Out of nostalgia I've been playing EQ again for a while now. A lot has changed since I last played, not least of which is the addition of lots of quests in the newbie areas. At first this was a welcome change -- it gives the new player some direction and objectives. But then I realized that I'm almost as bored with EQ already as with any theme park MMO I've played and the quests are a huge reason for that.
The vast majority of quests are "kill X of those" and "collect Y of these" type tasks. Very short term. I found that while fulfilling quests I'd often leave an area as soon as the task was done rather than hang out and explore it in more detail. When I felt like grinding on particularly good mobs for my level I'd get anxious that I should move on and work on the next task. This only served to push me from spot to spot without ever fully exploring each one and making the most of the content. It felt like being guided from place to place, mindlessly filling work orders, instead of leaving it to me to explore the world and experience it all.
I think I'd much, much rather see something like EQ's old class epic quests that you had to really dig into and interpret, understand, in order to progress. One or two of these to provide a general guiding hand would be more than enough to work from while exploring the world and it would never feel like a theme park. I really hope the world isn't loaded with quests like all the rest are.
I didn't see this topic in the forum history. Has it come up before? What are your thoughts?
I'm not sure if the subject of quests specifically has come up recently (it certainly has as part of other discussions long ago), so thanks for starting this one off :)
I think terms like "theme park" have become overloaded over the years. Any MMO with directed content could be called a theme park, but what does that really mean? Not very much.
I've played games without directed content though. As much as I personally liked them, they failed to stick with a lot of people. Why? Because presented with a sandbox, very few of us will really follow through on building a castle. At best, we'll wait for someone else with the vision to do it, and follow their lead.
Anyway, I think that your statement about epic quests really sums up what most of us want from Pantheon. Quests aren't bad, in and of themselves, but we want them to feel meaningful. We want them to challenge us. We want them to make us think. Or, at least have to go watch a bunch of YouTube videos (let's be real about it).
It's the quality of the quest writing that matters. Quests should give us insight into what's going on behind the scenes in Terminus. They should act as catalysts for us to write our own adventures. They should serve as hooks to get us to travel to far off places - not just that dungeon next door, but that ancient shrine halfway around the world. And (at least in my opinion), quite often when we pick them up we should not realize what we're getting ourselves into.
That's not to say that simple tasks shouldn't exist, small things we can do. Maybe that farmer truly just needs help with a few vermin in his fields, and by helping him out, he'll give us some bread for the road. That's fair.
But that merchant in the alley who wants us to deliver a mysterious package to a client outside the city? Isn't it a little odd that he can't do that himself? And for that matter, why *are* the guards on edge lately? Maybe we should take the package to the authorities, instead of it's original destination. And maybe that will lead to a thread that we'll follow further, uncovering something much greater.
Or, perhaps we deliver the package as instructed, and then fight off the ambush that occurs at our destination. What do we then do with the strange badge we recovered from one of the bodies?
I mean, it was just a simple delivery quest, right?
My opinion on the topic :)
So from my years in MMO's the quests always boiled down to 2 basic models.
Then in later years they added Escort missions which was nothing but an NPC walking from A to B (so really just a slow FedEX quest) with a few scripted encounters.
Are there other models for quests? If so, what would those be?
Depending on the game and whoever made the quests there might be a lot of narrative and text to read, but for a lot of players that is just "wall of text blahblahblah" and they skim through it to find out exactly what they need to do (or more often than not, what to kill / collect). So strip away the wording and the lore around it all the quests would boil down to KFC or FedEX. The reason why many just skim or skip through the text is because in almost every quest in modern games the text is 100% useless. It has a narrative or short story, but the story or whatever is being told has zero significance towards accomplishing the goal of the quest or any use later in the game or connected to other quests. It's just words without significance, thus gets skipped by most.
