I don’t like quests
“You there! I need 10 wolf pelts to make sheaths for the Captains Guard, but I have to stay here. Will you get them for me? I promise to reward you well.” Says the dude with the magical book hovering above his head.
“Hmm. Well, I suppose I could I guess. What will you give me?”
“I will give you a meagre sum of copper and some XP.”
“Hmm. Well, I could use the XP, I’m about to ding. Ok, I’ll do it. Where do I find them?”
“Open up your map, I’ve marked the location for you.”
<opens map and sees the big red circle> “Oh wow, how’d you do that?”
“Easy, with a big red crayon.”
So off I go to kill his 10 wolves, get the pelts that are urgently required to arm our troops so they can defend us and we can continue to live harmoniously with each other. Now I don’t mind so much the killing 10 wolves’ part, though Age of Conan (AoC) with its 80 levels took the kill 10 wolves thing to all new heights of boredom. But the whole “quest” thing has lost the “quest” aspect that it held for me back in the days of Dark Age of Camelot and the earlier days of Everquest 2.
When I first played DAoC you would have to click on a NPC to see if he had a quest. And then he wouldn’t give you specifics, but rather, give you vague directions like “Go north until you cross a stream and seek out a merchant called Grumboor”. I’d have to run across two zones until I crossed a stream and then keep going until I stumbled across a village I hadn’t been to before and found the merchant in question. Quests had a sense of scope, of discovery, of adventure. Now they provide instant gratification. Go to the village, click the dude with something floating over his head, open up your map, point yourself to where the quest is marked, do quest, return, rinse and repeat.
I’m still waiting for developers to make quests “feel” like quests rather than just things to grind for XP. AoC took a step in the right direction with their destiny quests but I don’t hear any developers talking about their unique quest system in their upcoming titles, I only hear “We will have quests”.
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Comments
Comment from Kyrana
Time: October 12, 2008, 9:59 am
I’m hit or miss on quests. Sometimes, I’m in the mood to do them, but more of the time I like faster-paced action that you can find doing RvR or dungeon-crawling. Usually, the only “major” (read: many steps and hard to do) quests that I would go to the effort of completing were ones that offered huge rewards. But when I’m faced with dozens of the wolf-killing quests? Meh.
It still remains the fastest way to level in a lot of games, however, because the chunks of xp you get move you along much faster than just killing to grind and grinding to kill. What I’m loving about WAR, however, is that I don’t feel the need to push along to the next level so quickly. I’m finding enough to entertain me at my present level, with RvR, scenarios, PQ’s and role-play. Plus, there are quests that are specifically tailored for those aspects of the game: kill 25 enemy, complete this scenario, etc. I’ll stick with these for now, thanks. So, yeah, evetually I’ll get around to doing some more quests, but it’s no rush. *grins*
Much to the relief of the wolves, I’m sure.
caliga
Comment from Openedge1
Time: October 12, 2008, 9:57 am
How true…
My only hope lies with either Bioware or Bethesda and in the hope that they will focus on more engaging story based “scenarios” or situations where you are awarded for accomplishing feats, or doing things a certain way.
Imagine an MMO where you are sent on the infamous “Can you go get that recommendation for me?” , so off you trek to the next city or village. Then when you get there the other party is ornery and you must convince him based on keywords or phrases in a conversation to give you the recommendation..
Then you get XP for THAT…
And if not, you get into a bar brawl and knock him out, and THEN get the note..
Stuff like this is what we are missing. Not this un-creative kill 10 x.
Thanks mate.