Why? Most of what I read is at its best Rated: Teen, at its worst Rated: G
Does that mean I want text loaded with sh*t, f**k, t*ts, and so on? No.
But I'd love to read a quests that are closer to say Steven King, not horror mind you, just adult/young adult. Leave the Harry Potter Recue Rangers for Wizard101.
Heck Im not even asking for G.R.R.M. that would be a little much, although I'd love it. But I understand its too dark and too adult for 80% of the MMO players.
In my opinion quest text (for the most part) is crap, and will countinue that way for a long time to come. Not even sure WoD will be as dark and adult as it needs/should be.
After playing Divinity II: Ego Draconis (Which, by the way, is an excellent, action-based, single-player RPG), I have come to the conclusion that I will probably never be able to read the kind of brilliantly written dialogue that such a game has.
And I was right. JRPGs and Korean RPGs tend to get cheesy (Maybe its just the limitations of the translations). Here's the average, Rated Teen dialogue from the average, quest giving NPC:
Joe: Hello Adventurer! Might I take a moment of your time?
I was out in the woods when some evil bunny suddenly attacked me from a bush nearby! To my shock, I ran away leaving my jar of peanut butter out in the open fields. Now my family is starving and we need that peanut butter! A bunny probably grabbed it. Would you please find it and bring it back?
Rewards: Unicorn-leather shoes and a pink dagger.
If you're used to that crap, you will be amazed by how awesome RPGs are that have brilliant dialogue. Divinity II has the best so far.
Seconding the awesomeness of Divinity2.
If an MMO just captures half of the voice acting quality in Divinity2 then it'll be a stellar MMO.
Back on topic, I read some of it, if the plot/char is interesting. I read all the quest text in the 'missing diplomat' questline in WoW. The Darrowshire questline as well.
Gdemami - Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
I read everything in every game. I hate it beeing in a group and your group members just click everything away and you're still reading when they are already gone ahead.
Not anymore. I don't think i've read anything since Vanguard release. It's all the same drivel with no creativity. Mordern games don't give me the connection to the game through the story like older games once had. No reason to be interested so to speak.
Why? Most of what I read is at its best Rated: Teen, at its worst Rated: G
Does that mean I want text loaded with sh*t, f**k, t*ts, and so on? No.
But I'd love to read a quests that are closer to say Steven King, not horror mind you, just adult/young adult. Leave the Harry Potter Recue Rangers for Wizard101.
Heck Im not even asking for G.R.R.M. that would be a little much, although I'd love it. But I understand its too dark and too adult for 80% of the MMO players.
In my opinion quest text (for the most part) is crap, and will countinue that way for a long time to come. Not even sure WoD will be as dark and adult as it needs/should be.
Chronicles of Spellborn had some quests you probably would have really enjoyed. If you like a darker or more gbritty quest text, check out the German and polish RPGs because they seem really good for that.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein "Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
Touchy topic. But yeah, you skip them because when your game lacks replayability content wise. you make alts for new content. After you make alt #18 you kind of become jaded and hit the escape key more often. It's like reading the same book over and over and over and over...etc.
So boast about story and how your game does it better. but it will get old soon enough.
To be honest, in 90% of the cases: no. Not at all.
I don't need a 4 minute dialoge/text read to hear some NPCs story of his life to go kill 20 rats.
"Hail, heroic stranger. I have a rat problem in my cellar, and you won't believe it, it all began when my precious aunt..."
"Yeah, whatever..."
Exactly, if it can be summed up in a single line then do it for christsakes, leave the long dialogues for when something really interesting is going on, and do please make it a dialog, long tiring monologs is not something i ever want to see in my quest text unless there's a real good reason for it.
Quest text? Some in Guid Wars seemed worth it... besides I grab a coffee during ct scenes.
Very seldom in anything else.
Ken Fisher - Semi retired old fart Network Administrator, now working in Network Security. I don't Forum PVP. If you feel I've attacked you, it was probably by accident. When I don't understand, I ask. Such is not intended as criticism.
To be honest, in 90% of the cases: no. Not at all.
