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Is quest grinding worse than MOB grinding?
Creslin321
Member Posts: 5,359
I've played a good portion of the big MMORPGs released recently, and it seems like the majority of them implement the WoW "quest hub" model for leveling. Meaning that the leveling experience is primarily going from area to area, picking up the quests, doing them, rinse and repeat.
I know that they are doing this to reduce the "grind" of just killing MOBs for exp, and make the leveling experience more enjoyable. But to tell you the truth...I kind of prefer the old method of just grinding MOBs at this point.
At least when I grinded MOBs I could generally decide where to go, what MOBs to grind, what kind of grinding I would do etc. etc. I was actually driving my experience.
But with quest grinding...it just feels like I am running errands and I have hardly any control whatsoever. The novelty of the quest "story" dies down pretty fast since there are so many of them, and pretty soon it just feels like "go here, kill him." "Okay you're done? Now go here bring this guy this item." "Done that? Okay now go over here, put on this item, and kill this guy."
Over and over and over...
Personally, I would much rather just kill MOBs.
What do you guys think? Has quest grinding gotten to the point where MOB grinding is preferable?
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All else being equal I would just grind mobs. Unfortunately grinding quests is much more efficient and gets your character better equipment.
I think they should remove all the rewards from quests (XP, money and gear) that way both style become equally viable.
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I prefer what I'm doing to have something to do with what I'm trying to get.
When I'm leveling a character, I prefer questing. The idea is that your character is exploring the world, growing in power and learning new things, so questing seems to fit this pretty well.
Now, at "max level", for alternative advancement, I still like questing, but only if it directly relates to what I'm trying to achieve. In WoW, the daily quests for tokens or whatever were preferable to just mob grinding, but at the same time, I killed tons of those two headed trolls to get the faction rep to be able to buy a Talbuk. I guess what prefer is the option to do both, depending on my mood at the time.
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I'd much rather do mob grinding either solor or group(even more preferred) aka old Lineage 2(and others) than questing. Given that they were same exp. Questing requires a pretty active role and is basically illusion that you're doing something, for me I never read quest text as I'm just trying to accomplish leveling quickly. I also prefer no level cap too, sometimes.
When you grind with a group you're able to actually be social as opposed to focusing on an instance or set of quests and then proceding to run all over the world to turn in quests. If you have to afk you can generally just sit or follow someone in your group and vice versa.
I completely agree. I don't hate questing. But I do hate being FORCED to do questing ALL of the time. I would much rather just do whatever I feel like, and still be rewarded. It would give the game much more variety.
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I think a lot of the newer games overdo it with quests. A good example is Wildstar. There's just way too many quests and it makes all of them feel meaningless. I would prefer it if games just made long quest chains with a good story that take you all over the world. And you can only pick up like one or two quests at a time.
Maybe have something similar to Skyrim where taverns serve as kind of a quest hub. You ask the bartender if they've heard any rumors and they tell you about such and such so you have to seek that person out to start the quest. The taverns would also serve as kind of a social hub if you want to group up with other players or just chill in the tavern and interact with people.
This is a very good point.
And maybe the problem is that all the quests are so short and rapid-fire that they feel like meaningless errands. I feel like a robot getting a quest, following arrow, returning in a very formulaic fashion that lasts like 7-10 minutes each time. These aren't quests...these are tasks.
I would really like a quest that felt like a QUEST. Make it long-term, difficult to solve, involve lots of PvE. And like you say, have the quest take your everywhere...but not in a "run errands" fashion. Have the player organically figure out what they need to do for the next part of the quest and go on an adventure.
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If talk about MMORPG design wise , mob grind are better than quest grind .
Mob grind natural better than quest grind at multiplayer design .
Even if the quest require group (multiplayer) , when it end , the group disband . But in mob grind , the group have longer live span which build up the relationship between player and lead to better community which very importance for multiplayer game.
The difference of player's level also give quest grind bad point.
For example , at mob grind you and your party only have same goal as killing mobs the level may difference but you still able to join party level 70 at level 67 ,
but it impossible for quest grind .
Your quests give difference goals than other player so "multiplayer" option are out of question.
Also , in mob grind , people share things (exp) , but at quest , there are no share in reward so ... It a worst nightmare for MMORPG.
And as OP said , you get more chose options in MOB grind than quest grind.
As for "if mob grind are better , why developer don't use it anymore" logic.
IMO , currents MMORPG are make to get more singleplayer players , they goal are sell boxes , not for keep the game live long and strong .
So quest grind are better design chose in this case .
But it don't change the true that MOB grind are better chose for multiplayers game than quest grind .
Quests are nice to have some break when you solo or have some fun with your friend , but grind quests isn't good .
Grind mobs are better .... because they respawn lol .
I used to enjoy questing but now I've moved into the MOB grinding side of the fence.
With quests I find myself caring less about what the quest is about and more the reward. "OK, you want me to kill 10 rats. No I don't care why, just tell me how much you are going to pay me." Or, "So you want me to rescue the virgin from the tower, how much is the reward and does she have to be a virgin when I bring her back? No I don't care about your sob story, show me the money."
Now that I think of it, my favorite two MMOs have been mob grinders. Runescape and Guild Wars. Guild Wars more so on farming a variety of creatures/areas.
