No we don't. Look, at how many people complained they just spacebarred there way through SWTOR, they didn't care anymore about the storyline when voice acted than when having to read it.
Why? It's simple really, it's due to the fact there's quest helpers everywhere directing them right to their target.
Remove off them and make it so the quest text actually provides the instructions and clues they player needs to actually complete the mission and they'll have to care a lot more about what is written or said.
Otherwise you're correct, no real need to waste a lot of cash on story
unfortunately many people who play mmo's seem to suffer from ADD and just dont have the patience to listen to a story but other people do so games like tera are made for ADD people and games like SWTOR are made for those of us who dont have ADD
I disagree about text boxes not fitting into the medium. I also disagree about voice acting being better than text. There is a good reason that many games from companies like Nintendo don't have vocal characters. It can detract from immersion when suddenly that surly big guy has a voice that makes you laugh rather than fear him. Plus it adds dramatically to the cost which causes the quality of the other game parts to go down (see SWTOR)
In my mind you should be free to create your own story in a game. You can't be the hero when everyone else is the hero, and your opponent is the hero, and your all destined to be the best just like everyone else. The story isn't whats really important in the game, its the lore which should encourage you to seek out your own story and carve a place for yourself in that world.
We shouldn't be arguing about people reading text, we should be arguing why the Quests on Rails design has become such a prevelant design that people will do anything to speed it up to get onto other things.
The development cost argument is the only one that holds weight.
Text is not the preferred method of communication in face-to-face discussion. So clearly voiceacting is preferable when it comes to immersion.
Basically the only non-UI text which can exist in a game without breaking immersion is in Skyrim-style books. (Even then it's a little flimsy for the fact that the majority of people couldn't even read in historic medieval societies.)
As for making your own story, good luck with that. From Ultima 3 to Mass Effect 3, videogame RPGs have never strongly been about creating your own story. It's just not the right medium for the sort of instant story creation that can exist in a tabletop RPG setting.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
I disagree about text boxes not fitting into the medium. I also disagree about voice acting being better than text. There is a good reason that many games from companies like Nintendo don't have vocal characters. It can detract from immersion when suddenly that surly big guy has a voice that makes you laugh rather than fear him. Plus it adds dramatically to the cost which causes the quality of the other game parts to go down (see SWTOR)
In my mind you should be free to create your own story in a game. You can't be the hero when everyone else is the hero, and your opponent is the hero, and your all destined to be the best just like everyone else. The story isn't whats really important in the game, its the lore which should encourage you to seek out your own story and carve a place for yourself in that world.
We shouldn't be arguing about people reading text, we should be arguing why the Quests on Rails design has become such a prevelant design that people will do anything to speed it up to get onto other things.
The development cost argument is the only one that holds weight.
Text is not the preferred method of communication in face-to-face discussion. So clearly voiceacting is preferable when it comes to immersion.
Basically the only non-UI text which can exist in a game without breaking immersion is in Skyrim-style books. (Even then it's a little flimsy for the fact that the majority of people couldn't even read in historic medieval societies.)
As for making your own story, good luck with that. From Ultima 3 to Mass Effect 3, videogame RPGs have never strongly been about creating your own story. It's just not the right medium for the sort of instant story creation that can exist in a tabletop RPG setting.
When you want to convey information and have the receiver remember it, Texts is the preferred communication method.
Lets say you want to give someone your phone number, would you say it to them or would you write it down for them. Which one would the people rememember the most? Also when you are dealing with language barriers text is far easier in most cases because it gives the person more time for it to sink in, and accents do not matter as they do in spoken word.
No we don't. Look, at how many people complained they just spacebarred there way through SWTOR, they didn't care anymore about the storyline when voice acted than when having to read it.
Why? It's simple really, it's due to the fact there's quest helpers everywhere directing them right to their target.
Remove off them and make it so the quest text actually provides the instructions and clues they player needs to actually complete the mission and they'll have to care a lot more about what is written or said.
Otherwise you're correct, no real need to waste a lot of cash on story
unfortunately many people who play mmo's seem to suffer from ADD and just dont have the patience to listen to a story but other people do so games like tera are made for ADD people and games like SWTOR are made for those of us who dont have ADD
If a story requires you to be patient in order to sit through it then chances are it's not a very good one...
