I don't read quest text, not even the first time around unless it's really eye catching about why I am doing a particular thing.
Reading is eating into game time, not to mention other people are playing with you, meaning it's also eating into their game time.
It's why I look forward to SW:TOR. If they do some thing to captivate my attention. I shall reward them giving them the time by watching and listening.
Most quest text is uninspired and thus doesn't deserve my attention nor time. Nor should it be for any one else who isn't interested in reading a poorly put together book online.
Honorable mention goes to Kingdom of Loathing. Not an MMO by many standards, but I read absolutely everything in that game. Even descriptions of random items like ornate ancient cursed key and vial of yellow slime are routinely entertaining.
i stopped reading quest texts when they started to make it long and boring..... if i want to read a LOT to get the story clear i just could read a good book
Soon we will have no txt anymore no time sink instant uberness with godlike character thats what these topics couses its sad but im affraid the truth:(
I read all quests yes, i dont mind time sink, i like building character slowly even over years, dont want anything ingame hold my hand, want total freedom no classes or lvs, open freeroaming world with zero instance:)
I know my reply gave more answers then you ask but thats how i want games to be prolly only one left here on mmorpg but hey im free to speak my mind right?.... hehe.
Games played:AC1-Darktide'99-2000-AC2-Darktide/dawnsong2003-2005,Lineage2-2005-2006 and now Darkfall-2009..... In between WoW few months AoC few months and some f2p also all very short few weeks.
i stopped reading quest texts when they started to make it long and boring..... if i want to read a LOT to get the story clear i just could read a good book
I concur. I'd much rather read about the lore in an actual book, instead of a pixelated window.
I usually don't because it is poorly written. Some exceptions include SOME of the the writing in AoC, most of the writing in FE. I also read a lot of text in Age of Armor because the translations were hilarious.
"Never met a pack of humans that were any different. Look at the idiots that get elected every couple of years. You really consider those guys more mature than us? The only difference between us and them is, when they gank some noobs and take their stuff, the noobs actually die." - Madimorga
I read almost all quests, even though I play a lot of crappy betas and F2P games (I'm one of those rare people who actually DOES play them for free. If I ever start to feel a need to spend money, I immediately quit. ) just to see what kind of stuff is out there.
I'm a pretty fast reader though, and I tend to read EVERYTHING. Billboards, shampoo bottles, receipts, I read the EULA for games sometimes...
I'll just say that the EULA for Starcraft 2 was better written and more interesting than most MMO quest text. Seriously, games have some truly atrocious writing in them. I assume it's because even if a game is high budget, with real writers, they tend to pass off a lot of the non-essential chatter to some lowly intern who barely graduated with an English major.
Of course, I feel that way even about a lot of games that people think have amazing storytelling, like Bioware games.
Even if I find a story interesting, like Planescape: Torment, I find a lot of the random lines stuffed in there to merely be middling writing. It's just the overall story that is interesting, with occasional bright spots.
I very rarely read the full quest text unless it looks like I have to. I'd much rather get the summary and get the quest done. Reading the whole quest text doesn't really change what I'm going to do, or why I'm going to do it. Even when I do read the quest text, I'm just looking for information on what I'm supposed to be doing, not why I'm doing it.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
It depends on the game. I didn't read a lot of quest text in WoW pre cata, but once cata hit I actually read the quests, a lot of them were nice chains with cut scenes and phasing. It is all about the delivery.
I started reading them in the first themepark game I played, but when I came to realise that they were all flowery ways of saying, "Go over there and kill X amount of these.", then I stopped bothering. With the way MMO's are designed now, with arrows pointing you to the quest location and a HUD update telling you what to kill and how many, there really is no point to reading the quest text.
Developers might as well just give you a bunch of tasks when you enter an area, "For bonus XP kill X amount of Y, A amount of B, etc..". Tasks and quests are very different things, shame developers don't realise it.
Week night, only got an hour to play before hitting the sack? Screw reading, I wanna kill something.
Weekend, all caught up on schoolwork, nothing better to do? Goin all out nerd and reading every bit of text that crosses my quest journal.
I'm 47 so I don't have schoolwork, but....the rest of this pretty much applies to me.
I should also add that I generally (within the above parameters) read all of the quest text the FIRST time around. On alts....I read nothing. I'm kind of excited that GW2 will relieve some of that alt laziness for me with the personal story. SWTOR as well will address alt laziness. I think in both cases that will be nice.
Comments
I read the story text.
I always read the quests the first time through.
I was elected to lead, not to read.
Eleanor Rigby.
I don't read quest text, not even the first time around unless it's really eye catching about why I am doing a particular thing.