Another consideration today is guides and wikipages. There are a lot of devoted and dedicated people out there who will take notes, write down details such as locations, what time of day and all those things related to a quest and then write it all up in a guide / wikipage so the next person just needs to do a websearch and follow a pre-written "to do" list to get through a quest. Being able to just look up a quest online and follow each step also makes the quests less interesting and more like chores than anything else.
What would make quests more interesting then?
Well, what IS a quest?
I find that the term 'quest' in the later years has become a common term for every activity given to a player from an NPC.
Often I find that both players and developers (especially in the later years) are misusing the word 'quests' when they really mean 'chores' or 'errands'.
Taking a letter from some person in the city to some person at an outpost is not a quest. It's an errand.
Killing rats in the basement of the inn and delivering 10 tails to the innkeeper is not a quest. It's a cleaning chore.
A quest is (as defined by https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/quest): a long search for something that is difficult to find, or an attempt to achieve something difficult
When it comes to gaming that definition doesn't apply to quests... it's one that fits better for what games would call "Epic quests". So why do we need to call chores and errands for quests, and when the game has an actual quest we have to artificially boost it by adding 'epic' in front?
I would prefer the game to be honest and upfront. Call it an chore if it is a chore. Call it an errand if it is an errand. And if something is a quest then it should be something which fits the aforementioned definition, and in game terms it should have limited information (so you have to go looking for it) and preferrably multiple routes (meaning there is more than one way to find what you are after) and require you to both travel and to face challenges. This would make it more exciting when you come across an NPC who actually presents you with a quest. You would then know that this guy doesn't want me to run errands or chores, this is the real deal and not just a cleaning chore camouflaged with pretty words and falsely added to your quest journal.
However, even with those things in place to create actual quests befitting the definition of the word there is still the guide/wikipage challenge. Can a game really have quests that can't be boiled down to a simple step-by-step to-do list through a wikipage? Could certain randomness be incorporated so any guides/wikipages would not be accurate or at least make a player weigh different options? Or does it not matter? Just let players use wikipages if they want?
Personally I would like to see these distinctions made clear, even to the point where you have an Errand/Chore Journal and a Quest Journal as separate things.
To me a quest would be things like getting a complete set of Lambent Armor for my bard in Everquest, or a complete set of Totemic armor for my Shaman. Getting those armors required you to go out in the world, to differenct places and fight different creatures to obtain pieces needed to create the armor, and each piece of the armor was a quest on it's own. Now you could say that getting each individual piece would be tasks or chores and that the actual quest is getting the complete set, and you would be right in saying that. The quest isn't the individual pieces, but the goal you set for yourself to obtain all of them. The quest is the overall goal you set.
I think having chores and errands with just lots of lore tacked onto them won't make for good quests. It will require something more than walls of text that players skim or skip through to make fun and engaging quests in the game, and to get there we have to be honest and separate the chores from the quests.
Another aspect of questing that I often find that developers seem to skip past in the later years is the difference between good vs evil. While good aligned characters would be doing quests to help or aid others, evil aligned characters wouldn't care about those things but would rather do things that enrich themselves, grant them power or items, or otherwise elevate themselves despite the cost to others.
An example of this was in Everquest 2 where you could go to Runnyeye dungeon. In that dungeon there was a huge cooking pot which triggered a quest when you clicked it. The quest basically told you that the goblins had been making soup out of the halflings and to avenge the halflings you would then have to kill 100 goblins to get a quest reward. When I was there as my good aligned character I thought "That makes sense. Damn goblins deserve death for their vile acts"... but when I went there as an evil aligned character I was more leaning towards "This soup tastes great! I need to beat up some goblins and find out the recipe they used for this". I expected and wanted different a different story, a different motivation, a different reward and a different experience when playing good vs playing evil, but games very rarely let you do that. If you find a basket full of abandoned kittens then a good character would save them or find them a home. An evil character would just leave them and not care, or bring them home to make cat-sandwiches (yes I know that sounds terrible, but before judging me for cat-sandwiches you have to ask yourself: isn't that an evil thing to do, ergo isn't that something ane vil person might do? And isn't that the whole point?).