I am fine with text, and I do not think VO stuff, like in TOR is worth it...I could see main stories being done, but general quests, I think the money would be better used on improving the game itself....I skim text, and spacebar VO stuff (then read the summary..aka text)...
If you commit to VO, you commit to spending more money, and if you have a budget, the money comes out of other improvements imo...A lot of stuff was not in TOR when it released, that they said would be in soon after, if they didn't do the VO stuff, I imagine it would of been in at launch, and their 1.2 patch may of been the release state or better...Then you may of just been getting 1.3 content, instead of 1.2...
I don't buy this emmersion stuff either, as in VO content, you still move the mouse, and select from 2-3 choices...It isn't like you can do what you want, and in the end, it is usually about the same anyway imo. I guess you could take VO further and start having it voice reactant, and AI to decipher and figure out how to respond to someone, but at this level, not worth it imo.
Big difference between "can't" read & "can't be bothered" to read.
I think that if people cannot read, perhaps as a sight-impaired person whereby regular visuals are okay but text causes them problems (such as some forms of vision impairment or dyslexia) then voiced quests help those to enjoy the game much better, & for those unwilling to read the text can be useful.
I think that the problem with voiced text is the "waiting for it to finish so I can carry on doing stuff" part, if only 1 quest is given then having the narrative to it read out to you while you move to the quest area, or fight your way to the destination required makes more sense than putting everything on hold while you listen, standing there doing nothing while you listen is "anti-gamer" having the narrative run on as you move & fight is a bit more movie-like.
Quest text is fairly cheap to produce though, that's why it's still relevantm the Art of it is in making it pertinent & entertaining without being overly dragged out, a summary at the top before the main body helps, those who want to immerse can choose & those who do not don't miss out on important points.
Quest text bores the heck out of me......I can't remember the last time I ever enjoyed reading it in a game and 99.9% of the time its completely worthless anyway......Just click accept, run to the first area you see outside of town, kill the monsters there and voila you will have completed almost every quest in most games today.
and the more the text becomes voice-acting with interesting decisions the better.
Actually, no. That makes things worse, not better. For those who actually care about the storyline, 30 seconds of reading quest text sure beats 3 minutes of watching an NPC explain why you need to kill 10 rats.
When you want to convey information and have the receiver remember it, Texts is the preferred communication method.
Lets say you want to give someone your phone number, would you say it to them or would you write it down for them. Which one would the people rememember the most? Also when you are dealing with language barriers text is far easier in most cases because it gives the person more time for it to sink in, and accents do not matter as they do in spoken word.
Every game with voice-acting also tracks quest text in the UI somewhere.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
and the more the text becomes voice-acting with interesting decisions the better.
Actually, no. That makes things worse, not better. For those who actually care about the storyline, 30 seconds of reading quest text sure beats 3 minutes of watching an NPC explain why you need to kill 10 rats.
Axe: "Voice-acting with interesting decisions is good."
Quizzical: "You're wrong, voice-acting without interesting decisions is bad!"
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
Just download your quest helper, hurry up and click through that guy with the "!", Follow the arrow on your map and check your tooltip against the mobs and start killing.
once the tooltip goes from 0/10 to 10/10, return to the guy.
Just download your quest helper, hurry up and click through that guy with the "!", Follow the arrow on your map and check your tooltip against the mobs and start killing.
once the tooltip goes from 0/10 to 10/10, return to the guy.
Why devote resources to generic quest text (that in recent years has become more of an outlet for endless popculture references, puns and inside jokes than actual quality writing), in graphical MMOs as a content delivery system at all?
To me, quest text in the WoW-clones has always come off as an attempt to dress up tedious gameplay and justify bland mechanics, while *never* adding anything to my personal story. I enjoy opportunities to discover more about a games lore, probably more than the average player (one of my Skyrim characters for example is dedicated to obtaining at least one copy of every book in game, and I've fully read all I've come across), but using text to explain why my adventurer is being forced to click 10 flowers doesn't make it anything other than picking 10 flowers.
