This. This. Very much this.
Also, I agree with one of the comments farther down:
"My philosophy is that, in a properly designed game, the narrative and combat should be intertwined well enough that the player should not want to skip either one.
Put another way – ideally, the combat and narrative should be indistinguishable to the player. That is, there shouldn’t be clear 'narrative' segments and clear 'combat' segments."
But, with that said, I think that an option to skip should still be there, even if a player may not want to use it (just as a reader of a good book may not want to sneak a peek at the ending even though the option to do so is definitely there), as others point out in reply to that comment.
I also agree with this comment (well, except for the "skipping Dragon Age 1" bit, since I actually enjoyed the combat in Dragon Age for the most part), regarding games that don't have combat at all to begin with, but that's kind of getting away from the point of the article. Even though people do point out in reply that there are already some games that don't have combat in them, it's still safe to say that the vast, vast majority of video games do involve fighting in some way.
Also, I agree with one of the comments farther down:
"My philosophy is that, in a properly designed game, the narrative and combat should be intertwined well enough that the player should not want to skip either one.
Put another way – ideally, the combat and narrative should be indistinguishable to the player. That is, there shouldn’t be clear 'narrative' segments and clear 'combat' segments."
But, with that said, I think that an option to skip should still be there, even if a player may not want to use it (just as a reader of a good book may not want to sneak a peek at the ending even though the option to do so is definitely there), as others point out in reply to that comment.
I also agree with this comment (well, except for the "skipping Dragon Age 1" bit, since I actually enjoyed the combat in Dragon Age for the most part), regarding games that don't have combat at all to begin with, but that's kind of getting away from the point of the article. Even though people do point out in reply that there are already some games that don't have combat in them, it's still safe to say that the vast, vast majority of video games do involve fighting in some way.