Anyways... I could go on forever about quests in MMOs and how they were, are and where we might take it in the future, but I think I "text walled" you guys enough already.
UO - 2 years 96-98 (first beta)
EQ1 - 8 years 98-06 (early beta in sept. 98)
Vanguard - more years, 06 to sunset
That is a lot of MMO. But most importantly, mostly MMO's these guys made. Not EQ2, not WoW, not any Korean dumpster fire. Not dozens of other also ran's.
It seems the more I watch the streams, and listen to the discussion by Perkins, I sense they are trying very hard to mirror the organic gaming you would typically get from playing D&D pen and paper.
The perception system (which is largely replacing the old style here-I-am quest beacon) relies on a characters actual skill to sense (directly from D&D) something out of the ordinary, justifying investigation.
The perception system relying on a characters level of perception will be new to most MMO players. And to those grinding endlessly in Korean MMOs with flashing neon quest givers with lighted paths to auto-travel you to the next kill-x quest giver, a huge change.
They also have stated they want it less about quests (so long ever-quest) and more about encounters and combat. And from the looks of some of the sprawling dungeon area's packed with lots of baddies, it seems they are striving towards that. They want challenging combat, where groups will be tested and complacency will go unrewarded.
And since Pantheon is actually looking and acting more like Vanguard (than EQ1), which had some very elaborate questing, I am sure endless "kill X of these" and "deliver Z of these" will be far fewer than many might fear.
And please stop mentioning that horrible EQ2, these guys had nothing to do with it, and will not be duplicating it - ever.
The primary reason 'quests' have been chores in so many games is because:
a) The games have been void of any kind of challenging content - if you take out challenge then any quest is a chore
b) There is an excessive overabundance of them - the gameplay is literally filling up your To Do List then rushing around to mindlessly finish them
c) Related to a) the quests are so easy it is frustrating that the quest givers themselves shouldn't have just gone and done it (quests that have you run back and forth between NPCs in the same camp are guiltiest for this!)
A quest needs challenge and depth to be a real quest - it needs a sense of achievement. Pretty much any quest will always boil down to killing or collecting. But if anyone remembers Ghoulbane quest in EQ1...it felt a true achievement to complete, you were hunting specific ghouls rather than just mass murdering X amount, exploring the world to do it, gathering friends to get it all done. It felt like an adventure and not even having Wiki to let you know where to go and what to look for diminished that fact - the act of doing it all gave that quest feel, peraps because despite knowing where to go and what to look for, it was still a challenge to do.
Personally I like quests.
Quests give three major benefits.
1. They often give a purpose for what you do. Sure I can go and kill 50 wolves or 50 pigs or 50 orcs just for the drops and the experience but I find it a lot more satisfying if I do it to protect or to help feed a village that hires me or asks me for help. Even if the experience is 90% from the pigs and 10% from the quest reward having a quest gives me a ....framework, a justification, a reason beyond merely gaining levels or getting richer. I like that.
Just as I may do pvp in a faction-based game where I am a patriot or soldier serving my side but will never ever do it in a free-for-all game where the goal is to be the best and most amoral murderer or robber around.
2. Quests give rewards and experience - almost by definition. Getting to level-cap purely by grinding can become enormously tedious. I don't want a game where one can get to level-cap quickly any more than the rest of us do, but I also don't want one where one spends 500 hours killing pigs or wolves or orcs for the xp per kill. I prefer my 500 hours being spent doing quests or crafting or harvesting with the poor pigs supplementing the other means of gaining experience not being the only way to .....bring home the bacon.
3. Quests give an idea of where to go and what to do. Exploring is good but if I am in Butt Cheeks and north is an area with things I can reasonably do and south is an area with enemies that will one-shot me, isn't it reasonable that the locals will know the difference and any that aren't out to get me killed will have things for me to do north and not south. Of course, any that want me dead may send me on quests south, and it will work about as well if the locals talk to me and say north are wolves and south are titans but we don't give a rodent's hindquarters which way you go that is your problem not ours.
