Do you watch/listen to custscenes, lore entries and dialogue?

Which describes you best?

  • I skip all cutscenes

    Votes: 6 8.8%

  • I skip all dialogue

    Votes: 6 8.8%

  • I watch all cutscenes

    Votes: 49 72.1%

  • I listen/read all dialogue

    Votes: 34 50.0%

  • I skip audio/text lore

    Votes: 7 10.3%

  • I listen read all audio/text lore

    Votes: 25 36.8%

  • I start by absorbing everything but by hour 12 I skip it all

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • I start by absorbing everything but by hour 12 I only listen/read/watch key things

    Votes: 11 16.2%
  • Total voters
    68
Really depends on the length of it all..

If the game is very heavy on story with long cutscenes and exposition I'm likely to just skip everything from the get-go.

If it's just short interruptions from time to time I usually don't mind reading/watching most of it.
 
It entirely depends on the quality of the dialogue, and the voice acting. Also depends on the pacing. Every game is totally different.

Some games I hang on every word. Other games have endless words that don't actually say anything.
 
Depends purely on the quality, i read every codex entry in mass effect or disco elysium, ive skipped every single thing in monster hunter.
 
Main story, yeah absolutely. Side content just depends as that stuff can be nothing but filler at times.
 
Watch everything, listen to everything, read everything (unless it's the second playthrough).

Still hate Kojima with a red hot passion for MGS4's cutscenes.
 
In most games, I skip everything. I don't give a shit about contrived video game stories. I'm in it for the gameplay.

The rare examples are games like Metal Gear, Last of Us, Mass Effect, etc.
 
Robb said:
To.. actually play the game?
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Blow Your Mind Wow GIF by Product Hunt
 
The Cockatrice said:
You skipped the story in Mass Effect? Jesus, no wonder we dont deserve good things in games anymore lmao.
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No, I'm saying I didn't skip the story in Mass Effect.
 
Well yea. As long as it isn't unimportant background info. Then i will mostly just skim through it.

Also developers, here is a plea of mine. Always provide a transcript of your audio logs which you can view at any point of the game. Nothing is more annoying than being unable to reference back to some important lore info and which causes the entire story to be incomprehensible because you didn't pay attention.
 

I watch all cutscenes

I listen read all audio/text lore


When I form an opinion on something I want it to be thorough, and tend to completely dismiss the opinions of those who don't share this approach.
Even if I don't complete a game I usually fully experience everything it has to offer up to the point where I stop playing.
 
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The Cockatrice said:
ofc I do, what kind of person skips cutscenes? Why do you even play the game?
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FFXVI and Persona 3 make me skip stuff. If it's literally just endless flavor text that isn't actually saying anything, it needed an editor, not an audience. I speed read, and if it's not actually communicating ANYTHING, I hit X and I do that faster than letting it play. I can't even tell you how many Persona 3 social link cutscenes I saw that literally don't say anything. Oh this ramen is really ramenish. Yes it is, I come here to appreciate the aroma. That's great. Social link +1. For hours.
 
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Punished Miku said:
FFXVI and Persona 3 make me skip stuff. If it's literally just endless flavor text that isn't actually saying anything, it needed an editor, not an audience. I speed read, and if it's not actually communicating ANYTHING, I hit X and I do that faster than letting it play. I can't even tell you have many Persona 3 social link cutscenes I saw that literally don't say anything. Oh this ramen is really ramenish. Yes it is, I come here to appreciate the aroma. That's great. Social link +1. For hours.
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lol....that's exactly the kind of stuff I'll spam through.
 
If a game bores me, it is more likely to be binned, but I might give it more of a chance if it lets me skip the cutscenes.
 
Punished Miku said:
FFXVI and Persona 3 make me skip stuff. If it's literally just endless flavor text that isn't actually saying anything, it needed an editor, not an audience. I speed read, and if it's not actually communicating ANYTHING, I hit X and I do that faster than letting it play. I can't even tell you have many Persona 3 social link cutscenes I saw that literally don't say anything. Oh this ramen is really ramenish. Yes it is, I come here to appreciate the aroma. That's great. Social link +1. For hours.
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Exactly. I swear FF XVI has hours of dialog scenes where they just stand there like mannequins yapping on and on about some crap nobody cares about. I fell asleep multiple times before dropping it around the 70% mark.

JRPGs have this gift of characters talking in circles and pointing out obvious things. Dialog scenes will go on for 3x as long as they should be. That shit needs an editor. Usually I will skim the text and skip the audio unless something really interesting is happening.

If it's something with halfway decent writing, editing, and direction (e.g. Cyberpunk 2077) then I will read and listen to everything.
 
I usually do but somehow I started playing Mario & Rabbids and got bored, shut the game down and haven't returned in months.
 
I do my best to do so!

