that still takes time, and is quite the inelegant solution.
Comments
I think you misunderstand. It's not just that they can be long. The fact that they are long-winded and padded with numerous filler is the problem. When a story segment starts, I am no longer in control of my character and railroaded with scripted scenes and gameplay. Maybe patience would have been a better word for it.
Maybe have a skip button once you've completed it with one character?
"This character's progress has been saved onto the account. You will be given the option to skip cutscenes from now on."
I mean we already have a "skip cutscene" thing in some parts of the game. It would require a lot of going back and updating things, but it would be nice to not have to watch story a second/third/40th time...
As for skipping stories entirely - should we also allow people to skip boss fights, if they happen to dislike them? Or grinding, if they don't enjoy that?
Stories and quests are part of the game. At least you can spacebar through them to make them go by faster, which one can't do for some other aspects of the game.
Also, you yourself pointed out that the developers go through quite a bit of effort to make all this story content, for a single use.
And then you ask to be allowed to skip even that one use, wasting their effort entirely?
I only feel the need of having to skip the story because I believe the quality of the content is not satisfactory.
The way Maple have told stories was always basic and unfortunately only got worse with the blockbuster-style format. Before, yes, it was barebones and just text - but at least it did allow the freedom of you skipping it fast and more importantly, if you wanted to get invested in the story, you could take the time to do so. With the blockbuster format, you have more quality of course. There's cutscenes, images to emphasize certain scenes, videos - just more production all around. However, with this, you also have significantly long pauses of nothing (transitions, things loading in, etc.) , QTE's with no fail states, padded with kill or fetch quests or other filler, pacing off between interaction and non-interactive play, and the stories themselves being too long.
Ideally, the reaction to doing story content should be with a sense of excitement and urgency. Unfortunately, all I feel is dread. Functionally, the blockbusters are clunky. Story-wise, it has problems too...Which I will not get into.
In the end, it's just as you say, and we can just still spacebar our way through the text. Still, that answer is obviously not optimal. You want people to want to experience the story. The very idea that story can only be made in the form of cutscenes and dialogue is just the starting point. Quests, the maps, monsters, music, rewards; they and many other seemingly ineffectual aspects all add to the story. My suggestion would be to perhaps look into other video games and see how they handle their balance of story and gameplay.
Heck, to not even end on a downer, I know one good story content that was already made: in the form of CrimsonWood Keep (not Masteria Through Time). The maze of the forest, the music, the mansion, fearful of getting ambushed by Headless Horseman and Bigfoot one-shotting you, the jump-quest that lead to, at that time, very good maps, the castle itself, and to top it off, the CWKPQ...It was beautiful.
Grinding and story dialogue are not the same thing, complete false equivalence.
So why is skipping it instantly a bad thing then? We are not engaging with the story either way.
Story dialogue is an aesthetic feature of the game and therefore should not be forced down our throats. This is like saying "hey I made this delicious cake for you but you may only eat it after you watch this 3 hr long silent film first". Some of us just don't have the time to sit through the entire content and enjoy the cutscenes, what's wrong with having options?
As someone who actually does like reading story dialogue, I disagree. The option to skip should be at least available; it used to be more prominent with Nexon allowing us to skip cutscenes in the past (mostly but not limited to tutorials), but they've kind of stopped doing that.