SWTOR class stories. That's pretty much it though (Haven't played ESO or TSW). Although I did like parts of the Worgen starting area and some of the WOTLK quests.
I think GW2 had a decent idea that didn't go nearly far enough to make it feel like a living/changing world though. All of the events were scripted and cycled.
I thought Runescape had some of the best quests I've ever played. They were ingaging, various, intriguing and many were difficult and had their stories.
Age of conan had some quests here and there that were decent, but other than that they were skipped.
SWTOR had some good quest dialog and some interesting concepts, but utimately I eneded up skipped quite a few because my BH would say "I never met a jedi that can dodge a blaster" over and over. Probably 2nd best questing.
The Secret World is the only mmorpg out there that makes me read the quests' story. I didn't skip a single dialogue or cutscene. This game deserves more than what it has achieved.
They are not ranked in any order. It just depends on what you like.
Elder Scrolls Online
The Secret World
Star Wars the Old Republic
These are story quests, so I'm not talking about any grinding in between.
ESO felt less grindy from 1-50, but somehow the Cadwell's silver and gold felt different (and not in a good way) though the quests themselves were fine. Doing the quests themselves never felt like a grind to me (the first time through, but woe to those who are want to roll alts). Great writing and voice acting, except for the fact that too many voice actors were recycled. No cut scenes.
TSW stories were great, too. There are some unforgettable characters and mostly awesome writing and voice acting. Cut scenes.
SWTOR, same set up as TSW, but to me the planetary quests and grinding mobs was a horrifying grind to get to the good chunks of story.
The similar downside of all three of these games with the reliance on story quests is that it's a bummer for leveling alts. It doesn't feel like so much of a grind the first time through, but after that, it's pretty tough going.
This is a flawed question. You cannot have a game with hundreds of quests and have every quest be interesting. The only reason people look back on classic EQ for its amazing quests is because there were so few of them that they HAD to be epic legendary quests that felt just as much.
The only way you're going to find a non-bias answer to this question be yes is if the game has a very low amount of over all quests like classic EQ. Other games with hundreds/thousands of quests, the best answer you're going to get for those are "there are a few quests that are awesome". But as you continue to do hundreds of quests, and eventually do the various quest types multiple times while leveling, they start to bleed together and lose their luster.
If we look at this question as what makes a quest good?
A good quest in MMO gives you these things:
- a good story or reason as why you're required to do the quest (slight scripting is ok, voice-overed cut-scenes are not).
- a reason to explore (a.k.a travel) your surroundings (so you don't just stay in the starter village).
- a reason to kill mobs either directly of indirectly (they will give you gold, gear, exp, crafting mats, etc as a bonus).
- a reason to interact with other players (ask them for help, make a group for some common goal, trade items, etc.)
- a nice reward in the end, that has some value to your character (other than vendor it for gold)
Last time i played a game where all these points were true, was about ten years ago. Modern quest design is almost entirely the opposite of my list here. No wonder i can't find a decent MMO for my taste.
Also, there are way too many quests in MMOs these days. You really grind quests in these modern games.
One thing i've thought a lot lately is randomly generated quests that are placed upon the character creation. Like there was a certain number of quests in total from 1-max and those quests were allocated randomly to somewhere in the world for you to find. This would give more replay value for your alt characters, and your gaming experience would be different every time you create a new character. One of the reasons for some people to dislike 'questing' and 'leveling up' is the fact that you've done it few times already, and you know where to go and what to find.
Originally posted by Maurgrim Book quests in LOTRO handsdown, no other MMO has manage to create such a long and interesting quest chains.
Too bad for every book quest, there's about 70 garbage quests/chores you have to do first, and they all involve killing the same reskinned wolves every few levels.
And it's too bad those quests are entirely instanced, shattering immersion.
Originally posted by dreamscaper
Originally posted by Arazale
This is a flawed question. You cannot have a game with hundreds of quests and have every quest be interesting. The only reason people look back on classic EQ for its amazing quests is because there were so few of them that they HAD to be epic legendary quests that felt just as much.
TSW manages this just fine.
Not really. The quality quests that exist in TSW only exist in singleplayer instances, and are few and far between. They're not good in an MMO setting.
