quests (as we know them in the mmo space) are inherently boring because its just a todo list of mundane chores. they are pretty much all easily achievable, and just a matter of time spent completing the mundane steps.
MMOs should be channeling "adventure games", where the things you are asked to do (and things you CAN do that nobody ASKS you to do, but are setup for you to discover and do all on your own *gasp*) are things you have to figure out. a solution has to be figured out. like an "adventure game" puzzle. yes, something that actually takes thinking, real life mental skills.
you can find different inventory items (independent of a quest dialog box) that can be used on other interactive objects or stationary points in the game to open up new areas, or solve "quests".
"adventure games" are all about these kind of cool interactions and yet they don't keep throwing up quest boxes in your face that you have to page through and click through, and that destroy the feeling of interacting with a game world, with game controls (instead you're interacting with a 2D GUI in a totally different immersion breaking manner).
yeah, get rid of the quest dialogs while you're at it.
WoW did the escort thing right with Old Hillsbrad dungeon..where Thrall actually stops off to get an axe and shield then steals a horse to move things along faster.
I never understand though why if you are some powerful archmage and usually can teleport entire groups of people across the world, you are unable to teleport yourself and <-insert random prisoner here-> to the nearest village.
With every village having a magical mailbox why the hell do you need the fed-ex style quests for anything less than a secret missive for the king??
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
I'm not a huge fan of quests, but I have to say that they have been getting better over the years. Blizzard focused on better quests with its most recent expansions to WoW, and I have to say that they are an improvement, if only marginally; they have more interesting stories, some interesting scripted events, and so forth.
And Blizzard owes us some good quests, because they made what is beyond all doubt the worst quest ever: Nothing But the Truth. Long will that quest stand as the worst quest designed in any MMORPG, ever. It wasn't the "collect 10 of this" (although it had that), or the "run somewhere on the other side of the world for no real reason" (although it also had that), or the insultingly weak reward item for an insanely hard quest (although it also had that). No, it was the collecting of an item with a 3% [sic] drop rate off a rare spawning high-level elite which virtually required a group to take down, of which there was only but one in existence at any one time, and which ranged across the entirety of a zone on the other side of the world from the questgiver. I would be very surprised if more than two or three people ever completed that quest.
There are too many "worst quest design" candidates to mention, but other than the "stupidly low drop rate off elite mobs" design, I would also nominate the "kill x mobs in the part of the dungeon that no other players ever want to go into because the loot stinks" (e.g., pretty much all the quests for all the level 60 dungeons in vanilla World of Warcraft).
My biggest pet peeve with Quests is those stupid find a bunch of crap on the ground the give them to me... I don't care how nobel the task is, I still feel like manuelabor that a slave, droid, or guy from out side homedepot could have done.
And then in mid quest while killing 2 mobs that were surrounding 5/90 item of supidity you need some ********* decides he needs to jack your crap.
Comments
quests (as we know them in the mmo space) are inherently boring because its just a todo list of mundane chores. they are pretty much all easily achievable, and just a matter of time spent completing the mundane steps.
MMOs should be channeling "adventure games", where the things you are asked to do (and things you CAN do that nobody ASKS you to do, but are setup for you to discover and do all on your own *gasp*) are things you have to figure out. a solution has to be figured out. like an "adventure game" puzzle. yes, something that actually takes thinking, real life mental skills.
you can find different inventory items (independent of a quest dialog box) that can be used on other interactive objects or stationary points in the game to open up new areas, or solve "quests".
"adventure games" are all about these kind of cool interactions and yet they don't keep throwing up quest boxes in your face that you have to page through and click through, and that destroy the feeling of interacting with a game world, with game controls (instead you're interacting with a 2D GUI in a totally different immersion breaking manner).
yeah, get rid of the quest dialogs while you're at it.
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Corpus Callosum
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WoW did the escort thing right with Old Hillsbrad dungeon..where Thrall actually stops off to get an axe and shield then steals a horse to move things along faster.
I never understand though why if you are some powerful archmage and usually can teleport entire groups of people across the world, you are unable to teleport yourself and <-insert random prisoner here-> to the nearest village.
With every village having a magical mailbox why the hell do you need the fed-ex style quests for anything less than a secret missive for the king??
Quests that Suck
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
I'm not a huge fan of quests, but I have to say that they have been getting better over the years. Blizzard focused on better quests with its most recent expansions to WoW, and I have to say that they are an improvement, if only marginally; they have more interesting stories, some interesting scripted events, and so forth.
And Blizzard owes us some good quests, because they made what is beyond all doubt the worst quest ever: Nothing But the Truth. Long will that quest stand as the worst quest designed in any MMORPG, ever. It wasn't the "collect 10 of this" (although it had that), or the "run somewhere on the other side of the world for no real reason" (although it also had that), or the insultingly weak reward item for an insanely hard quest (although it also had that). No, it was the collecting of an item with a 3% [sic] drop rate off a rare spawning high-level elite which virtually required a group to take down, of which there was only but one in existence at any one time, and which ranged across the entirety of a zone on the other side of the world from the questgiver. I would be very surprised if more than two or three people ever completed that quest.
There are too many "worst quest design" candidates to mention, but other than the "stupidly low drop rate off elite mobs" design, I would also nominate the "kill x mobs in the part of the dungeon that no other players ever want to go into because the loot stinks" (e.g., pretty much all the quests for all the level 60 dungeons in vanilla World of Warcraft).
My biggest pet peeve with Quests is those stupid find a bunch of crap on the ground the give them to me... I don't care how nobel the task is, I still feel like manuelabor that a slave, droid, or guy from out side homedepot could have done.
And then in mid quest while killing 2 mobs that were surrounding 5/90 item of supidity you need some ********* decides he needs to jack your crap.
Worst sort of quests EVER: 'Collet 500 wood for me, just so I can freakin' piss your grinding ass off.'