All I like about quests are the reward and the lore associated. I don't think they should reward experience simply because handing the item to the NPC has little to no value overall. What should give you experience are the steps and the hard work and not the turn in.
I also found that if I did READ quests in my first themepark experiences (like wow), it quickly became a grab and solve situation where I just ran from quest to quest with little to no reading, special thanks to superobvious quests, Eso's hints " hint : check the cupboard", map areas or even highlighted items : Even themeparks MMO have been dumbed down a lot, because when the genre came out, you had to actually read quests to get a clue of what to do / where to go.
Then came add-ons that would show you where to go, when, how to do things faster with less reading and less reflection. It didn't start as bad as it is now, but the road was easy and convenient.
I love quests, but they must be adventurous quests that arent simply tasks. I feel they should be story driven events with multiple parts and if I had my choice, a choose you own adventure type of journey. Having during the multiple steps, one or a few steps in which you get to make a choice and the outcome will steer you into different rewards and adventures. Also tied to this could be faction hits for choices.
As far as experience for questing I believe that every part of a quest IS experience, even the turn in is the culmination of all the steps... but I also believe quest EXP should be dumbed down and less significant in gains than the killing of MOBs. But the rewards should be the driving factor for doing quests. No I dont want to spend 2 hours doing a quest to be rewarded with bread or rations. AND I would LOVE for many of the quests to be something that takes days of work and make you adventure out and discover new and exiting areas.
Lastly, I would love to have voice overs for quest givers as well as in the perception system, when you perceive something it would be awesome to have a whisper tell you, "this rock looks interesting" or "You feel a gentle breeze coming from the wall beside you", much as if when [searching] in AD&D, the dungeon master would say these things. Way better than a scroll popping up and breaking immersion, I could totally dig a dungeon masteresque voice prompting me from time to time. I know that voice work has been stated to be almost nonexistant due to money factors... but honestly, I personally would do the work for a lifetime free acount and maybe a decent PC. Its no harder than the sound work for a goblin or orc. Hey Brad and Chris.... I do lots of impresssions and would work on the cheap!!
Having quest givers and also the BIGBAD bosses voice-overed would be SUPERKOOL and immersive... "WHO DARES ENTER MY DOMAIN"? "I LORD KELDRATH, KEEPER OF THE FLAME, SHALL SMITE THEE"!! or "Hail kind sir, might you have a moment to help a poor old man"? So many ways for short bursts of dialog to be voiced that would bring immersion to another level. Used sparingly and intelligently it could really take a great game and make it legend. Thats my 2 plat..
-Vig
bigdogchris said:Pantheon is going to be more "sandboxy" than theme park. The quest will be fewer and further between, but more substantial.
This is definitely what I'm looking forward to.
My first MMO was EQOA, and I loved the quests in it, because they were all meaningful, expansive, and didn't hold your hand in any way as you worked your way through them. There also weren't terribly many of them. I didn't mind camping and grinding mobs for the majority of xp, but always looked forward to the quests that I would get to do every few levels or so when they became available.
Since questing was one of my favorite parts of EQOA, when I first played WoW, I thought: "Look at all the quests! This is awesome!" Then, after a while, I realized how mindless this new style of questing really was. Questing was now a worse grind than what we used to call "grinding" (camping and killing mobs over and over in one area). It made me long for the days when quests were fewer with far more depth and meaning.
To this day, I still like the idea of getting the majority of my xp from killing mobs--whether by camping or crawling--and supplementing that with the occasional really deep and challenging quest. I think the perception system is shaping up to be a great way to make questing fun again.
I appreciate that they are taking the time to bring about those DnD moments. A system that will only show you something if you have a high skill or even opt in on the skill. Some people wont even want to be bothered by the system so having an opt out is huge.
Having a more intuitive and "sandbox" feel is generally preferred by people. I disliked guildwars for many reasons, but the progressive quest system was just..... ugh.... i couldnt roam around freely. I don't mind a certain amount of prodding/orientation at first, but open up the game and let me explore. If i wanted constant prodding i would play console games.