Quest hubs are just so strict and boring. Theyre never any good on the storylines and in the end it's all the same thing. Until this is gone and reinnovated I'll probably never enjoy an MMO again.
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Well, it depends of course. Quest grinding can get really bad as well if there are 50 delivery quests or boring escort quests going on that give you shit rewards.
But overall, I'd still say quests are the way to go if you really have a grind ahead of you. Quests give you intermediate goals, it's more fun to look forward to a huge bulk of XP coming in if you're walking back to a town with 10 completed quests. They also tend to take you around the zone and SOMETIMES, in some games, have interesting content and story.
There are some points to be made for mob grinding. For me it would be that you're more free to go your own way and that you get more crafting mats that way. Finally, it might actually be more immersive to get "experience" by slaying and fighting against beasts than to do a menial task for some random farmer.
However, out of experience I know that in most mob grinders the above never applies. It's just not how grinding is done effectively. People will always look for one place with the mobs that die fast while giving you decent XP and stick their ass on the ground there to grind while ignoring everything else.
Better than either would be a game where you level up in an alternative way altogether, without grinding involved.
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The problem with quest grinding for me is basically everyone is doing it alone. After a while, I just get burnt out and get bored playing by myself just doing quests. If you force grouping in quests, I feel it'll be less boring.
I think remove only XP are good enough to create the balance .
The gears reward don't seem needed because it get old soon so it easy become trash , in my opinion cosmetic item (rare design hats , clothes ) are better for collection than gears.
As for gears , you can buy it from NPC ... because player don't buy gears from them ... they become poor since players keep sell but don't buy .
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I'm still on the quest train. Maybe it's from years of mob grinds, I just can't get it out of me. Although, in today's MMO's mob grinding might not be all that bad, leveling is MUCH faster than it used to be. So if you're a newer MMO player, you probably haven't had your soul devoured by real mob grinding.
The reason people hated mob grinding was because it truly was a grind. I see people in the ESO forums complaining that leveling through VR content will take 300 hours. Well, how would you like to spend 300 hours grinding the same two mob types to get one level? That's what mob grinding used to be and why everyone flocked to quest based system.
And you didn't have the option of picking up quests to break the monotony, you would just plant yourself in one area for days and weeks and just kill the same mobs day in and day out. That's kind why they call it grinding. Cause it was a grind.
Now days, I can see it being more popular considering you can just hit level cap in a few weeks instead of 6 months - year. In the newer, faster paced leveling, maybe mob grinding should be referred to as plain old mob killing, because that mind numbing grind doesn't really exist. If it did, this thread wouldn't exist because very few people actually enjoyed it.
I've been playing this single player game "Kingdom of Amalur" recently. The quests do guide you along, but it still feels fairly fun enjoyable. I really like the lore that goes along with the norse mythology. It also allows you to do the quests in whatever order you choose. It would be a decent base for a MMORPG IMO.
With that said I come from Ultima Online and Everquest "originally". I prefer to be able to pick and choose where I go and what I kill. It makes it feel like I may be somewhere I shouldn't be and I might pay for that, but I also might reap rewards that someone else isn't. It is a quest of sorts in that way. I believe it's only a grind if you play the game that way. Most people want to get to max level so they will just grind and not explore. I fell pray to that as well. I didn't take my time and enjoy all the places you could go in EQ. I just went to the safest and most efficient grind spot. This was after my first character "Half Elf Ranger" that I was trying to roleplay, but got a bit frustrated that I couldn't solo past a certain point. I also prefer the static loot tables with specific mobs dropping specific things. I realize this makes people camp certain mobs, but you have to find them first.
Most of my game time will be spent gathering various materials for crafting and I include drop components like hides in that so leveling through mob grind is the ideal option for me. I don't even notice the level factor when I am harvesting. I just level. I usually see quests as addition things I must do to level because I am going to harvest from Mobs anyway.
As so many others have pointed out, the real trouble is games seem bent on forcing one or the other.
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The problem I have with quest for most games (though ESO and The Secret World are a bit better at this) is that you aren't doing much of anything but running.
Running here, doing "some" combat and running back only to do that the rest of the evening means that most of your gameplay is running.
I have no interest in that.
Personally, I just want a huge open world and mobs to kill and a bit of pvp sieging and I'm happy.
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The only game I've ever played that forced me to do something wad the starting area of swtor.
Generally though I prefer quests. GRinding mobs becomes boring much quicker for me than quests.
It's mostly preference.
I prefer MOB grinding because at least leveling is on my terms, i can choose what to kill and where and exploring matters. The downside is any developer oversights can cause players to grind on the same monster in the same spot for 10 levels.
Both, and more. Why do we quest or grind mobs? To gain xp, money and more. If only one of those are optimal to obtain those, then it'll get annoying have to do them all the time.
For example, i love pvp in any game, but if an mmorpg didn't offer me other way to gain xp or gold, that'd be terrible. Abit of everything, with some others still providing a good amount.
As for which one i prefer, neither much. TSW's Inv. missions are awesome because they're puzzles. Most quests revolve around fighting mobs and bosses, but with a story added for immersion's sack. If it's another themepark, questing is usually better, but my above post still remains. Options, options, options.
Questing is fun once a while, but when I enter in a town and I see 10 quests, I want to die. Daily/Weekly are even worst for me. I can live with 1 quest at time, but nothing more.
I prefer killing monster than questing.