I don't need a 4 minute dialoge/text read to hear some NPCs story of his life to go kill 20 rats.
"Hail, heroic stranger. I have a rat problem in my cellar, and you won't believe it, it all began when my precious aunt..."
"Yeah, whatever..."
lol, ok that was funny.
I generally read the quest text. If I'm doing the quest a second or third time (in case I'm fooling around with alts) then I usually know it and don't need to read it again.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
Yes, I do read it. The text is the story and the real reason why I move on to different (mmo)rpgs and adventure games. It's what largely distinguishes WoW from DAoC from EQ from FF from LotRO from DDO from CoX, etc. Otherwise, it is all button-mashing.
Nope, no need to read, there's a nice arrow, checkmark, or other punctuation mark on my in game maps that will take me to my target and the bottom of the quest text tells me specifically what I need to kill, retrieve or what have you.
I'm playing Rift on the Defiant side and we are some sort of technology specialists/abusers or something so I have gathered.
However there was one notable quest line where I assisted a couple of mages in releasing a Titan only to have it be very pissed for being imprisoned for so long and it killed them. I ended up having to kill him as part of the story and I did enjoy that line.
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
I do if the game consistently makes the quest text interesting/important, games like Rift are a joke when it comes to text though so there isn't any point in doing it. The text in those games are just because they feel they are supposed to have it, no work went into it.
You used to be forced into this just to find where to go to do the quest and that was much better than the markers on the map.
Nope, no need to read, there's a nice arrow, checkmark, or other punctuation mark on my in game maps that will take me to my target and the bottom of the quest text tells me specifically what I need to kill, retrieve or what have you.
I'm playing Rift on the Defiant side and we are some sort of technology specialists/abusers or something so I have gathered.
However there was one notable quest line where I assisted a couple of mages in releasing a Titan only to have it be very pissed for being imprisoned for so long and it killed them. I ended up having to kill him as part of the story and I did enjoy that line.
Yeah, I like that quest line as well. It was pretty well done when they released him.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
I used to read all the quest text in MMO's, I liked the added immersion that lore has to offer.
However, like many, I find it harder and harder to read the quest text in MMORPG's, mainly because I've trouble deigning myself to care enough about the lore.
I notice the same with books though, I used to read everything that could be found on the field of scifi, horror and fantasy, but nowadays I limit myself to only the most interesting titles of the crop (Steven Erikson's The Crippled God, yep, here I come).
VO and cutscenes seem a better option for quest immersion, however I'm pretty sure that I'll read every single quest text that can be found in The Secret World. Mainly because I find the world setting and theme that interesting that I want to learn everything that can be learnt about it, but also because Tornquist and his gang will put all kinds of hints and clues into the game for a new type of quests they'll introduce, mystery and puzzle missions, that can slip you by if you're not paying attention (there'll even be raid-level mystery missions, where whole guilds need to work together to solve mysteries and uncover secrets).
So maybe it's a matter of how enticing a world and its lore is and how the presentation of the quests is that can overcome the growing desensitization that many MMO gamers have after years of playing MMO's and doing quests.
I have experienced the same thing. I still try to read the text for the big quest lines but for most side quests I just skim to see what type of quest it is and then just go do it.
With books I used to read somethign like 4-5 books per week (fast reader) just a few years ago. However, these days I find that most of the books I encounter follow the same plot and tropes and I am just not interested. I n retrospect most of the stuff I read a decade ago was just as derivative but I was simply not as discerning then.
One interesting inversion I recently encountered was the single player campaigns in Dawn Of War 2: Retribution. The campaigns for each faction are in fact the same series of missions with the same objectives. However, each faction has its own storyline of why they are doing a particular mission. Thus while playing a certain mission again with a different faction might not bring anything new to the experience, I really want to see how that particular storyline progresses.
BTW I have followed the Malazan Book of the Fallen series since the beginning and it on the short list of books I will never hesitate to buy and read.
In DAoC i read them all and in WoW i read most of them for the amusing, interresting and clever storylines. Fallen Earth was another one i used to enjoy reading the quest text.