MauvaisOeil said:All I like about quests are the reward and the lore associated. I don't think they should reward experience simply because handing the item to the NPC has little to no value overall. What should give you experience are the steps and the hard work and not the turn in.
I agree wholeheartedly. The reward for completing a quest (or errand or chore) should be limited to faction, coin and/or maybe an item. I don't think having dedicated quest NPCs with punctuation or a "Quests 35+" over their heads adds anything of value to a game. If you care to help that farmer with his vermin problem then great, go for it. Your reward is the experience you gain killing all the vermin and a boost in Brotherhood of Farmers Local 38 faction. Let that be the reason you do the quest so there's no major compulsion to abandon the area as soon as the task is complete. You're far more likely to hang around and kill all of the vermin instead of just 9 of them if the errand's reward isn't 50% or even 10% of the total experience gained. Maybe you improve your faction a little bit with each vermin killed. Who knows. You could also just run in and kill all the things ending up with the same reward (exp and faction) without ever talking to the farmer. After all, nobody likes vermin.
It's encouraging to read that VR is unlikely to repeat the "gather all the quests then hunt for an hour and return, rinse, repeat" hell that "playing an MMO" has become.
vigilantee13 said: the BIGBAD bosses voice-overed would be SUPERKOOL and immersive... "WHO DARES ENTER MY DOMAIN"? "I LORD KELDRATH, KEEPER OF THE FLAME, SHALL SMITE THEE"!! or "Hail kind sir, might you have a moment to help a poor old man"?
"You have failed me for the last time!!!"
I am definitely in the camp where turning in a quest shouldn't be the major chunk of experience gain, and also in favor of turning in a quest not giving any experience at all.
The reward from a accomplishing a quest (and I say accomplish rather than 'turn in' since 'turn in' is what you do for chores and a quest is something significant you accomplish) should be in the reward you receive. This could be anything from physical rewards such as a weapon, armor, other types of equipment or to rewards such as being granted permission to enter an area, a key that unlocks a magically sealed door to a dungeon, a title bestowed on you which increases your faction with certain people or makes NPC's address you differently or start saluting or waving at you as you go past.
The experience you gain would be coming from doing the actual quest and not in finishing it. As the previous example of the Ghoulbane. You had to find various ghouls and slay them to gather their hearts and such. In order to do that you would need to group up with other adventurers, find where the ghouls were and then fight many different enemies in the hopes that you would also be able to kill the ghoul you needed and get the heart. So the experience you got was simply from killing lots of different things in a group, even though your personal goal was the heart of the ghoul.
I don't want to kill 10 rats to get 1 iron ration and some experience. Such "quests" are meaningless, boring and indoctrinates players with a mentality that quests are just bonus exp ontop of just killing the rats anyways.
Quests should be meaningful, long, challenging, require multiple steps across many areas and ultimately give you a reward that makes you feel it was all worth doing.
Anything else you can create a "Chore Journal" for keeping track of it.
Bring back meaningful quests!
As stated, killing the rats should be the exp benefit and the faction or token to progress to a new questline should be the reward. So when you venture into a field of rats you get a prompt that they are devastating the field and someone might be happy if you kill them. You kill the rats for exp for a while and you go get a nice faction boost and a couple gold coins once you track down the farmer.
I always had an issue behind questgivers giving exp rewards. It just seemed off to me... like is that how i am supposed to level? Do i spend my days doing quests? I go fetch some stuff and i get a chunk of exp?
No. You kill monsters for magical exp rewards. If you have outleveled the questline then you are in it for the reward. Quests should build up character (faction) or give rewards. A quest is about the adventure and not the destination. Make the adventure carry the rewards. I think that all questlines should tie into a larger questline somehow. Like you don't realize you are actually working on an epic quest until after the fiftieth step in the questline.