The Secret World's quests kept my interest for quite a while, I have to say. The quests in other games are the usual formulaic "Kill 10 wolves" or "Take this and deliver it to X" and bore me almost as soon as I start them. On the other hand I have no idea what game designers could replace this ancient cliche of game design with.
They are not ranked in any order. It just depends on what you like.
Elder Scrolls Online
The Secret World
Star Wars the Old Republic
These are story quests, so I'm not talking about any grinding in between.
ESO felt less grindy from 1-50, but somehow the Cadwell's silver and gold felt different (and not in a good way) though the quests themselves were fine. Doing the quests themselves never felt like a grind to me (the first time through, but woe to those who are want to roll alts). Great writing and voice acting, except for the fact that too many voice actors were recycled. No cut scenes.
TSW stories were great, too. There are some unforgettable characters and mostly awesome writing and voice acting. Cut scenes.
SWTOR, same set up as TSW, but to me the planetary quests and grinding mobs was a horrifying grind to get to the good chunks of story.
The similar downside of all three of these games with the reliance on story quests is that it's a bummer for leveling alts. It doesn't feel like so much of a grind the first time through, but after that, it's pretty tough going.
Very well said. I agree completely.
I think most MMO's have good, interesting quests. It all depends if you're "into" the game and the lore, if you're not interested in the backstory and just looking for the next highlight spot on the map, then all mmo questing is horrible. I have actually found myself doing this in game I'm bored with or recycling.
I remember questing in EQ where you would actually have to respond with key words to further the quest conversation....I like it that way, keeps the player involved.
Since OP didn't reply to my question, I'll just tackle it from both sides:
GAMEPLAY:
An MMO quest needs to gather people around, giving you shared reasons to fight common enemies, to gather and to coexist. With that said, they mustn't be instanced(no-no!) and they must be at least duo-able(heh :P). They must be more like lore than defacto story. Immersing, but not engulfing. With that said:
1. EQ1/2 2. WAR 3. TSW
STORY:
This is quite intuitive. This category is defined by the flow of story, how good they engulf you, how memorable their characters/plots are. The drive to just want to see it through is important here. Instances don't really matter, but they actually help here:
1. Swtor 2. TSW 3. GW Nightfall
So top5:
1. Swtor 2. TSW 3. GW Nightfall
4. EQ2
5. WAR
I dislike LoTRO because it is segmented into clearly visible grind/story segments. Some actually like it that way. Plus a wee too many instances.
People understimate WAR. It had bugs, it was unsupported. But the quests did send you to shared places, there were PQs which were very innovative at the time. Those very same PQs came in solo, small group and group varieties. Quite a good, but sadly abandoned MMO quest concept. Very nicely written as well. Shame.
Oh man, Guild Wars. Main stories were, hands down, the best stories I've played in ORPG, and the fact the whole game was group-based was cool too.
I'm still having nightmares about that image, though.
For me they start of interesting... SWTOR and TSW... but in the end I just want to say to them "get to the point and tell me what you want me to do". So I just space bar my way through. Which is why I try to avoid quest driven MMOs as I just don't enjoy them anymore.
The class quests in SWTOR were for the most part pretty good. Most of the random zone quests were standard boring MMO quests with voice overs.
Even though EQ1 hard hardly any quests, some of the ones it did have were IMO among the best ever in an MMO: class epics (1.0 and 2.0), Coldain Ring, Shawl, etc, were really well done.
A major limitation to quests in most MMORPGs is the limitation of how the player can interact with the world. For the most part, players can move about, combat things (including beneficial buffs/heals), loot inactive objects, talk to NPCs and craft objects. There are few options to allow the player to 'interact' by 'watching', or 'digging' or 'racing' or 'climbing'.
Quests often rely on the narrative context of the quest to overcome these limitations, having the player fetch a shovel and move to the next step of the quest, instead of helping bury the grieving NPC's dead husband. So, the quality of the writing is very important in building an interesting quest. (See the Ladywraith quest chain in PWI for an example of how writing can help overcome the limits of game mechanics).