Relying on text to forcibly instill a sense of purpose will never compete with a players instinctual purpose. We have a graphical representation of these (mostly) 3D worlds, invest in using that world and environment to drive players and let the story unfold that way rather than investing in more cheesey low brow popculture jokes - they're nowhere near as effective. Luckily it looks like GW2 has come to the same conclusion.
I can't even count how many games, indie or triple A, that had me logging out within the first ten minutes because of introductory text that did nothing but convince me they were using quest text because that's how it's been done, rather than because it was an ideal tool to convey certain ideas that weren't easy to capture in a 3D representation, and that they were struggling to find anything worth saying, yet included it because that's how WoW did it.
You've probably seen the type, they're usually something like 'Roflmao, Johnny needs you to bring him his lucky hat. He's in the next room, newbie LOL. He'll give you a newb sword for making kills!'. Yeah, good bye. Quest text either convinces me that even the people making the game were struggling to fill in the quest text, they didn't take their game seriously (so why should I?), or they flat out had no talent (technically proficient programmers being forced to fill in the text seems pretty common despite the fact that they have little to no writing experience or ability in this field.).
Disposable quest text as motivation is something that will likely fade away as technology continues to evolve, and it can't happen soon enough. There will still be room for truly worthy texts that convey lore or history within a game for those of us that enjoy seeking those things out, but the goals that these cheesey walls of text and endless puns are trying to reach can be better delivered through other means.
You make a very poignant truth Valkaern. Eventually, in our very near future, quest text will be obsolete. GW2 is doing something very interesting with that. Swtor took a nice leap of faith with eliminating it as well. Honestly, just like Tera has ruined traditional combat mechanics for me, Swtor has killed my desire to read the quests and I know GW2 will bury that desire 6 ft deep..
So those of us that do read the text can answer the lazy fools in general chat later on.
What's to ask? Most games are so simplistic that they mark the map to show you where to go for the quest, sometimes with a mouse-over on the map icon that has a one-liner tooltip telling you what you have to do. I haven't seen a challenging quest in the last 12 years!
and the more the text becomes voice-acting with interesting decisions the better.
Actually, no. That makes things worse, not better. For those who actually care about the storyline, 30 seconds of reading quest text sure beats 3 minutes of watching an NPC explain why you need to kill 10 rats.
Actually it's a matter of perspective. There is no yes or no about it in a universal sense. Not to mention IMO a kill 10 rat quest is as boring a thing whether it's text or voice.
@Axe';s reply below this (Post 35), I caught that as well .
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
When you want to convey information and have the receiver remember it, Texts is the preferred communication method.
Lets say you want to give someone your phone number, would you say it to them or would you write it down for them. Which one would the people rememember the most? Also when you are dealing with language barriers text is far easier in most cases because it gives the person more time for it to sink in, and accents do not matter as they do in spoken word.
Every game with voice-acting also tracks quest text in the UI somewhere.
Yeah exactly, this information is usually stored in a little feature called a quest journal.
I guess that is still a new thing to games heh.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
I don't mind text. After all, I read through the thread up to this point.
The problem I have is that the text is often poorly written, poorly translated, shallow, doesn't make any sense and really boils down to collecting twenty bear asses anyway.
Just download your quest helper, hurry up and click through that guy with the "!", Follow the arrow on your map and check your tooltip against the mobs and start killing.
once the tooltip goes from 0/10 to 10/10, return to the guy.
This post pretty much says it all, doesnt it.
I am not saying this is how I want it. But I am admitting this is how I do it now.
Truth is, we've all been there and done it.
People don't want someone else's story. They want their own. Their game played over time shoudl tell the story.
Geez....another thread created that is attempting to negatively stereotype those that enjoy something the OP doesnt. Who wudda thunk it?
Why do games add that fucked up Uncle Owen centric loot? Or make empty parking lots so folks can build houses? Or how about the means to grief others?
Should we stereotype these folks, and say if they werent so fucking stupid, they could actually learn a trade in real life. Or if they werent 16 yr old virgins, they wouldnt feel the need to grief others in game.
Nope....once again it is simply what a person enjoys, and it takes an <expletive omitted to avoid ban> to suggest otherwise.
Asking Devs to make AAA sandbox titles is like trying to get fine dining on a McDonalds dollar menu budget.
