I want to do a post about questing. I want to express my frustration about how killing 20 wolves to collect 5 pieces of wolf meat is just plan silly. How you get to the end of a quest chain only to stand in line, like buying groceries on a snow day, behind all the other players in the zone waiting to kill one boss you need to collect the blue reward item that every other same level warrior or healer is going to be wearing or wielding.
Or how, when your grouped with friends,
you still have to collect a quest item for each person in the group. Making the questing 3 or even 4 times longer and it feels like your standing still instead of moving up the leveling ladder. Making the grouping experience seem more of a hassle and pain instead of a fun social happening.
Spawn rates for mobs and quest items are either to slow or too fast and it never seems to match the current server population. How quests are misleading or not 100% clear on how they get completed or to whom the completed quest gets turned into.
I want to express my lack of interest when a completed quest rewards me with a useless book of game enhanced lore or an item my class can't even use or wants. How collecting 10 of anything to bolster favor with a merchant in town is extremely tedious and silly when the game clearly defines my character as a hero of this virtual world right on the box.
Heroes don't deliver milk or sandwiches. They don't kill rats or collect spider eggs. We don't have long conversations about our role in this virtual world.
As soon as developers realize that we are heroes and not errand boys, then they will have completed the biggest quest of all, to create the next generation of MMOs.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPod
I'm enamoured with the idea of the Epic Quest .. something roughly equivalent in effort and activity to doing a huge quest chain, but without it being sliced and diced into so many small parts.
ReplyDeleteIt should be something that is persistent in your quest log for days and possibly weeks, reminding you that you're a big damn hero on a big damn journey, not some damned errand boy.
This post is great at pointing out quests that are flawed. I agree on most points. I'd like to see a list of the types of quests that are successful. I just played the goblin areas of WoW and was completely blown away by how entertaining it was.
ReplyDeleteDevelopers need to think like a character in their world and ask, why does this person do what he/she does? What would seem heroic to him/her and how can I make this quest incorporate something unique for them to decide whether or not they should do? Heroism is choosing to be different for a good (or if you are an anti-hero a bad) cause, not mindlessly clicking accept buttons for phat loot.
ReplyDelete@Anton - I really didn't start out trying to trash all the current quest mechanics. I actually like a few of those types of quests, I just feel that at times, they don't think a lot of them through, like giving everyone the exact same choices for armor for the same quest or matching quest reward items up for randoms to the class that have no use for them.
ReplyDeleteFor my 16.00 a month + game purchase of 60.00 I want better. I don't need more, I just want better. Don't make me turn in 10 unidentified plants 30 times to get my faction up with Bobo the druid. He shouldn't still find me neutral after hanging out with him and running 10 errands, he should freaking be my best man at my wedding. lol
It just needs to be better. If you want us at end game fine, if you want us to hang out in the world and grind so we can see your world, fine, but make the time their more valuable. Don't have us beat our head against the wall till you feel you can trust us, especially when 10 million other characters are waiting in line to earn your trust as well.
I need it to be better. Thats all.
@Thallian - You my friend should be a quest game developer because you get it. thats all I'm asking for something different, something unique. If you want me to be the epic hero your box declares I will be, then treat me like a Hero, don't have me fetch water from a well to water a plant just so I can harvest it and give someone a flower. Come on man. It needs to give me reason other than phat loot to help this person.. sure I don't mind watering the plant, but don't have me do it so I can upgrade a pair of boots... give me a better reason.
ReplyDelete