I just reached level 50 yesterday and went into the first 8 man dungeon (Castrum Meridian, or something like that) and everyone was like 'Speedrun, k?' Everyone except me agrees. I say 'I've never done this before so I don't think I can.' One of the guys said, 'Just follow me and don't do anything. You can just watch so you know what to do next time. You can watch the cutscenes again in your Inn room'
Well, after voicing my opinion on rather watching them when they were actually relevant, I reluctantly agreed. The rest that followed was just chaos and I still can't tell you what the hell happened. People were running everywhere, barking orders. I have never been so confused during a run in my whole life. They were just running off and leaving me while the loading screen was up after skipping a cutscene. It was horrible, let me tell ya.
I was wondering to myself why they were even speedrunning it, because I hadn't noticed any treasure coffers or anything along the way. The closest thing I got to an answer for that was at the very end I got 100 Allagan Tomes of Philosophy, which I'm assuming was their incentive. After finishing it, with a sigh of relief, I went back to my Inn room to see what I had missed in way of story (which was hugely inappropraite and a bit confusing after the fact) and realized that I wouldn't have been nearly as confused about where to go or what to do had I watched them as intended.
This experience made me a little reserved to register for the one that immediately follows (no spoilers from me). In that one, I told myself I would not skip and would watch everything, no matter what. While a few people got a little fidgety, it was nothing major and we had a fairly smooth run with no wipes.
Long story, I know. Sorry. I know it would segregate the community a little more (only for a limited time though), but I feel they should almost have a check box for 'speedrun' or 'no speedrun', either or, because now, I'm actually dreading doing anything for the first (or even first few times) from here on out for fear I'm going to just get tossed into one of these groups again.