As has been said, Rift sucks ass in this department, i don't bother reading those anymore.
Expresso gave me a Hearthstone beta key.....I'm so happy
Nope, no need to read, there's a nice arrow, checkmark, or other punctuation mark on my in game maps that will take me to my target and the bottom of the quest text tells me specifically what I need to kill, retrieve or what have you.
I've never considered directions or objective information to be part of the 'story quest'. It's just tangential information that the character should know.
When i first started playing MMO's, ya know, 12 years ago - I did. However now im just kind of like, "yea yea, some one is casying evil, someone needs help, there are to many rats, you need supplies, there is a magical item that will make this strong guy turn weak, drink this, travel here" its all the same to me, so i rly dont care anymore. Sometimes I try to read quests but get bored 1 sentence in...
especially now with quests being so trackable. I go into town, quest quest quest. view map, aaaaand go!
I wouldn't mind a smaller pool of quests if it meant that those quests were actually well thought out and interesting.
It's nauseating how uninspiring these objectives can be, since, of course, 99.9% of them are all basically asking you to do the same thing in a nutshell.
I love how these newer games are promising so much more, then I try them out and, lo and behold, I'm still collecting rat $#!+.
So maybe it's a matter of how enticing a world and its lore is and how the presentation of the quests is that can overcome the growing desensitization that many MMO gamers have after years of playing MMO's and doing quests.
It's not so much a matter of enticing or desensitization but rather a lack of relevance. The progression is relevant, the reward is relevant, what is being said by a static NPC in a static game world is not. In EnB, people read quest text initially because the choices they made dictated the options they would have later on.
If SWTOR or TSW offers quest text that has meaning or relevance, people will probably read it. If it's still a pile of prose unrelated to the player's or the character's existence in the game world, no amount of quality writing will get people to read it.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein "Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
If SWTOR or TSW offers quest text that has meaning or relelvance, people will probably read it. If it's still a pile of prose unrelated to the player's or the character's existence in the game world, no amount of quality writing will get people to read it.
Here's to hoping SWTOR delivers. I think we all need a nice change of pace.
Comments
Seconding the awesomeness of Divinity2.
If an MMO just captures half of the voice acting quality in Divinity2 then it'll be a stellar MMO.
Back on topic, I read some of it, if the plot/char is interesting. I read all the quest text in the 'missing diplomat' questline in WoW. The Darrowshire questline as well.
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
To be honest, in 90% of the cases: no. Not at all.
I don't need a 4 minute dialoge/text read to hear some NPCs story of his life to go kill 20 rats.
"Hail, heroic stranger. I have a rat problem in my cellar, and you won't believe it, it all began when my precious aunt..."
"Yeah, whatever..."
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
Not anymore. I don't think i've read anything since Vanguard release. It's all the same drivel with no creativity. Mordern games don't give me the connection to the game through the story like older games once had. No reason to be interested so to speak.
Depends.
Fallen Earth? Most of the time, they are often well written and like good short stories.
WoW? Sometimes, if I don't know the quest yet, depends on my mood.
Rift? They didn't even bother trying to make them interesting, so no.
So, it depends on the game.
Let's play Fallen Earth (blind, 300 episodes)
Let's play Guild Wars 2 (blind, 45 episodes)
Chronicles of Spellborn had some quests you probably would have really enjoyed. If you like a darker or more gbritty quest text, check out the German and polish RPGs because they seem really good for that.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
Touchy topic. But yeah, you skip them because when your game lacks replayability content wise. you make alts for new content. After you make alt #18 you kind of become jaded and hit the escape key more often. It's like reading the same book over and over and over and over...etc.
So boast about story and how your game does it better. but it will get old soon enough.
Exactly, if it can be summed up in a single line then do it for christsakes, leave the long dialogues for when something really interesting is going on, and do please make it a dialog, long tiring monologs is not something i ever want to see in my quest text unless there's a real good reason for it.
Quest text? Some in Guid Wars seemed worth it... besides I grab a coffee during ct scenes.
Very seldom in anything else.
lol, ok that was funny.