Hey go kill this guy down in this dungeon. Ok so down i go and get massive amounts of exp and loot and met this master that gave me an epic ability and when i get back i get a new questline and a big faction boost cause this guy is a chatty cathy and spreads my name out there. To me that is a perfect scenario. You got more reward from adventuring than from the quest. But that means that faction needs to have benefits and consequences as well - So people will want to work on faction.
I remember working on the Shammy eq1 epic and you had to have True Spirit faction, which you got by doing the epic quest, but if you hadn't done the complete quest you usually had to work on that faction. Now there were ways to bypass this due to early factioning and multiquesting, but with proper coding and game design multiquesting would not exist.
kreed99 said:I remember working on the Shammy eq1 epic and you had to have True Spirit faction, which you got by doing the epic quest, but if you hadn't done the complete quest you usually had to work on that faction. Now there were ways to bypass this due to early factioning and multiquesting, but with proper coding and game design multiquesting would not exist.
I just had a flashback to farming Coldain faction to max only to have to turn around and farm Kromzek faction to max... /shudder
I find MMO quests to be largely tedious and unnecessary. Ideally quests would be for major class weapons/armor/abilities or some sort of title not merely a way to get some quick XP and loot. I like Kreed99's version of questing. I find the whole moving from quest hub to quest hub concept terribly dull.
>I find the whole moving from quest hub to quest hub concept terribly dull.<
I ask this out of pure curiosity not to argue a point. I've made my opinion clear already; repeating it will add nothing to the discussion.
Do you find camping a group of rats or wolves or other mobs for hours or days purely for the value of the skins they may drop or the experience per kill *less" boring than doing quests? If so, why?
It has been so long since I've played a game where we spent a lot of time camping mobs I don't even remember why we enjoyed it, other than the fact that it was the only way to gain levels and we didn't exactly have a choice.
dorotea said:Do you find camping a group of rats or wolves or other mobs for hours or days purely for the value of the skins they may drop or the experience per kill *less" boring than doing quests? If so, why?
Answering only for myself, of course, but if I choose to camp/farm mobs for long periods of time it's because I have some goal in mind beit money, a rare drop or whatever. But more importantly, it's my choice and not something I feel compelled to do by the game's scripts. If I choose to stop farming because I'm bored with it I've not failed to complete some random "quest", I've simply decided to move on.
EQ was unintentionally great at supporting the metagame -- emergent gameplay -- because it didn't provide much structure at all. Instead it provided countless little things that players found ways to pull together to make something more interesting. In all cases it was the player's choice to do or not do something but always be inventive. That is a defining characteristic of a sandbox game. Free will makes the game. Scads of quests/tasks, quest hubs, the need to complete them because that's half the exp, etc., all serve to prescribe a path from 1 to cap from which it makes little sense to deviate.
dorotea said:>I find the whole moving from quest hub to quest hub concept terribly dull.<
I ask this out of pure curiosity not to argue a point. I've made my opinion clear already; repeating it will add nothing to the discussion.
Do you find camping a group of rats or wolves or other mobs for hours or days purely for the value of the skins they may drop or the experience per kill *less" boring than doing quests? If so, why?
It has been so long since I've played a game where we spent a lot of time camping mobs I don't even remember why we enjoyed it, other than the fact that it was the only way to gain levels and we didn't exactly have a choice.
For me it was about getting either skins or whatnot for crafting. Or because i was of the correct level to exp from them. Or because i needed a quest item. I remember people doing collection quests just for the exp reward. To me that was silly. Go loot 10 belts or whatever and you get more exp than actually killing them? No. Unbalanced reward system. And you create pay to win situation. More money, more belts, more exp. For me i enjoyed the quests and adventuring into new areas in search of stuff over the actual exp gained from the quest. I did monk sash's and headbands and treant fists because i liked collecting and exploring with the promise of a progressive items. I probably still would have done the quests without any exp reward.
