[Role Playing Game] Poll: Cinematics or No Cinematics?

[Valenvai]

As I'm working on my second project, the sequel to The Prophecy of the Dark Angel I'm wondering what should I do regarding quest cinematics. Many players like them while others prefer to get straight to the point.
So I decided to take this poll. Your opinion is much appreciated.

 

[Super Pingwin]

Choosing at start of the map with the ability to skip any cinematic sounds like the way to go.

Let me give you an example ; in WoW Cataclysm's final raid, the Hour of Twilight (not sure of the name), the 3 finals bosses each have a cinematic to introduce the fight, as well as an epilogue cinematic once you kick Deathwing's butt.

The first, second and third times you try that raid out, you're like "Wow, cinematics, how nice and refreshing ! And they look so great ! So much more fun than reading text !" but after that, you just want the boss battle to start.

Also, I haven't played your map, but if it's multiplayer, it sounds like some players could fall behind while watching cinematics, while others would get bored very quickly.

So once again, I'd go for optional and skipable cinematics.

 

[Deleted member 212788]

You should add cinematics to all quests, simple make them skipable.

 

[Rao Dao Zao]

You should add cinematics to all quests, simple make them skipable.

Aye.

Cinematics give quests a lot more personality. They don't have to be long or overblown, just enough to illustrate the what and the why -- the context. Without context, quests become a matter of ticking boxes; simple cinematics are the place to add a bit of sparkle.

 

[Pharaoh_]

I really enjoy watching cinematics as a preview of what's coming up for me. You also give life to the map, as if it has a lore behind it (if you are not likely going to create one).

However, I voted for the second option, because cinematics in optional quests is a lot to bear and it prolongs the gameplay's duration by a lot.

 

[Chaosy]

I love cinematic lore, it just make me play any RPG map aslong as the lore is good. I can sit and play a SPRPG with "whosyourdaddy" so I get the full lore easy mode.

still you should allow the user to choose since that will fit everyone

 

[cleavinghammer]

Definitely add them, it's a good way to make a map stand out.

But for the love of all that is holy, make them skippable. A cutscene that was funny or interesting the first time will be tedious every time you see it again.

 

[Paliouras]

skippable cinematics much like blizzard's in the campaign

 

[DESTROYER123]

Long cinematics can be extremely boring.
As far as I am concerned, I hate cinematics.
Just do the esc button but make sure that a tutorial or how to play is not included in the cinematic.

 

[Valenvai]

Thanks a lot to everyone that shared their opinion on the matter.
Although only 10 people cared to take part on the poll, I can say for sure that people enjoy cinematics, like me.
So it would be best for me to keep them in-game instead of click-and-get style of other RPG maps.
Reading your comments I think I should put cinematics to all quests, short as possible, clear and straight to the point, with a touch of RP (I'm thinking of putting a variation on dialogs depending on what class you play).
I'm a bit skeptical for the Optional quests cinematics because the map is free-roam and a little more information about what direction to go will be helpful.

All in all thanx a lot for taking the poll, you helped me get a clear view of what path to take.

 

[Codric]

I love Cinimatics Myself, so I go with Cinimatics.

 

[Sin'dorei300]

You should add cinematics to all quests, simple make them skipable.

This.

 

[Valenvai]

^ Nice avatar

 

[Sin'dorei300]

Thx! ^^

 

[BlackEnvyX]

Cinematics add a nice touch, as long as they are skippable.

 

[Gegbot]

Sort of missed this poll, but regardless neither of the options fall in my taste. It seems almost no custom maps install the otherwise pretty standard option in the rest of the gaming industry which is the simple "press ESC if you don't want to watch this particular cutscene". Now it is possible it is some sort of technical difficulty but if it works in the original WC3-campaign I find that hard to believe.

Anyway, being able to pick when or what you skip is easily the best choice, it allows the player to choose what suits him/her best. If you like cutscenes you watch them, if you hate them you don't, if you're like me you watch them the first time and skip them when replaying. Regardless, since the player can choose it fits any of the types and doesn't run the risk of turning players away. And do notice the distinction between choosing to not see ANY cutscenes and choosing during the cutscene if you want to abort it. The latter is what I'd like.

 

[NewMapMaker]

I personally think that cinematics should be there for all quests, however they should be skippable on an individual basis. Rather than having the whole game skip cinematics (which would kind of suck if your choose that option at the start then later want to watch them), it would be better to be able to just press spacebar or something to skip the cinematic if you didn't want to watch that specific one.

 

[NewMapMaker]

..."press ESC if you don't want to watch this particular cutscene". Now it is possible it is some sort of technical difficulty but if it works in the original WC3-campaign I find that hard to believe.

excuse me as I'm just new to the whole map making fun, but wouldn't it be possible to check for keypress somehow?

like maybe you can do it in the triggers? set a boolean flag to TRUE for cutscene_playing & run a trigger while the cutscene plays to "listen" for a keypress of a "skip cutscene" hotkey?

I have no idea if it's possible as I haven't even tried to make a cinematic yet, so ignore me if this is a bit of a dumb idea

 

[Rao Dao Zao]

like maybe you can do it in the triggers? set a boolean flag to TRUE for cutscene_playing & run a trigger while the cutscene plays to "listen" for a keypress of a "skip cutscene" hotkey?

There is a specific "cinematic skipped" event that responds to the Escape key, but the actual mechanics of skipping are pretty awful.

You've got most of it right -- you use the skip event response to set a global flag, and in between every single (wait) action of the cinematic trigger(s), you have an if statement that checks this flag. If it's true, then Skip Remaining Actions. (And then make sure the skip trigger cleans everything up and arranges everything as if the cinematic finished.)

It's a real pain in the bum to reverse engineer in, so you really have to set things up for skipping from day zero so the effort is spread over the entire map rather than in one lump.

 

[NewMapMaker]

There is a specific "cinematic skipped" event that responds to the Escape key, but the actual mechanics of skipping are pretty awful.....

.....It's a real pain in the bum to reverse engineer in, so you really have to set things up for skipping from day zero so the effort is spread over the entire map rather than in one lump.

Thanks for that handy hint I'll keep that in mind if I ever decide to put some cinematics or work with them.

 

[Wings of PegasuS]

Give us a button to skip it if we want..

 

[EternaLife]

The best cinematic option I have ever seen in a Warcraft map is where for every bit of dialogue, there is the option to go to NEXT. So, once we have read the cinematic dialogue, we don't have to sit around waiting for it to go to the next scene, we can simply click NEXT, and read it at our own pace. This also works well if there is a large piece of dialogue which we don't finish reading (or even if we need to go get a drink, help with the baby, go to toilet, or whatever).
What do you guys think??

 

[Valenvai]

Sounds like a good idea. I only hope I could trigger it correctly to be working.

 

[Tickles]

Here's one simple way of doing it. I imagine it would be a lot more difficult to work into a multiplayer map.

 

[Valenvai]

Thnx a lot! I will take a look!