it's never worth it. especially when you're doing dozens of quests, those half minutes add up fast. i like what neverwinter does in having the quest text voiceover continue after you close out, so you get the flavor without wasting time.
I totally agree but the puzzle thing works so well. Even if they were to have a different icon for a puzzle quest. TSW was onto something with the investigative questing. Back in vanilla wow they had that hammer, for the life of me I can't recall it's name, that unlocked ghazrilla.
The P&P role player in me loved the style so much, thinking, exploring and solving a puzzle. And there is a market for that style. Granted filler quests have little to no appeal, except maybe some lore that has nothing to do with my character. But the voice over while playing is the best way. I think I that is one of the things I liked most about system shock 2.
I just click accept. The only game where I didn't skip the "quest text" was SWTOR because they had dialogues rather than monologues and thus let the player interact with the quest giver.
I read quest text in Everquest and FFXI. In those game some of the quest text was generic and some was really meaningful. The quests for the FFXI expansion pack Chains of Promathia were exceptional. I don't read quests in new games for two reasons. First, the dialog just makes my head spin with how it pretends to be more than it is. It does its best to pretend to not be generic. Second, in new games you generally have a mini map telling you where to go for each quest so it's really just a game of fetch.
It all depends on the first 30-60 minutes of quests. If they seems to have some relevance to my character or have some impact on gameplay then I do. If they don't then I never read them again.
I read almost every PotBS quest I did. Read most of the Fallen Earth quests. I read the TERA quest text but that's because all the references were entertaining. Most MMOs, though, it ends up quickly being of no interest to me.
I'm in the same boat, I give them the benefit of reading the quests for the first few hours of gameplay. If it is poorly written or boring, I just stop.
The Everquest franchise had me reading every single quest. Most were humorous but within the lore. WoW on the other hand varied between boring and childish... so I stopped reading after the newbie zones. I don't mind voice acting if it is done well. Although I prefer ambient voices to voicing on every quest. I am quite happy just to read.
Usually start off reading them, but in recent experiences I stop as I go through the levels. I can only take so much of:
"There's these animals bothering us. But we can't/won't deal with them because Y. Go kill X of them please."
and
"I have this thing that needs to be told/given to this other guy, and I just can't be bothered to go. Go do it for me please."
Before I just get bored of it, and then I quickly skim through it for what Y I need to kill X of and where, or who I take the thing to and where.
My other issue is that I get serious quest fatigue. I'd much rather have 3 very long quest chains, than 20 generic short ones. More like Icewind Dale, Summoner, or to some extent Demon's Souls (yeah, only non MMOs listed v.v).
Of course, if while quickly skimming it for the directions I catch something interesting in the text, I'll stop and read that particular chain.
I generally read most of the quests the first time through. But really, I don't need a big write up every time I'm told to go clear some wolves from a location. After a while, I zone out, but if it's a quest line that is exciting and ramping up to big boss battles or something, I'll generally get a little more excited to do them and read them all the way through it.
So I guess I'm in between. I don't really care about the little tasks that don't contribute much to main story, but big story quests I'll get into.
I haven't read the quest text in years. I've never had any interest in the story and the they now show you exactly where to go on the map. The quest text lost it's real purpose.
There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own. -- Herman Melville
this totally depends upon the game and the nature of the quests in that game. if they it is a well written, well developed story line quest then by all means i will read.
"There are at least two kinds of games. One could be called finite, the other infinite. A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing play." Finite and Infinite Games, James Carse
I try and read or listen, at least the first time through something. I play RPG's for the story and immersion. Having said that, some games just have really bad writing and/or voice overs. GW2 is an example of a game that I stopped bothering with the cutscenes once I realized how crappy they were. I was better off just killing stuff and making up the story in my head.
Same here, trying to read/listen to the story told. But when the story is bad or has nothing to do with the current location/lore, I just press OKAY and check where I have to go. It also depends on the game I play though. If a MMORPG uses an 'X marks the spot' map/quest tracker then I'm more likely to skip the read/listen then when I get clues on where to go from the quest text...
