MMO Gamers

It’s no secret that I don’t like the way quests are handled in today’s MMO’s.  Basically it’s  a case of running into a quest hub, loading up on as many quests as you can carry, then heading out to complete them.  Once they’re done, turn them in and it’s rinse and repeat.  I rarely bother to read the quest dialogue.  I’d like to see more from my quests.  Quest dialogue that’s interesting to read and relevant to the game’s lore, perhaps fewer but longer quests so they have a more epic feel to them, quest chains and so on.  Everquest 2 had voice-overs for some of their quest givers and this certainly added to the experience in my opinion.  Age of Conan tried to recapture that single player immersive feeling with their quest delivery by having a sort of cutscene; some with voiceovers.  I always listen to the voiceover quests because I enjoy some of the characters, particularly the Cimmerian woman in Connall’s Valley “they’ll rue the day”.  But the ones without voiceovers I usually just keep clicking the first option in the dialogue until I get a quest, then try and figure out what I’m supposed to do.  While I applaud AoC’s efforts in bringing something new to the way quests are delivered, I’d still like to see more done.  In fact, why can’t receiving a quest be a mini-game in itself.

In Vanguard, there are three spheres that you can level in; Adventuring, Crafting, and Diplomacy.  They are all independent of each other and you can level each sphere to its level cap, without learning one of the other spheres.  Of course, crafting helps the other two spheres by allowing you to create gear or provide equipment, but Diplomacy really is a sphere all of its own.  There was talk early on that people would need a high Diplomacy level to obtain certain quests, but I don’t know if this was ever the case.  Diplomacy is a mini-game in itself, a trading card game, and you level up by having a successfull parley with certain NPC’s.  I like Vanguard’s Diplomacy sphere; it’s a fun little distraction for when you’ve had enough questing, the trading card game provides a little bit of a challenge and you need to choose the right cards for different NPC’s, but again, I’d like to see more.

Perhaps in order to receive quests, or certain quests, developers could introduce a mini-game, much like Vanguard’s trading card game or some other game, where only players with a high enough diplomacy level can parley for the quests and only a successful parley will open up that quest to the player.  Quest givers could be on a refresh timer so if you were unsuccessful you could try again in an hour.

I’m not the kind of player who has to get to the level cap as fast as possible so I can start raiding/pvping, and perhaps that’s where my problem lies.  For me it’s about the journey; about adventure, discovery, and challenges along the way.  I want more substance to my MMO’s, not less.  I don’t want my MMO’s simplified, rather, I want them more complex.  Give me more options as to what I can do when I log in rather than less, and tie it all in together.  Of course, I also want awesome graphics, a kick-ass combat system, no lag, huge zones, lots of dungeons, great crafting, player run economies, and so on and so on.  Is that too much to ask?

Vanguard’s Diplomacy