OP, you are stuck in the past. I hope you realize you can play WoW, Rift, Lotro, etc. and just choose NOT to do quests and just grind mobs to your heart's content. Thereby not having anything "rammed" down your throat and giving you plenty of time to go explore. Funny, I love to explore too but never have an issue doing so when I'm doing quests. It's not hard to say..oh I just killed my last boar...but wait, that looks cool over there, wonder what it is? Off I go. The quest isn't going anywhere niether are the mobs.
In other words, learn to adapt or just find a new genre of games.
LotRO an Explorer's MMO? Hardly. Turbine removed the Fog of War this year. Every map is fillied in just like some players (non-explorer's) like it.
Your posts Elocke I try to read, for I usually find your point of view very enlightening.
Not This one. The genre belongs to us all. "adapt or leave?" arrogant and rude. You act as if you are one of those MMO Investors or something.
I do not think that all of you are tired of quests but my guess is that you are tired of how MMO's has made quests , or in many cases errands..
I agree , most errands/quests are uninspiring and in most cases boring and even unrealistic..
You as a "hero of the land" would not help the farmer get his crops or even help him with a wolf in his garden..
Unfortunatly, this is how quests in MMO's are..
If you look at it in another perspective you would also understand why we have these quests, It's easy to make them and make em in 1000 .
So basically it's the lazy developer that is to blame, or well..I can't blame them either , after all who can write a story that spans around an entire world and in every corner there is an intriguing story to experience.. A story that actually makes you want to see and hear more because of the story, now it's like unless you do these "help farmer Bob" quests you will not build your characther..the point of a roleplaying game has painfully been lost along the developers path a ALONG time ago.
Hopefully BIoware and Funcom will remedy how we look at quests in MMO's, hopefully But to do so It also requires 100-200 million dollars, wich understandably isn't possible for 98 percent of the developers today.
I agree with the OP 100%. I have had my fill of linear questing/quest grinding. Rift was the last straw for me as well. But the only way to make mob grinding fun is that there has to be a bit of strategy involved in the solo/duo combat process (which WoW, Rift and the like do not have). Not to mention rare spawns and decent loot off the rare spawns.
I was leveling up in WoW Cata and couldn't make myself log on due to the quest grinding/handholding. I would ask others if they were sick of linear quest grinding and they acted like they didn't know what I was talking about. I think most others that play that game did not know that it could be any different as they didn't come from EQ like I had.
I hope SWTOR has a mildly interesting storyline that makes me forget that I'm quest grinding. As I have RL friends requiring me to play lol.
I do not think that all of you are tired of quests but my guess is that you are tired of how MMO's has made quests , or in many cases errands..
I agree , most errands/quests are uninspiring and in most cases boring and even unrealistic..
You as a "hero of the land" would not help the farmer get his crops or even help him with a wolf in his garden..
Unfortunatly, this is how quests in MMO's are..
If you look at it in another perspective you would also understand why we have these quests, It's easy to make them and make em in 1000 . So basically it's the lazy developer that is to blame, or well..I can't blame them either , after all who can write a story that spans around an entire world and in every corner there is an intriguing story to experience.. A story that actually makes you want to see and hear more just because of the story not bacause unless you do them you won't level your characther..
Hopefully BIoware and Funcom will remedy how we look at quests in MMO's, hopefully
You're absolutely right. My first MMORPG was DAOC and my second was SWG. When I heard about WoW's quest system, I was excited because I DO enjoy doing quests. However, when I tried the game and encountered what Blizzard thought quests were supposed to be, I was displeased and uninspired. Solo mob grinding and solo quest (chore) grinding is no different. They're both boring ways to level your character.
I think a good system would have it where there was an overarcing storyline, where quests were few in number. Perhaps 1 epic quest every 5 levels. That quest would be long in duration, require a lot of travel (adventure), would be dangerous, and require intelligence to beat. In between there could be dynamic content. That dynamic content would be akin to public group encounters that you wonder into while exploring the world and hit the public group button. That way you're not worried about forming groups when you don't have time to dedicate towards organizing one, but you're still able to play cooperate solo with other players to defeat otherwise undefeatable encounters. Of course, one hard dungeon per every 5-10 levels would be there for those who have time to organize a well made group and tackle it. A battleground system like DAoC has for every 5 levels, with siege combat and castle/tower possession would add variety as well.
Given the above design, I think the game would be a lot of fun, and offer the variety players need. It also reduces the repetitiveness of solo chore and mob grinding.
Comments
LotRO an Explorer's MMO? Hardly. Turbine removed the Fog of War this year. Every map is fillied in just like some players (non-explorer's) like it.
Your posts Elocke I try to read, for I usually find your point of view very enlightening.
Not This one. The genre belongs to us all. "adapt or leave?" arrogant and rude. You act as if you are one of those MMO Investors or something.
Reading trough this thread made me think..
I do not think that all of you are tired of quests but my guess is that you are tired of how MMO's has made quests , or in many cases errands..
I agree , most errands/quests are uninspiring and in most cases boring and even unrealistic..
You as a "hero of the land" would not help the farmer get his crops or even help him with a wolf in his garden..
Unfortunatly, this is how quests in MMO's are..
If you look at it in another perspective you would also understand why we have these quests, It's easy to make them and make em in 1000 .
So basically it's the lazy developer that is to blame, or well..I can't blame them either , after all who can write a story that spans around an entire world and in every corner there is an intriguing story to experience.. A story that actually makes you want to see and hear more because of the story, now it's like unless you do these "help farmer Bob" quests you will not build your characther..the point of a roleplaying game has painfully been lost along the developers path a ALONG time ago.
Hopefully BIoware and Funcom will remedy how we look at quests in MMO's, hopefully
But to do so It also requires 100-200 million dollars, wich understandably isn't possible for 98 percent of the developers today.
I agree with the OP 100%. I have had my fill of linear questing/quest grinding. Rift was the last straw for me as well. But the only way to make mob grinding fun is that there has to be a bit of strategy involved in the solo/duo combat process (which WoW, Rift and the like do not have). Not to mention rare spawns and decent loot off the rare spawns.
I was leveling up in WoW Cata and couldn't make myself log on due to the quest grinding/handholding. I would ask others if they were sick of linear quest grinding and they acted like they didn't know what I was talking about. I think most others that play that game did not know that it could be any different as they didn't come from EQ like I had.
I hope SWTOR has a mildly interesting storyline that makes me forget that I'm quest grinding. As I have RL friends requiring me to play lol.
You're absolutely right. My first MMORPG was DAOC and my second was SWG. When I heard about WoW's quest system, I was excited because I DO enjoy doing quests. However, when I tried the game and encountered what Blizzard thought quests were supposed to be, I was displeased and uninspired. Solo mob grinding and solo quest (chore) grinding is no different. They're both boring ways to level your character.
I think a good system would have it where there was an overarcing storyline, where quests were few in number. Perhaps 1 epic quest every 5 levels. That quest would be long in duration, require a lot of travel (adventure), would be dangerous, and require intelligence to beat. In between there could be dynamic content. That dynamic content would be akin to public group encounters that you wonder into while exploring the world and hit the public group button. That way you're not worried about forming groups when you don't have time to dedicate towards organizing one, but you're still able to play cooperate solo with other players to defeat otherwise undefeatable encounters. Of course, one hard dungeon per every 5-10 levels would be there for those who have time to organize a well made group and tackle it. A battleground system like DAoC has for every 5 levels, with siege combat and castle/tower possession would add variety as well.
Given the above design, I think the game would be a lot of fun, and offer the variety players need. It also reduces the repetitiveness of solo chore and mob grinding.