So those of us that do read the text can answer the lazy fools in general chat later on. What makes it fun though is to relay misinformation and make them waste even more time trying to complete select quests. Although that doesn't work as well anymore since there are quest helpers in most MMOs now, but in the past it was too funny when misleading others.
I always said that MMORPGs do not require Quests (at least not so many), it is a waste of development time.
They should implement more sandbox features in the games and just few MEANINGFUL main storylines, the rest of the content should be made by players.
I love RPGs and when I play the single player ones (Skyrim, Dragon Age, Mass Effect) I read all the quests.
In MMORPG I skip all of the reading, and if I can all the quests alltoghetr, as long there is enough group content.
MMORPG players who "love" quests and stories should stick with single player RPGs, maybe developers will stop creating MMOs which are played for 1 or 2 months only.
So those of us that do read the text can answer the lazy fools in general chat later on. What makes it fun though is to relay misinformation and make them waste even more time trying to complete select quests. Although that doesn't work as well anymore since there are quest helpers in most MMOs now, but in the past it was too funny when misleading others.
LOL. I think that the OP is mistaken about how few people read the text for quests. I'd guess it's around 40%, depending on the game, the quality of the writing and the amount of text.
Seeing as how the vast majority of people who play WoW are children...
I really don't believe your "40%".
Any real evidence to suggest this imaginary number?
My belief is based on real evidence of the overwhelming amount of people I've talked to who all countlessly click through quests ASAP and never read them, not to mention the hundreds of conversations people themselves start saying how they never read the quest text, void of any influence from me.
Geez....another thread created that is attempting to negatively stereotype those that enjoy something the OP doesnt. Who wudda thunk it?
Rash assumptions from an ignorant person. I don't think I ever stated my own preference or opinion a single time in this thread. In fact, I merely stated that I, a roleplayer, often don't read the text. I never stated I did not enjoy it when I did, the reasons I skip the text, or if I had a desire or not to abolish writers in MMORPG's.
Typically the OP of many threads starts a conversation, not to discuss his own beliefs and force others in check with a closed mind, but to start interesting conversation and listen to other people's opinions or thoughts on the matter. This is often done through different tactics or strategies to get responses out of people.
Needlessly gloating and pretending to be intelligent by sarcastically predicting someone who you arrogantly think is predictable...is simple childish at best. I'm sorry, but fail. Total fail.
If you would like to know my opinion, simply ask. Assumptions never do anyone good, especially if you're looking for evidence to support your assumptions. (Assumptions are not evidence enough to support your other assumptions, just in case you thought differently...)
Negatively stereotype? The only people I negatively stereotype are those who refuse to read. Since you assume I, the OP, do NOT enjoy reading quest text ("something the OP doesnt [enjoy]") I assume that you think I'm negatively stereotyping the readers and the more intelligent, mature roleplaying crowd. Quite the opposite of reality indeed....
Might I suggest re-reading the Original Post and making sure you void yourself of all assumptions first?
This is not about written delivery of content vs. VO delivery of content, but the fact that developers seem to think that every single quest need to fit a vast cosmic purpose in the game, and that's why one starts separating filler quest description (either written or displayed) from actual content.
I do not need an awesome backstory (either delivered in written form or through a dialogue) for an NPC to tell me at the end “go and kill those ten rats”. When WoW's Cataclysm expansion came out I decided to resub only to see what they had done with quests, and pretty much all of them were still that same format: an NPC telling me how me killing those 10 rats will help them in the research for some magnificent poison for the destruction of all life. The same happens in SWTOR, every single quest is riddled with some supposedly incredible backstory in order for me to be this super-hero developers think everysingle quest should make me feel.
In recent years the only RPG that has managed to do things a bit different is Skyrim. Yes, there are those incredible quests in my search to become powerful, but there are also down to earth quests “do you need some work?” that do not tell me how I am the Deathbringer, more like “hey, go and tell that guy to leave me alone and I'll pay you money”.
But in MMOs the rule developers seem to follow is “every quest is a chance to prove you are the main story's Hero”” and that's one of the reasons why I think people just simply skip over them.
One of the reasons, but not the most important.
The most important imo is that people do not want immersion. People want a game, they want to be gamers, not geeks/nerds who know lore and explore and RP.
