Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
General: Quests that Suck
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
In his latest column, MMORPG.com's own Coyote Sharptongue turns his laser gaze at the quest system in most MMOs. That's right: Those quests that "suck", to put it succinctly. See what Coyote has to say about quests and what makes some of them so crappy. Let us know what you think in the comments.
I’ve found that in my many, many, MANY wasted years of playing video games and losing myself in the world of RPGs, that there are several types of quests that not only suck, but take away from the immersion while slowly driving you insane with frustration and rage. They’re tired, overused mechanics that can make a fun game annoying, and while there are too many examples to list without making this article a novel, here are a few of the most common.
Read more Coyote's Howling: Quests That Suck.
)
Comments
It's one of those things I just can't take much more of tbh. I think playing RIFT in beta put me over the edge. You don't need me to fucking pick flowers, go pick your own flowers. There's nothing heroic about picking flowers 5 feet away from some jackass, or having to go replay message to some drone standing 10 feet away. It's not heroic, it's not "quest", it's just stupid. I pitty the fools who actually try to take the time to read these things. How many different ways can you tell someone to pick 5 flowers before they just spam click through it or want to take a bath with their toaster.
EDIT: Oh ya, fuck escort quests too. Nothing is worse than 20 people waiting in line for the next guy to finish walking some derp through a field full of hungry lions. It's a bottleneck, it isn't fun, and frankly we'd be doing the world a favor if we just let the guy get eaten.
TwitchTV Partnered Streamer
MMORPG.com Spotlight Blog Writer
Co-Leader of Inquisition
Youtube Channel
Yeah, I agree. More thought has to be put into quests, that is for sure. Less quests, make them more meaningfull and have them expand into campagins like PnP does, that would be a good start.
Regarding the article, I have to vehemently agree with the bit about escort quests, but only because the AI/scripting is so awful. In one game you'll have them walking as slowly and leisurely as possible throughout the entire quest, in others they run like Kenyans into large packs of mobs and draw more and more of them until there's no possible chance of saving them. It's idiotic.
By and large, I'm just tired of questing as a means of leveling period. It was fun when quests were few and far between because even if they were kill x# of whatever or fedex it was a break in the monotony of straight mob grinding and usually the quest chain led to something really interesting lorewise or a unique, useful piece of gear. Today themeparks are so saturated with quests it all just feels like a task/chore.
Quests can be okay if they are useful, like as part of an unobtrusive (.i.e, Immersive) tutorial. They can be useful in the sense that by doing them, you learn something about how to play the game. They orient you to places, enemy types, gathering abilities, etc., and they are...I know but please bear with me..."realistic" within the game world.
And you should get something that makes you feel like it was worth your time and effort to do the thing they asked you to do. Like if you get some ore for a crafter, you get some gold and or some useful items in barter.
Then the quests would be story related and driving the story forward or you go into a sandbox, depending on the game.
And yes, I hate escort quests and usually skip them if I can.
An interesting followup article might be a top 5 or top 10 quests that DON'T suck. Just curious to see what types of quests people (or you) enjoy most.
"Gypsies, tramps, and thieves, we were called by the Admin of the site . . . "
I agree partly on the escort quests. Yeah I hate them as much as the next guy, but in LotRo there are some decently done escort quests, and in fact, mostly the ones you escort walk pretty fast AND fight along side (and sometimes die because of that...). Yeah, I won't pickup an escort quest telling me to find someone. But when I'm in the open and can pick one up, I will.
And yeah... The thing that made RIFT big. Pick 5 flowers that are at my feet or say 'Hi' to the dude 3 feet away from me really kill things for me. That's just LAME!
BTW, being back in LotRo, I still gotta say that quests there are well done and contribute toward the story. Though we all know the story told, I still read it all. And with the a build-in quest helper turned off, finding people, locations or objects is a task itself.
Kill 10 rats. >_>
In Fallout 3, you can kill both Pete and Mike. You can pickpocket them first as well. Then you can set off the nuke sitting in the middle of their town and erase the whole stupid mess from the world.
Wouldn't work in an MMORPG though....there'd be nothing but a bunch of radioactive holes in the ground by the time the 10th player showed up in the game.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
There are two escort quests in LOTRO I hate - the sheep and the raven - I swear they should give us an option to sit down and eat mutton chops with the goblins. And the raven is absolutely ridiculous - why are you rescuing a bird that can fly and is stuck in the out of doors?
That said I really enjoy the book quests with Legolas and Gimli, they are absolutely insane.
My very least favorite quests are the ones where you need to collect drops off critters that don't always drop the item you need to collect.
As far as the item goes - here's an interesting exercise - go look at all characters inventories (including vault space) and contemplate what cleaning them up will take. Begin the attempt, get frustrated, leave game for a bit, come back and wonder what in the world were you doing? All your characters are a mess and you need an empty vault somewhere to get just one with enough inventory room to go out and play. Dump everything off of one character wherever you can get it to fit and play for a while, leave game, come back and wonder why all your character inventories (including vault space) are a mess except the one character you don't feel like playing.....
I hate escort quests as well - except one. The Tomba quest in WOW is the exception. You have to escort this huge, worried turtle (talk about slow!) from one end of Tanaris to the other. But when you get him to his mate all the pain is worth it - she starts yelling at him. Definitely the best escort quest ever!
The original Divine-O-Matic quest in WoW, before it was nerfed.
One comment: Robot chicken in Tanaris. *sigh*
With Cata it's probably long gone.
one of the worst offenders in this is LOTRO , I have never seen more kill 10 boars or bears quests in my entire life and I am 57 years old, just plain lazyness
The only escort quests I can tolerate are in UO.
Generally though, I hate all quests. I'd much prefer a game like Wurm or Xsyon or anything else with no quests at all, or very few quests that are easily bypassed.
Exactly what he said. Nailed it!
Any quest that tells me I need to go collect 10 of something or I have to run fedex quest totally turns me off about the game.
All of this is why I haven't played an MMO since I played RIFT and threw up after a week. With the exception of SWTOR, and only because it's made by Bioware and is Star Wars, I won't play a MMORPG where quest grinding is the way to level cap. I like doing quests, but "quests" in MMORPG qualify as chores and/or idiotic tasks.
nuff said
Personally, I don't mind the "go kill 25 mobs". Neither I mind "Go talk to that guy".
But escort quest ? Omg, if I can skip that I will do it for sure. They are the most annoying thing ever.
The worst ? 99% of the time THE NPC ARE WALKING INSTEAD OF RUNNING.
Move you ass you lazy NPC !
as much as i hate the " go kill 20 rats " then after you do that they give you another saying " go get 50 rat tails " #%^#% why didnt that stupid npc just give me both of those quest at once??
the ones i hate the very most though are the, go take this note half way around the world to some npc just to have him hand you a box to go back half way around the world and hand it to another npc. since when did a MMO turn into working for UPS? these NPCs need f-ing cell phones im playing a video game not working for the post office.
Though i do doubt you will get to read that Coyote, this site needs more people (professionally engaged i mean) than you, and less William Murphies. Thanks for the read once more
Ah, Coyote's in fine form. I'll never think of ogres in quite the same way again -- that was a big effin' flashlight.
Another fun yet disturbing read, thanks Coyote! Escort quests was the first thing I thought of when I read the title, especially in pvp games or on pvp servers. Nothing like rolling a stealthy, then having everyone know where to AoE thanks to the strolling escortee.
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
~Albert Einstein