I look at this question from the perspective of two of the "Pantheon Tenets":
1. Challenging
2. Social
1. Challenge:
Where we have a multitude of 'Kill-X' type so called 'quests' (I really like Ghrozkan's term 'chores'), then irrespective of whether the chore offers +10% or +500% XP (c.f. WoW) of the mob's actual Kill XP in quest XP, this increases reward. Remember that:
Challenge = Risk vs Reward
If the rewards are increased across the board by the prevalence of quests offering bonus XP, then the overall challenge drops.
2. Social:
Where we have a large number of both Kill-X and (short range) FedEx chores, this leads to players preferentially occupying the area where these quests are active. This detracts from players going to other areas and, in the case of one-time (though high XP value) chore-style quests, this leads to the players only staying in that location for as long as it takes to get the "10 rat tails" they need. As soon as each individual has them, they will be drawn away to the next high-value chore area, leading to groups swicthing out members faster than modern Pop bands change their lineup!
This will not create more socializing.
So, should there be quests? Well, Yes ...
... but as with all things, it is in the detail where it counts!
A. Kill for Coin/Items:
These should be of a type that is logical and for a reason, offering no exp.
EG: "Village Headsman wants wood to expand village building program"
Here, you get wood (in the form he needs - may require some processing) and you get coin and perhaps a small faction gain for both 'Village' and 'Local Building Trade'. Perhaps you take a faction hit from 'Village Conservationists' and 'Druid Extremists' too... This acts as a 'commision order' in many ways. Remember, the villager will only specify the materials he needs, not where they come from. It may be even possible that there are 'wood stockpiles' in neighbouring Bandit or Orc camps. They are unlikely to be happy with you stealing their stock (faction hit).
B. Kill for Faction:
EG: "Moving up the Monk hierarchy"
As a monk, you will start with poor skills and options (as per all Classes). Gaining levels will open up new skills and abilities to be found and trained. But some of the Monk trainers are picky about who they train, to say the least! Consider this akin to a 'belt system' used by modern Martial Arts. Upon gaining level 20 you may hope to be promoted to 'Orange' Belt from your shabby white belt, but the Master will need you to prove your worth! You will need to show you have defeated other (NPC) monks.
When you defeat an NPC monk it may drop it's own belt (colour dependent on level etc). These belts can be handed in to the Monkly Temple or Trainer of your choice to build faction with them (or 'Belt points' if you wish). To achieve status high enough to be given an orange belt may need you to have accumulated 100 'belt points' say. To get a 'Blue belt' may need 500, 'Brown belt' 2500 etc. It may even be that these points are used to generate (buy) either status or faction. Getting a Master to train you a rare skill may need a minimum of both status and faction.
It could be that belts are not essential as part of the levelling process - that there are other ways to get the basic abilities etc all the way to max level ....
... but wouldn't you want to be the first Black Belt on your server?
C. Kill for Event:
EG: "Choice of Raid Boss"
A raid zone has two types of goblins in the area. Those who worship the Goblin deity of Flaying, and those who worship the Goblin deity of Impaling.
Both types of Goblins are building a large shrine in preparation for the winter Solstice when they are visited by an aspect of one of their deities. Since Goblin deities feel the need to have the biggest, prettiest (in a Goblin way) shrine, only the deity with the biggest shrine will deign to show up! The Goblins spend time and effort building these shrines, but progress is dependent on how many of them can work on it, and how many Priests are available to sanctify it for them.
This is where players come in. By killing Goblins engaged in the work on the shrine, they slow down the work on it. Which faction of Goblin they kill most of will affect which faction will lose, and hence which of the two deities (Raid Bosses) will spawn at the solstice!
Will it be "The Flayer" or "The Impaler".
Will the local player base choose one over the other? The Flayer is known to drop Necro items, while The Impaler is known to drop Dire Lord items! Hmmm.....
... this could be more fun on a PvP server too!
D. Epic Quests:
These just need to be EPIC!
I am sure other can find better examples for innovating quests!
Evoras, hopes for awesome Summoner quests for new and unique Pets!