Based on our user interactions with the game, most users don't take the time to read stuff. Even our basic tutorial which is a must for the game, is skipped over by many.
Originally posted by worldalpha Based on our user interactions with the game, most users don't take the time to read stuff. Even our basic tutorial which is a must for the game, is skipped over by many.
Thanks for the insight. And your game looks super cool. Best wishes and much success. I will check it out
One thing about EQ1 quests is you had to read them and enter replies with the keyboard. Yes a lot of spoiler sites let players skip most of it and just enter the key words. But, still, that at the very least required interaction with a fan/gaming site. Anything that promotes community is a very good thing. BTW voiceovers are the devil.
Luckily, i don't need you to like me to enjoy video games. -nariusseldon. In F2P I think it's more a case of the game's trying to play the player's. -laserit
Often quest text are uninteresting because of the format. NPC: BLAHBLAHBLAHYAMMERYAMMERYAMMER PC:ok... ok.. ok... Give me the job.
There was a FUN foundry quest around this in Neverwinter. Some NPC was telling you a story about an evil mage deep in the dungeon along with some "Blah blah blah" in the quest text. You just answer "Kill 10 rats? Got it!" and you move on. Next you meet him again and the same thing all over again. Happens a couple of times (you don't even wonder how the dude is still ahead of you). Quest ends with that NPC in the center of the dungeon telling you that you should have paid attention to his story and you answer "Kill the evil mage... Got it". It was one of the most funny foundry quests I found so far ;-)
Luckily, i don't need you to like me to enjoy video games. -nariusseldon. In F2P I think it's more a case of the game's trying to play the player's. -laserit
Hi. I'm new so I'm sorry if I sound dumb. I have not gamed that much but I learned that if I don't read or listen I might miss a important word that helps figure out what I'm suposed to do. I think the players who run up and leave quick have maybe already played at least one time through the game so they know what they are suposed to do. Grenth be with you!
I'm afraid most quest jargon is annoyingly long. I want a story progression but I would much rather have optional cut scenes than read read read. Plus it's always about something stupid like the reason this farmer wants me instead of his boy to slaughter five hogs and find the missing ring. Who gives a fluck.
I remember in FFXI everything a NPC said meant something, lead to something great or mysterious, or was just flat out interesting. Final Fantasy is the only game I ever played that did NPC dialog well. No other could hold a candle.
Originally posted by Dethany Hi. I'm new so I'm sorry if I sound dumb. I have not gamed that much but I learned that if I don't read or listen I might miss a important word that helps figure out what I'm suposed to do. I think the players who run up and leave quick have maybe already played at least one time through the game so they know what they are suposed to do. Grenth be with you!
This is often true (although I did talk dismissively about quest text earlier in this thread, I do skim text and try to absorb the tone the writer is trying to convey if not all the names and places). Sometimes, once an experienced player has gotten used to how a game plays and how a writer writes, they can anticipate what the quest text will say. In many ways, the tips and arrows and a few emotes by the NPC conveys everything I need to know in a format that is better for the imagination than a block of text.
I'm less of a fan of cutscenes. Because they're an all-or-nothing thing that can't be just skimmed, if I skip them, I'll constantly feel as if I've missed something good but if I watch them, I'll often feel like I just suffered a hit with a paralysis or mind control for a few seconds.
Depends. If all text is displayed on one screen, no scrolling, I will read it. Otherwise, I only read it if the quest is a part of the main story line. Normal quests that are not relevant to the main story are not read by me.
I played WoW up until WotLK, played RoM for 2 years and now Rift. I am F2P player. I support games when I feel they deserve my money and I want the items enough. I don't troll, and I don't take kindly to trolls.
Originally posted by worldalpha Based on our user interactions with the game, most users don't take the time to read stuff. Even our basic tutorial which is a must for the game, is skipped over by many.
Because reading those text is not fun for them. May be if you get John Grisham to write the in-game text ....
