Diablo III: Not Just a Vitality Race!

[Karoht]

Karoht, whatever you seem to think: it is not unreasonable for the players to expect a Blizzard game to be designed around the assumption that a sizeable portion of their fanbase are difficult to get along with (to put it mildly), yet few people will want to play the game alone anyway.

If it is so simple, by all means explain to me a mechanic that deals with the problem once you find yourself in a game with the 'gogogo' guy, other than simply not having an option to skip content. Go ahead, you seem to think it's simple. Lets see what you've got.

People with poor social skills are not going to have those skills fixed in a video game. If their entire lifetime of socialization got them where they are, feel free to explain how it is suddenly the responsibility of a video game company to undo the damage.

In short, the answer for "potential for griefing/jerkish behavior exists [here]" is not simply "then be a hermit!" It's an extreme response to negative behavior that can be curtailed behind the scenes with good game design, rather than hamfistedly expecting players to flip the off-switch on interaction with new people entirely.

And surprisingly, the response of 'people should stop playing like jerks' also seems to get negative responses. Yes, because it's Blizzard's fault that people are jerks on the internet. Next you'll suggest that microsoft is to blame for teabagging and explitive filled comments about one's mother over Xbox live.

You mean there isn't separate quest text per person? It'll be like escort quests in WoW, where whoever clicks on the NPC ends up charging off with them while you have no idea what's going on unless you're a speed reader?
That's... 10 times worse than I imagined, and I hope this is not the case or that I'm misunderstanding.

You know, maybe you should just go watch some footage on youtube or something. That might be better. You really have a tendancy to jump to conclusions when asking about features of this game, it would clear things up greatly if you would just go see for yourself.

Okay, so you just got back to town with the mcguffin. You go talk to Deckard Cain. He starts talking, your character responds. There's VO with text on the screen. There's a conversation. The other player doesn't have to go talk to Deckard Cain as well. They can go for example, over the blacksmith and make stuff while this is going on. Usually I go talk to the person, and then go rummage through my stash while the quest text/VA goes on.
It means you don't have to wait for 1-3 other players to all turn the quest in before you can proceed. Yes, the person who turns it in can skip it. However, as I mentioned before, you can replay it at any time. Also, if someone does skip it, you can just scroll up in the chat window and read the whole thing there as well.
It's also typically short and not long-winded, so you don't save a load of time by skipping it. Mind you we haven't hit any of the lore heavy stuff yet which may be more long-winded, so hard to say.

Come to think of it, I think you are also able to replay it from your quest log. I'll have to check that.

That's somewhat a good but could lead to griefing (intentional or unintentional e.g. my phone rings/cat gets in the room during a cutscene, everyone else votes to skip and I'm chasing it around while the other players think I'm a newb, a jerk, or both.)

Am I the only one who realizes, when people say stuff like this, you would be missing it chasing a cat in the first place?
So replay it later.
I'm pretty sure it's all 4 players have to hit skip for the in-game cutscenes (IE-Skeleton King giving Deckard Cain a hard time), but I could be wrong, I've yet to group with anyone who's even voted to skip anything. Even then, if you are off chasing a cat or answering the door, its still going to be playing if it didn't skip.

But judging by all the random games that still populate D2 over a decade later... are you willing to concede that yours may not be the majority perspective?

I am.
Are you willing to concede that a game that is designed to be soloable, with an option to repeat content, it is reasonable for people to simply go back and repeat that content again if they really want to see it?
Especially considering that it is expected that people will repeat certain content anyway (xp, loot, farming in general, reviewing content that they enjoy), is it reasonable to expect people to go back and see it again if they really want to?

Honestly, you're blowing this out of proportion. You're making it sound as if someone skips something, you will never ever ever ever be able to see it again, and that simply is not true. If anything, people will be complaining about seeing it many many many times, even in just one difficulty level, let alone seeing it in nightmare, hell, and inferno difficulties as well.