4/07/2011

The Quest to Design a Quest

I've been reading alot of blogs on an mmo's poor delivery of the traditional quest format.

Quests have been around for ages. One can think of the most mundane RL task as a 'quest'. It doesn't need to be glamorous or glitzy, a quest needs to be completed to get a reward.
I don't understand why each new mmo needs to break the mold of the current delivery of quests. What do you want changed?
More lore?
Honestly, people are not going to read it; people want to know where to go, what to kill/do, and know what is the reward.
I make the honest attempt whenever I play a game to get into the lore and know the whole story, but eventually all I want to do is know where to go and complete it and get my experience and reward. I dont want to spend my time reading, or even listening to what the story is about.
Maybe its a trait i've picked up from my work; I filter out 90% of what people call in for, listening to only the critical parts of the conversation and getting a fast resolution to them.

If questing was changed, so it was all voice-overed, with in-game cutscenes, or whatever else you want, no one would play that mmo. It would take too damn (annoyed at the complaining without solutions) long to get to the point. Its a lose-lose situation, though the developer gets more money b/c it will take longer for players to reach max level b/c they spend more time watching/listening than playing, they need to spend more time coding and developing these storylines. Coding pre-scripted events isn't easy and if they did it; i imagine it would be repetitious. Players don't want to spend their whole time watching this; they want to be out there, swinging their sword, shooting fireballs and exploring an unknown world.
This is why even games like Dragon Age 2 or Mass Effect 2 cannot be fully voice-overed or cut-scened; it would take too long and make people lose interest. Just like Final Fantasy; there you go. It looks gorgeous and has everything you want.. but if you hate themeparks, this is even worse! You're on the same rollercoaster forever.

Sure there needs to be improvements to quests; make them a bit more robust; even make the player think a bit more. But really, what do you expect?

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