I generally read the quest text. If I'm doing the quest a second or third time (in case I'm fooling around with alts) then I usually know it and don't need to read it again.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
no. i dont read that crap. no one cares. kill this, that, save that, fetch.. why bother?
Yes, I do read it. The text is the story and the real reason why I move on to different (mmo)rpgs and adventure games. It's what largely distinguishes WoW from DAoC from EQ from FF from LotRO from DDO from CoX, etc. Otherwise, it is all button-mashing.
Not really but I will make an exception for SW:ToR when it comes out.
I read them as long they are intresting . And arent wall of texts. Which some devs think wall of text = intresting.
Nope, no need to read, there's a nice arrow, checkmark, or other punctuation mark on my in game maps that will take me to my target and the bottom of the quest text tells me specifically what I need to kill, retrieve or what have you.
I'm playing Rift on the Defiant side and we are some sort of technology specialists/abusers or something so I have gathered.
However there was one notable quest line where I assisted a couple of mages in releasing a Titan only to have it be very pissed for being imprisoned for so long and it killed them. I ended up having to kill him as part of the story and I did enjoy that line.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
I do if the game consistently makes the quest text interesting/important, games like Rift are a joke when it comes to text though so there isn't any point in doing it. The text in those games are just because they feel they are supposed to have it, no work went into it.
You used to be forced into this just to find where to go to do the quest and that was much better than the markers on the map.
Yeah, I like that quest line as well. It was pretty well done when they released him.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
i rarely read quest texts in WoW and Rift. but Aion made me read texts.
I have experienced the same thing. I still try to read the text for the big quest lines but for most side quests I just skim to see what type of quest it is and then just go do it.
With books I used to read somethign like 4-5 books per week (fast reader) just a few years ago. However, these days I find that most of the books I encounter follow the same plot and tropes and I am just not interested. I n retrospect most of the stuff I read a decade ago was just as derivative but I was simply not as discerning then.
One interesting inversion I recently encountered was the single player campaigns in Dawn Of War 2: Retribution. The campaigns for each faction are in fact the same series of missions with the same objectives. However, each faction has its own storyline of why they are doing a particular mission. Thus while playing a certain mission again with a different faction might not bring anything new to the experience, I really want to see how that particular storyline progresses.
BTW I have followed the Malazan Book of the Fallen series since the beginning and it on the short list of books I will never hesitate to buy and read.
Depends.
In DAoC i read them all and in WoW i read most of them for the amusing, interresting and clever storylines. Fallen Earth was another one i used to enjoy reading the quest text.
As has been said, Rift sucks ass in this department, i don't bother reading those anymore.
Expresso gave me a Hearthstone beta key.....I'm so happy
I've never considered directions or objective information to be part of the 'story quest'. It's just tangential information that the character should know.
When i first started playing MMO's, ya know, 12 years ago - I did. However now im just kind of like, "yea yea, some one is casying evil, someone needs help, there are to many rats, you need supplies, there is a magical item that will make this strong guy turn weak, drink this, travel here" its all the same to me, so i rly dont care anymore. Sometimes I try to read quests but get bored 1 sentence in...
especially now with quests being so trackable. I go into town, quest quest quest. view map, aaaaand go!
I wouldn't mind a smaller pool of quests if it meant that those quests were actually well thought out and interesting.
It's nauseating how uninspiring these objectives can be, since, of course, 99.9% of them are all basically asking you to do the same thing in a nutshell.
I love how these newer games are promising so much more, then I try them out and, lo and behold, I'm still collecting rat $#!+.
It's not so much a matter of enticing or desensitization but rather a lack of relevance. The progression is relevant, the reward is relevant, what is being said by a static NPC in a static game world is not. In EnB, people read quest text initially because the choices they made dictated the options they would have later on.
If SWTOR or TSW offers quest text that has meaning or relevance, people will probably read it. If it's still a pile of prose unrelated to the player's or the character's existence in the game world, no amount of quality writing will get people to read it.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
Here's to hoping SWTOR delivers. I think we all need a nice change of pace.