Comments
unfortunately many people who play mmo's seem to suffer from ADD and just dont have the patience to listen to a story but other people do so games like tera are made for ADD people and games like SWTOR are made for those of us who dont have ADD
The development cost argument is the only one that holds weight.
Text is not the preferred method of communication in face-to-face discussion. So clearly voiceacting is preferable when it comes to immersion.
Basically the only non-UI text which can exist in a game without breaking immersion is in Skyrim-style books. (Even then it's a little flimsy for the fact that the majority of people couldn't even read in historic medieval societies.)
As for making your own story, good luck with that. From Ultima 3 to Mass Effect 3, videogame RPGs have never strongly been about creating your own story. It's just not the right medium for the sort of instant story creation that can exist in a tabletop RPG setting.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
When you want to convey information and have the receiver remember it, Texts is the preferred communication method.
Lets say you want to give someone your phone number, would you say it to them or would you write it down for them. Which one would the people rememember the most? Also when you are dealing with language barriers text is far easier in most cases because it gives the person more time for it to sink in, and accents do not matter as they do in spoken word.
If a story requires you to be patient in order to sit through it then chances are it's not a very good one...
I am fine with text, and I do not think VO stuff, like in TOR is worth it...I could see main stories being done, but general quests, I think the money would be better used on improving the game itself....I skim text, and spacebar VO stuff (then read the summary..aka text)...
If you commit to VO, you commit to spending more money, and if you have a budget, the money comes out of other improvements imo...A lot of stuff was not in TOR when it released, that they said would be in soon after, if they didn't do the VO stuff, I imagine it would of been in at launch, and their 1.2 patch may of been the release state or better...Then you may of just been getting 1.3 content, instead of 1.2...
I don't buy this emmersion stuff either, as in VO content, you still move the mouse, and select from 2-3 choices...It isn't like you can do what you want, and in the end, it is usually about the same anyway imo. I guess you could take VO further and start having it voice reactant, and AI to decipher and figure out how to respond to someone, but at this level, not worth it imo.
Quest text bores the heck out of me......I can't remember the last time I ever enjoyed reading it in a game and 99.9% of the time its completely worthless anyway......Just click accept, run to the first area you see outside of town, kill the monsters there and voila you will have completed almost every quest in most games today.
Actually, no. That makes things worse, not better. For those who actually care about the storyline, 30 seconds of reading quest text sure beats 3 minutes of watching an NPC explain why you need to kill 10 rats.
Every game with voice-acting also tracks quest text in the UI somewhere.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
Axe: "Voice-acting with interesting decisions is good."
Quizzical: "You're wrong, voice-acting without interesting decisions is bad!"
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
Who cares?
Just download your quest helper, hurry up and click through that guy with the "!", Follow the arrow on your map and check your tooltip against the mobs and start killing.
once the tooltip goes from 0/10 to 10/10, return to the guy.
This post pretty much says it all, doesnt it.
You make a very poignant truth Valkaern. Eventually, in our very near future, quest text will be obsolete. GW2 is doing something very interesting with that. Swtor took a nice leap of faith with eliminating it as well. Honestly, just like Tera has ruined traditional combat mechanics for me, Swtor has killed my desire to read the quests and I know GW2 will bury that desire 6 ft deep..
What's to ask? Most games are so simplistic that they mark the map to show you where to go for the quest, sometimes with a mouse-over on the map icon that has a one-liner tooltip telling you what you have to do. I haven't seen a challenging quest in the last 12 years!
Actually it's a matter of perspective. There is no yes or no about it in a universal sense. Not to mention IMO a kill 10 rat quest is as boring a thing whether it's text or voice.
@Axe';s reply below this (Post 35), I caught that as well
.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
Yeah exactly, this information is usually stored in a little feature called a quest journal.
I guess that is still a new thing to games heh.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
I don't mind text. After all, I read through the thread up to this point.
The problem I have is that the text is often poorly written, poorly translated, shallow, doesn't make any sense and really boils down to collecting twenty bear asses anyway.
a text isnt enough nowadays, even a voice quests (like Swtor) ...for normal questing i mean, i dont care why this farmer need me to kill 10 rats...
however cutscene of the farm invaded by rats, and the farmer asking me for help , and telling me why needs help...
example :
Aion - yellow quests , usually a cutscene
FFXI- all the missions and important quests had a cutscene.
thats how u can make me read the "quest" involving my char into it.
other than that....yeah skip skip skip
The right way to do it. - Quests/VO/CS for the major story line/abilities/skills. Saving money for actual game play.