Another issue is the fact that all quests must be repeatable (by multiple players). The same NPC's father is sick and needs the same medication, with the same results and rewards. There are few repercussions for decisions that the player makes, and abandoning a quest (breaking an implied promise to an NPC) has no negative effects. Forgetting about the quest to find 8 different flowers for brewing the special medicine should result in a dead father and a quest-giver that no longer completely trusts the player.
Quests would be more interesting with the addition of some simple things: completion timers, partial completion rewards/repercussions, wider result trees (in code for the NPCs), failures, and long-term consequences. Then again, people would need to read the text of the quest, and be interested in that substory in the game world, not just be looking for the XP/loot and the next mission.
Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.
Another issue is the fact that all quests must be repeatable (by multiple players). The same NPC's father is sick and needs the same medication, with the same results and rewards. There are few repercussions for decisions that the player makes, and abandoning a quest (breaking an implied promise to an NPC) has no negative effects. Forgetting about the quest to find 8 different flowers for brewing the special medicine should result in a dead father and a quest-giver that no longer completely trusts the player.
Why is that an issue? That is exactly the same as single player games where the same story is played by millions. As long as I don't see you going through the same story, there is no problem (i.e. instances).
But for me the Dark Elves and their quest in Warhammer Online were very dark, and sadistic for the most part. They were truly some evil fuckers.
And then surprisingly enough Pirates of the Burning Sea. Those quests wernt written for a thirteen year olds reading level. And for the most part they were all well written. I actually enjoyed reading them and looked forward to each new port. Didnt matter if I was Pirate or National.
Most of what you get nowadays is at a young-teen level. Although ESO is somewhat of an exception. As it does play at adult humor and situations in some instances.
"I understand that if I hear any more words come pouring out of your **** mouth, Ill have to eat every fucking chicken in this room."
Spent about a year and a half playing The Secret World, it's funny too because my friends who were used to the normal grindy bs that's out there actually said to me that it was boring so I guess it's just perspective. Honestly though, The Secret World and AGe of Conan and I'm not Funcom fanboy. Good luck
Comments
SWTOR class stories. That's pretty much it though (Haven't played ESO or TSW). Although I did like parts of the Worgen starting area and some of the WOTLK quests.
I think GW2 had a decent idea that didn't go nearly far enough to make it feel like a living/changing world though. All of the events were scripted and cycled.
I thought Runescape had some of the best quests I've ever played. They were ingaging, various, intriguing and many were difficult and had their stories.
Age of conan had some quests here and there that were decent, but other than that they were skipped.
SWTOR had some good quest dialog and some interesting concepts, but utimately I eneded up skipped quite a few because my BH would say "I never met a jedi that can dodge a blaster" over and over. Probably 2nd best questing.
MMOs that tried to make quests like single player RPG:
Secret World , SWTOR
MMOs that have good quest writing / lore:
LOTRO, Neverwinter
MMOs that simply have good instanced quests with dungeons and storylines:
DDO, GW2
The only "good quests" in themeparks I've ever heard of, are the ones that are 100% instanced and structured like a singleplayer game.
Aka, useless in an MMO. TSW was developed as a singleplayer game initially and it shows. All the good parts of the game are solo/instanced.
The only decent quests, in terms of immersion and "making sense" that I can remember recently is Vanguard.
"you are like the world revenge on sarcasm, you know that?"
One of those great lines from The Secret World
They are not ranked in any order. It just depends on what you like.
TSW manages this just fine.
Another vote for TSW.
To bad the game mechanics were so frustrating. It could have been huge.
not really a quest
but i enjoyed Guild Wars prophecy missions story
I enjoyed WOW's Duskwood quest series for Stitches -- great quest story
http://www.wowwiki.com/Abercrombie
EQ2 fan sites
If we look at this question as what makes a quest good?
A good quest in MMO gives you these things:
- a good story or reason as why you're required to do the quest (slight scripting is ok, voice-overed cut-scenes are not).
- a reason to explore (a.k.a travel) your surroundings (so you don't just stay in the starter village).
- a reason to kill mobs either directly of indirectly (they will give you gold, gear, exp, crafting mats, etc as a bonus).
- a reason to interact with other players (ask them for help, make a group for some common goal, trade items, etc.)