Mass Effects codex voice over readings is so good. You can just listen to that and not be bored.
 
When I was a teenager, I had this compulsive behavior to listen to all of the MGS3 dialogue. It was some sort of OCD where I would force myself to exhaust all of the conversations as possible. If I was ever interrupted, I would do it all over again, like some sort of self flagellation. I would reboot the game, watch ALL the cutscenes over again.

IDK what that was about, I'm better now and don't suffer from that. Nowadays, I enjoy all the cutscenes and stuff, but I don't bother with in-world "Books." The first thing I look for is the page count, if it's more than 2 pages, I'm not bothering (RPGs are usually guilty of this, e.b. Obsidian, Bethesda, etc).
 
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Ideally I engage with every piece of writing, but it depends on the game. In some games I read and listen to every lore record, and in some games I skip every cutscene.
DonkeyPunchJr said:
JRPGs have this gift of characters talking in circles and pointing out obvious things. Dialog scenes will go on for 3x as long as they should be. That shit needs an editor. Usually I will skim the text and skip the audio unless something really interesting is happening.
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Someone once told me this was a cultural thing, that apparently in Japan it's considered rude to cut straight to the point, so conversations can just go in circles. I have no idea if this is true, but I definitely notice this problem in a lot of Japanese games. It's not a problem I've noticed in Japanese films though.
I had the exact same complaint about the Yakuza games.
 
It really depends on the quality of the writings. If it is some braindead crap from nowadays Ubisoft, I pretty much ignore all.

But I read most of Witcher 3 in game letters and books, did the same for Skyrim and Dragon age as well.
 
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Cutscenes yes, dialogue yes, lore entries 50/50. If the game has good enough lore with weird enough creations, I'll go into whatever codex it has to learn more. Most games don't go the distance with their lore though.

Dark Souls used to give you hints about enemies and the world through reading item descriptions. It matched the slower pace nature of them. I felt like that was leading towards a great way to utilize lore, but not many people picked up on it 🤷‍♂️
 
I religiously do and I also usually read all of the codex, sometimes multiple times. But that's only if I love the game. If not I don't give a shit. If it's a game I notice myself not paying any attention to the story at all (been there) I usually drop it fast anyway.
 
Nope don't read them. Sony, ms,nintendo should make it an option in their apps to read the lore/codex for games you are playing or give you access to a game's pause menu. Not only will that allow you to catch up on lore but you can respect char on your phone before you go home to play.
 
Husky said:
Ideally I engage with every piece of writing, but it depends on the game. In some games I read and listen to every lore record, and in some games I skip every cutscene.

Someone once told me this was a cultural thing, that apparently in Japan it's considered rude to cut straight to the point, so conversations can just go in circles. I have no idea if this is true, but I definitely notice this problem in a lot of Japanese games. It's not a problem I've noticed in Japanese films though.
I had the exact same complaint about the Yakuza games.
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Oh yeah yeah Yakuza games are some of the absolute worst offenders. I'd put FF7 remake and the Tales Of games up there too. And yeah I believe that it's a cultural difference, to some extent.

But they'll also do stuff like, you'll push a button and see a cutscene where a hidden stairway appears. Then the party will break out into a conversation like:

"I just heard something, what was that?"
"Hey, I don't remember this stairway being here before"
"do you think this has something to do with that button we just pressed?"
"Could be!"
"I wonder where it leads"
"Only one way to find out!"
"Ooooooh I bet there's treasure down there!"
"Do you really think we should go down it?"
"Well at this juncture we don't have any better options available, do we"
Etc etc

Like, nobody even needed to say a damn thing! The characters could share a knowing glance and read all that from their facial expressions.
 
Cutscenes, sure.

Dialogue, yes unless the story sucks or characters prattle on too long in a game that allows you to skip ahead (Then I will read it and move on before they finish yapping).

Lore entries...almost never.
 
I'm replaying Vietcong right now. Just like the first Mafia the story is part of the game and it ties into the gameplay. It sets the mood that voice overs in gameplay can't replace. I don't get that from modern games. It's like story telling and gameplay has completely lost their connection.
Edit, an example is Bioshock Infinite, you have the story and the battle arenas.
 
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I watch all the cut scenes, listen to all the dialogue, read all of the text and lore entries you can find in the game, even if it's bad. Even on repeat playthroughs. I want to immerse myself in the game so I just soak everything up.
 
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I watch all cut scenes - unless it's something that I watched before.
As per the audio dialog - I tend to skip it if I've read it faster in text form.
As per the text lores - depends on. If I find the game interesting, I read those - but if I just feel like blowing thru the game, I don't bother.
 
On the first playthrough, I watch every cutscene, read/listen to dialogue, and read info if I can find it. Who wouldn't? The only time I am skipping anything is when I have already played through the games, but there are some that I just watch every time since they are good.
 
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