The wrong way to do it - Quests/VO/CS for every single quest. Wasting time and money and ignoring actual game play.
I am not saying this is how I want it. But I am admitting this is how I do it now.
Truth is, we've all been there and done it.
People don't want someone else's story. They want their own. Their game played over time shoudl tell the story.
Geez....another thread created that is attempting to negatively stereotype those that enjoy something the OP doesnt. Who wudda thunk it?
Why do games add that fucked up Uncle Owen centric loot? Or make empty parking lots so folks can build houses? Or how about the means to grief others?
Should we stereotype these folks, and say if they werent so fucking stupid, they could actually learn a trade in real life. Or if they werent 16 yr old virgins, they wouldnt feel the need to grief others in game.
Nope....once again it is simply what a person enjoys, and it takes an <expletive omitted to avoid ban> to suggest otherwise.
Asking Devs to make AAA sandbox titles is like trying to get fine dining on a McDonalds dollar menu budget.
lol, nice :P
This guy wins this thread.
Seeing as how the vast majority of people who play WoW are children...
I really don't believe your "40%".
Any real evidence to suggest this imaginary number?
My belief is based on real evidence of the overwhelming amount of people I've talked to who all countlessly click through quests ASAP and never read them, not to mention the hundreds of conversations people themselves start saying how they never read the quest text, void of any influence from me.
Rash assumptions from an ignorant person. I don't think I ever stated my own preference or opinion a single time in this thread. In fact, I merely stated that I, a roleplayer, often don't read the text. I never stated I did not enjoy it when I did, the reasons I skip the text, or if I had a desire or not to abolish writers in MMORPG's.
Typically the OP of many threads starts a conversation, not to discuss his own beliefs and force others in check with a closed mind, but to start interesting conversation and listen to other people's opinions or thoughts on the matter. This is often done through different tactics or strategies to get responses out of people.
Needlessly gloating and pretending to be intelligent by sarcastically predicting someone who you arrogantly think is predictable...is simple childish at best. I'm sorry, but fail. Total fail.
If you would like to know my opinion, simply ask. Assumptions never do anyone good, especially if you're looking for evidence to support your assumptions. (Assumptions are not evidence enough to support your other assumptions, just in case you thought differently...)
Negatively stereotype? The only people I negatively stereotype are those who refuse to read. Since you assume I, the OP, do NOT enjoy reading quest text ("something the OP doesnt [enjoy]") I assume that you think I'm negatively stereotyping the readers and the more intelligent, mature roleplaying crowd. Quite the opposite of reality indeed....
Might I suggest re-reading the Original Post and making sure you void yourself of all assumptions first?
This is not about written delivery of content vs. VO delivery of content, but the fact that developers seem to think that every single quest need to fit a vast cosmic purpose in the game, and that's why one starts separating filler quest description (either written or displayed) from actual content.
I do not need an awesome backstory (either delivered in written form or through a dialogue) for an NPC to tell me at the end “go and kill those ten rats”. When WoW's Cataclysm expansion came out I decided to resub only to see what they had done with quests, and pretty much all of them were still that same format: an NPC telling me how me killing those 10 rats will help them in the research for some magnificent poison for the destruction of all life. The same happens in SWTOR, every single quest is riddled with some supposedly incredible backstory in order for me to be this super-hero developers think everysingle quest should make me feel.
In recent years the only RPG that has managed to do things a bit different is Skyrim. Yes, there are those incredible quests in my search to become powerful, but there are also down to earth quests “do you need some work?” that do not tell me how I am the Deathbringer, more like “hey, go and tell that guy to leave me alone and I'll pay you money”.
But in MMOs the rule developers seem to follow is “every quest is a chance to prove you are the main story's Hero”” and that's one of the reasons why I think people just simply skip over them.
One of the reasons, but not the most important.
The most important imo is that people do not want immersion. People want a game, they want to be gamers, not geeks/nerds who know lore and explore and RP.
Don Quixote's Delusions