- a nice reward in the end, that has some value to your character (other than vendor it for gold)
Last time i played a game where all these points were true, was about ten years ago. Modern quest design is almost entirely the opposite of my list here. No wonder i can't find a decent MMO for my taste.
Also, there are way too many quests in MMOs these days. You really grind quests in these modern games.
One thing i've thought a lot lately is randomly generated quests that are placed upon the character creation. Like there was a certain number of quests in total from 1-max and those quests were allocated randomly to somewhere in the world for you to find. This would give more replay value for your alt characters, and your gaming experience would be different every time you create a new character. One of the reasons for some people to dislike 'questing' and 'leveling up' is the fact that you've done it few times already, and you know where to go and what to find.
Too bad for every book quest, there's about 70 garbage quests/chores you have to do first, and they all involve killing the same reskinned wolves every few levels.
And it's too bad those quests are entirely instanced, shattering immersion.
Not really. The quality quests that exist in TSW only exist in singleplayer instances, and are few and far between. They're not good in an MMO setting.
I agree. The Prophecies campaign was above average, even by single player standards.
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
Very well said. I agree completely.
I think most MMO's have good, interesting quests. It all depends if you're "into" the game and the lore, if you're not interested in the backstory and just looking for the next highlight spot on the map, then all mmo questing is horrible. I have actually found myself doing this in game I'm bored with or recycling.
I remember questing in EQ where you would actually have to respond with key words to further the quest conversation....I like it that way, keeps the player involved.
Oh man, Guild Wars. Main stories were, hands down, the best stories I've played in ORPG, and the fact the whole game was group-based was cool too.
I'm still having nightmares about that image, though.
Best quests in any game ever (imo): The Secret World.
Second best, a select few from vanilla WoW, and especially the one that ties into the WotLK xpac.
The class quests in SWTOR were for the most part pretty good. Most of the random zone quests were standard boring MMO quests with voice overs.
Even though EQ1 hard hardly any quests, some of the ones it did have were IMO among the best ever in an MMO: class epics (1.0 and 2.0), Coldain Ring, Shawl, etc, were really well done.
A major limitation to quests in most MMORPGs is the limitation of how the player can interact with the world. For the most part, players can move about, combat things (including beneficial buffs/heals), loot inactive objects, talk to NPCs and craft objects. There are few options to allow the player to 'interact' by 'watching', or 'digging' or 'racing' or 'climbing'.
Quests often rely on the narrative context of the quest to overcome these limitations, having the player fetch a shovel and move to the next step of the quest, instead of helping bury the grieving NPC's dead husband. So, the quality of the writing is very important in building an interesting quest. (See the Ladywraith quest chain in PWI for an example of how writing can help overcome the limits of game mechanics).
Another issue is the fact that all quests must be repeatable (by multiple players). The same NPC's father is sick and needs the same medication, with the same results and rewards. There are few repercussions for decisions that the player makes, and abandoning a quest (breaking an implied promise to an NPC) has no negative effects. Forgetting about the quest to find 8 different flowers for brewing the special medicine should result in a dead father and a quest-giver that no longer completely trusts the player.
Quests would be more interesting with the addition of some simple things: completion timers, partial completion rewards/repercussions, wider result trees (in code for the NPCs), failures, and long-term consequences. Then again, people would need to read the text of the quest, and be interested in that substory in the game world, not just be looking for the XP/loot and the next mission.
Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.
Why is that an issue? That is exactly the same as single player games where the same story is played by millions. As long as I don't see you going through the same story, there is no problem (i.e. instances).
I know Im late to the discussion.
But for me the Dark Elves and their quest in Warhammer Online were very dark, and sadistic for the most part. They were truly some evil fuckers.
And then surprisingly enough Pirates of the Burning Sea. Those quests wernt written for a thirteen year olds reading level. And for the most part they were all well written. I actually enjoyed reading them and looked forward to each new port. Didnt matter if I was Pirate or National.
Most of what you get nowadays is at a young-teen level. Although ESO is somewhat of an exception. As it does play at adult humor and situations in some instances.
"I understand that if I hear any more words come pouring out of your **** mouth, Ill have to eat every fucking chicken in this room."