Originally posted by Gravarg I was just curious, because it seems like I'm the only one that will sit there and read/listen quests anymore. I noticed people running upto a questgiver, then a second later running off...I don't know if they just picked it up or if they completed it, but either way they had no time to actually read/listen to what the npc had to say. So here's a poll: Do you read the text or just click accept?
I start out reading the quests but unfortunately I only have so much patience for trite sophomoric drivel that these studios churn out.
I just click continue next or whatever.The text is almost 99% of the time meaningless and useless.There seems to be a huge misconception on what justifies a story and imo games are not doing it right.All they are doing is writing out some story like information like reading a book but it actually has nothing to do with the game nor do you ever feel like it does.
When you think about it,why do i need 2-6 paragraphs of text to support me just killing random phased in mobs?We already know before we go into a dungeon what to expect and what we will be doing yet devs create hundreds of lines of text to accomplish the exact same thing.
even worse is when the games which is pretty much ALL of them have your destination marked on the map or via sparkly paths,so why did you pretend a story was needed to accomplish what i already knew?
Now if you want to create a large area and we have to actually think and read the story to decipher clues ,that is different.However we see again that hand holding and the need of about a 5 IQ to complete the task.When there is only 1-3 objects to click,we could easily guess our way through never needing a story.If these objectives inside a game's story actually had several choices with some being fatal,they would serve some purpose.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Comments
@atticusbc
I totally agree but the puzzle thing works so well. Even if they were to have a different icon for a puzzle quest. TSW was onto something with the investigative questing. Back in vanilla wow they had that hammer, for the life of me I can't recall it's name, that unlocked ghazrilla.
The P&P role player in me loved the style so much, thinking, exploring and solving a puzzle. And there is a market for that style. Granted filler quests have little to no appeal, except maybe some lore that has nothing to do with my character. But the voice over while playing is the best way. I think I that is one of the things I liked most about system shock 2.
I'm in the same boat, I give them the benefit of reading the quests for the first few hours of gameplay. If it is poorly written or boring, I just stop.
The Everquest franchise had me reading every single quest. Most were humorous but within the lore. WoW on the other hand varied between boring and childish... so I stopped reading after the newbie zones. I don't mind voice acting if it is done well. Although I prefer ambient voices to voicing on every quest. I am quite happy just to read.
Usually start off reading them, but in recent experiences I stop as I go through the levels. I can only take so much of:
"There's these animals bothering us. But we can't/won't deal with them because Y. Go kill X of them please."
and
"I have this thing that needs to be told/given to this other guy, and I just can't be bothered to go. Go do it for me please."
Before I just get bored of it, and then I quickly skim through it for what Y I need to kill X of and where, or who I take the thing to and where.
My other issue is that I get serious quest fatigue. I'd much rather have 3 very long quest chains, than 20 generic short ones. More like Icewind Dale, Summoner, or to some extent Demon's Souls (yeah, only non MMOs listed v.v).
Of course, if while quickly skimming it for the directions I catch something interesting in the text, I'll stop and read that particular chain.
I generally read most of the quests the first time through. But really, I don't need a big write up every time I'm told to go clear some wolves from a location. After a while, I zone out, but if it's a quest line that is exciting and ramping up to big boss battles or something, I'll generally get a little more excited to do them and read them all the way through it.
So I guess I'm in between. I don't really care about the little tasks that don't contribute much to main story, but big story quests I'll get into.
There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own.
-- Herman Melville
"There are at least two kinds of games.
One could be called finite, the other infinite.
A finite game is played for the purpose of winning,
an infinite game for the purpose of continuing play."
Finite and Infinite Games, James Carse
Same here, trying to read/listen to the story told. But when the story is bad or has nothing to do with the current location/lore, I just press OKAY and check where I have to go. It also depends on the game I play though. If a MMORPG uses an 'X marks the spot' map/quest tracker then I'm more likely to skip the read/listen then when I get clues on where to go from the quest text...