Reading is eating into game time, not to mention other people are playing with you, meaning it's also eating into their game time.
It's why I look forward to SW:TOR. If they do some thing to captivate my attention. I shall reward them giving them the time by watching and listening.
Most quest text is uninspired and thus doesn't deserve my attention nor time. Nor should it be for any one else who isn't interested in reading a poorly put together book online.
-Azure Prower
http://www.youtube.com/AzurePrower
I have to be honest, as a long time MMO player since 2000, I don't read quest text. Even in EQ, I just look for the bracket, which are quest keywords.
EQ1-AC1-DAOC-FFXI-L2-EQ2-WoW-DDO-GW-LoTR-VG-WAR-GW2-ESO
Honorable mention goes to Kingdom of Loathing. Not an MMO by many standards, but I read absolutely everything in that game. Even descriptions of random items like ornate ancient cursed key and vial of yellow slime are routinely entertaining.
i stopped reading quest texts when they started to make it long and boring..... if i want to read a LOT to get the story clear i just could read a good book
Soon we will have no txt anymore no time sink instant uberness with godlike character thats what these topics couses its sad but im affraid the truth:(
I read all quests yes, i dont mind time sink, i like building character slowly even over years, dont want anything ingame hold my hand, want total freedom no classes or lvs, open freeroaming world with zero instance:)
I know my reply gave more answers then you ask but thats how i want games to be prolly only one left here on mmorpg but hey im free to speak my mind right?.... hehe.
Games played:AC1-Darktide'99-2000-AC2-Darktide/dawnsong2003-2005,Lineage2-2005-2006 and now Darkfall-2009.....
In between WoW few months AoC few months and some f2p also all very short few weeks.
I concur. I'd much rather read about the lore in an actual book, instead of a pixelated window.
Eleanor Rigby.
I usually don't because it is poorly written. Some exceptions include SOME of the the writing in AoC, most of the writing in FE. I also read a lot of text in Age of Armor because the translations were hilarious.
"Never met a pack of humans that were any different. Look at the idiots that get elected every couple of years. You really consider those guys more mature than us? The only difference between us and them is, when they gank some noobs and take their stuff, the noobs actually die." - Madimorga
I read almost all quests, even though I play a lot of crappy betas and F2P games (I'm one of those rare people who actually DOES play them for free. If I ever start to feel a need to spend money, I immediately quit.
) just to see what kind of stuff is out there.
I'm a pretty fast reader though, and I tend to read EVERYTHING. Billboards, shampoo bottles, receipts, I read the EULA for games sometimes...
I'll just say that the EULA for Starcraft 2 was better written and more interesting than most MMO quest text. Seriously, games have some truly atrocious writing in them. I assume it's because even if a game is high budget, with real writers, they tend to pass off a lot of the non-essential chatter to some lowly intern who barely graduated with an English major.
Of course, I feel that way even about a lot of games that people think have amazing storytelling, like Bioware games.
Even if I find a story interesting, like Planescape: Torment, I find a lot of the random lines stuffed in there to merely be middling writing. It's just the overall story that is interesting, with occasional bright spots.
I very rarely read the full quest text unless it looks like I have to. I'd much rather get the summary and get the quest done. Reading the whole quest text doesn't really change what I'm going to do, or why I'm going to do it. Even when I do read the quest text, I'm just looking for information on what I'm supposed to be doing, not why I'm doing it.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
Depends on the writing skill. Rift's dialogue is like reading a really bad fantasy novel that you'd pick up at 7-eleven.
It depends on the game. I didn't read a lot of quest text in WoW pre cata, but once cata hit I actually read the quests, a lot of them were nice chains with cut scenes and phasing. It is all about the delivery.
I skim to the objectives and then carry them out... *yawn*
Emberlord ~ Defiant to the End!
I read them the first time through. On alts I just skip the words.
I started reading them in the first themepark game I played, but when I came to realise that they were all flowery ways of saying, "Go over there and kill X amount of these.", then I stopped bothering. With the way MMO's are designed now, with arrows pointing you to the quest location and a HUD update telling you what to kill and how many, there really is no point to reading the quest text.
Developers might as well just give you a bunch of tasks when you enter an area, "For bonus XP kill X amount of Y, A amount of B, etc..". Tasks and quests are very different things, shame developers don't realise it.
I'm 47 so I don't have schoolwork, but....the rest of this pretty much applies to me.
I should also add that I generally (within the above parameters) read all of the quest text the FIRST time around. On alts....I read nothing. I'm kind of excited that GW2 will relieve some of that alt laziness for me with the personal story. SWTOR as well will address alt laziness. I think in both cases that will be nice.
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club