Quest or Errand?

ozrial

In reading these forums (and many others) I have seen a lot of complaints about boring meaningless quests.  I felt the same way, and i realized that I never read the quest text unless I absolutely HAVE to.  Now, this of course detracts from the meaningfulness, but I feel I do it because anymore, if you have read one, you have read them all.  I remember before "quest-helper"' addons, before games inserted their own form of a similar quest tracking system, you actually had to read the quest text quite intently just to get an idea of where to go and what to do, but is that all that made the difference?  I say no, and I realized this while playing a few nights ago.  To me, a quest is something that is a journey, long and adventurous, and today's games rarely seem to offer that anymore.  In fact, they seem more like errands akin to running to the local grocery store for some eggs rather than an adventurous journey. (ie: Go to "x", kill "y", bring back "z".)  

Let me elaborate via Webster:

Quest: a chivalrous enterprise in medieval romance usually involving an adventurous journey

Errand: a short trip taken to attend to some business often for another

(there are other meanings of course, but these best fit the point I am attempting to illustrate)

 

In this light, whereas a quest is heroic and adventuresome, an errand just seems like I am some NPC's little bitch running 20 to 30 yards across the zone and back cause he/she is too damn lazy.  I know now why I miss the multiple zone, multiple level expansiveness and heroics involved in EQ and EQII quests that you just don't get in games to often anymore (even the never ending Heritage quests =P.) 

Now I wonder, am I alone, or are there other old farts like myself that could really enjoy more true heroic quests and less pointless errands in an MMO?

Czzarre

Although I prefer the epicness of things I do in game...I wonder if a surprising number of players would pick 'whatever levels quicker'.

We have been through so many PVE grinds to get to the end game, noone wants to slog through it again.

haratu

While quests are often involving and interesting, they have the problem that you know 1million others are doing the same quest, removing the feeling you are actually doing something unique and personal. An errand you know others are doing it, but that feeling is neutralised becasue it makes logical sense that others are doing it to.

eg. Quest "You must save the world by killing the evil tortoise." - which everyone else is doing so i dont feel needed.

eg2. Errand "My suppliers require more lightroot herb, please collect it." - This person needs me, and probably needs others as well, but it feels more personal.

 

It is the personal touch that makes me like errands more. I enjoy quests but in the end they always feel like they are a pointless endevour because the world can only be saved so many times. Saying this though, some quests can be rewarding in personal touches such as collecting materials to help an engineer construct you some doom machine. The best long chain quest example is to grow a pet or a mount, it would be interesting to see how AoC handles such a long term system in their expansion.

Caleveira

I agree with Haratu on the thing about the personal level of involvement. However i do prefer epic quests because i think smart writers could find ways around them being the same old "save the world" schtick. For instance, you could have a chain quest in which an npc asks you to trap a ghost that "stricks terror" in town, so you go get a talisman or something to protect you, fight some mobs, get a vase or something to put the ghost in etc. your usual quest. Ofc being story driven you learn the plot while doing it, some tragic love tale or something. You also learn many have come before you and none have been able to vanquish the ghost. Here comes the twist, the ghost actually protects the town from a bigger evil, so you actually get two boss fights in a row. You release the ghost at the end and learn for some reason (penance, something to do with the backstory) he must be regularly defeated by some brave soul. Now, add some good writing, a couple of humorous scenes with the villagers and a couple of cute cutscenes (imagine it done your way). I dare say quests in this style could work, youd get an imersive story and wouldnt find it jarring (even if you roleplay) that everyone else is doing it.

All it takes is good writing. you could make quest chains like these easily in some settings (the wraith invasion continues, bla, bla, as a soldier is now your turn...) add a couple of errands to keep you guessing, and have an epic storyline not revolve around you being "the one"-- im specially keen on using undead for mobs on MMOs precisely for the reason that their "never dying" can easily explain respawns. Throwing branching storylines in the mix would be specially important so that even if its just two or three outcomes you could add some relevance (discounts from diferent npcs for instance). It all doesnt take much more work really, just more creative people writing quests.

Sure, your powerleveling crowd wouldnt care one way or the other, but for those of us who read quests it would mean a huge diference in dealing with the grind.

ozrial

Haratu, you make a really good point which reminds me of some of my old favorite quests that I had forgotten about.  One of the things I loved about EQ2 is that when they released an expansion that "changed the world" so to speak, the world didn't just up and change overnight.  For instance, with Kingdom of Sky, they repaired the teleportation spires granting players access to a new zone.  This was done with repeatable quests that everyone had to pitch in and gather resources for the spires to be repaired, and these were some of the funnest "errand" quests ever in my opinion.  This was not due to them being any different than any other gathering quest while doing them, of course, but due to the fact that there was a greater goal that was common to everyone.  They made it even more enticing with special rewards like titles that you could only earn through doing these quests, and once they had enough resources, the spires were repaired and the quests were no longer offered.  That kind of level of involvement is what really makes the world seem real and alive. 

And to Caleveira, I love your idea as well.  Writing in the fact that even though you did the heroic deed, it would still need to be done by the next player is wonderful.  That would add a level of interest to quests that is sorely lacking as well (especially if coupled with cut-scenes as you stated.)  Your idea of "branches" in the story lines is also quite interesting.  Reminds me of those books I used to read long ago (back when dirt was clean and god was a little boy), where the reader would have a choice for what to do and go to the resulting page out of a few options and continue reading on.  Making the quest lines like this where different players could arrive a completely different outcomes would be quite interesting.  Maybe some choices could even result in "completion", however not succeed in solving the main problem at hand,  leaving it open for the next player to come along and give it a shot. 

Great ideas and input from all, thanks!