Thanks,
Mike
Working on Social Strategy MMORTS (now Launched!) http://www.worldalpha.com
Thanks for the insight. And your game looks super cool. Best wishes and much success. I will check it out
One thing about EQ1 quests is you had to read them and enter replies with the keyboard. Yes a lot of spoiler sites let players skip most of it and just enter the key words. But, still, that at the very least required interaction with a fan/gaming site. Anything that promotes community is a very good thing. BTW voiceovers are the devil.
Luckily, i don't need you to like me to enjoy video games. -nariusseldon.
In F2P I think it's more a case of the game's trying to play the player's. -laserit
There was a FUN foundry quest around this in Neverwinter. Some NPC was telling you a story about an evil mage deep in the dungeon along with some "Blah blah blah" in the quest text. You just answer "Kill 10 rats? Got it!" and you move on. Next you meet him again and the same thing all over again. Happens a couple of times (you don't even wonder how the dude is still ahead of you). Quest ends with that NPC in the center of the dungeon telling you that you should have paid attention to his story and you answer "Kill the evil mage... Got it". It was one of the most funny foundry quests I found so far ;-)
Ha. Pretty awesome. Too funny.
Luckily, i don't need you to like me to enjoy video games. -nariusseldon.
In F2P I think it's more a case of the game's trying to play the player's. -laserit
I do it all for Grenth!
facebook-Dethany Black
I'm afraid most quest jargon is annoyingly long. I want a story progression but I would much rather have optional cut scenes than read read read. Plus it's always about something stupid like the reason this farmer wants me instead of his boy to slaughter five hogs and find the missing ring. Who gives a fluck.
I remember in FFXI everything a NPC said meant something, lead to something great or mysterious, or was just flat out interesting. Final Fantasy is the only game I ever played that did NPC dialog well. No other could hold a candle.
I just click accept.
Only exception: The Secret World.
This is often true (although I did talk dismissively about quest text earlier in this thread, I do skim text and try to absorb the tone the writer is trying to convey if not all the names and places). Sometimes, once an experienced player has gotten used to how a game plays and how a writer writes, they can anticipate what the quest text will say. In many ways, the tips and arrows and a few emotes by the NPC conveys everything I need to know in a format that is better for the imagination than a block of text.
I'm less of a fan of cutscenes. Because they're an all-or-nothing thing that can't be just skimmed, if I skip them, I'll constantly feel as if I've missed something good but if I watch them, I'll often feel like I just suffered a hit with a paralysis or mind control for a few seconds.
( oh, and welcome to the mmorpg party
)
I played WoW up until WotLK, played RoM for 2 years and now Rift.
I am F2P player. I support games when I feel they deserve my money and I want the items enough.
I don't troll, and I don't take kindly to trolls.
Because reading those text is not fun for them. May be if you get John Grisham to write the in-game text ....
I start out reading the quests but unfortunately I only have so much patience for trite sophomoric drivel that these studios churn out.
http://www.speedtest.net/result/7300033012
I usually just click accept.... then when I see a timer start !
THEN it's like oh Shit ! I need to read what to do and quick ! haha
I also will read personal Q's but still just hit accept .. read later ..maybe...
I just click continue next or whatever.The text is almost 99% of the time meaningless and useless.There seems to be a huge misconception on what justifies a story and imo games are not doing it right.All they are doing is writing out some story like information like reading a book but it actually has nothing to do with the game nor do you ever feel like it does.
When you think about it,why do i need 2-6 paragraphs of text to support me just killing random phased in mobs?We already know before we go into a dungeon what to expect and what we will be doing yet devs create hundreds of lines of text to accomplish the exact same thing.
even worse is when the games which is pretty much ALL of them have your destination marked on the map or via sparkly paths,so why did you pretend a story was needed to accomplish what i already knew?
Now if you want to create a large area and we have to actually think and read the story to decipher clues ,that is different.However we see again that hand holding and the need of about a 5 IQ to complete the task.When there is only 1-3 objects to click,we could easily guess our way through never needing a story.If these objectives inside a game's story actually had several choices with some being fatal,they would serve some purpose.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.