Ignore double post.

I don't mind them as long as they're interesting. Which is rare, admittedly.

I generally don't mind cut scenes, but I do think they break the pace of the game and should be used with caution - the end of a level is a natural break-point, for example - and otherwise avoided as much as possible. Developers have tried shoe-horning "interactivity" into their more decadent use of cut scenes in the form of QTEs, but that's only a quick-fix and is still an intrusion compared to normal gameplay. Having moderate control over the camera like in Fable or DMC does not qualify as interactivity, either.

I like actually playing the games. Throwing down a half a bag of corn chips to pass the time before I get to play again is not my idea of fun. If this is what I wanted, I'd be watching a movie instead.

I don't mind them as long as they're not over 5 minutes. Some of the examples a few of you mentioned are unacceptable. The only long scene I want might be at the end of the game. I don't even want an overly long in the begining of the game. A game with a lot of cut scenes that I thought was done right was RE4.

Which brings me to my question. I saw the acronym "QTE" listed a lot. Does that stand for "quick time event" similar to a few of the cut scenes in RE4? If so, done like that, I enjoy them. It keeps me focused during the cut scene.

One thing I don't care for in cut scenes is if I have to read the dialog. That's not much of an issue nowadays although I think it still takes place in Nintendo games. I don't mind if it's a little dialog but I don't feel like having to read sentence after sentence, paragraph after paragraph for 10 minutes or more. If I did, I'd grab a book rather than a game.

That's exactly what they mean.  During gameplay, QTE isn't such a bad thing.  However, in cutscenes, it is often(not always) a bad way to implement intertactivity in otherwise non interactive cutscenes.  I don't hate cutscenes but if you want interactivity in cutscenes, developers should atleast do it right.

Some games do it right, but some games don't.

I never felt like MGS4 had too long cutscenes, they felt like they were just what they needed to be.

But Assassin's Creed had too many gamebreaking cutscenes to make them enjoyable. Too much pure talk and too little relevance.

Would you mind if the ratio between cutscenes and gameplay was 1:1 or is that still too much for you?  That's fine for me when the game is primarily story-driven.  What do you consider an acceptable cutscene to gameplay ratio for a story driven game?

depends on the game. Metal Gear Solid was awesome. It was self aware of the fact that it had a lot of long cutscenes and allowed you to pause them easily (like a movie) and stuff... i really thought that whole game as a experience was awesome, and i wouldn't trade it for more gameplay and less cutscene..