Good set of quests, Evoras. Hmmmm ....impaling or flaying - that is a tough one!
Yes I can see the point that quests can be viewed as someone telling us what to do and not fully consistant with a sandbox approach, thanks. I don't necessarily *agree* especially where the quests aren't required for progression (to me quests of the Evoras type for example are opportunities not direction or instruction) but now I understand better why some people are arguing against the very idea of having quests,
dorotea said:Good set of quests, Evoras. Hmmmm ....impaling or flaying - that is a tough one!
Yes I can see the point that quests can be viewed as someone telling us what to do and not fully consistant with a sandbox approach, thanks. I don't necessarily *agree* especially where the quests aren't required for progression (to me quests of the Evoras type for example are opportunities not direction or instruction) but now I understand better why some people are arguing against the very idea of having quests,
I'm not personally against quest. I just find that making it the way to grind experience is making them common and flavourless. Quests are special, quests are reward and great adventures, but if you grind 20 quests per level (at least), aren't they common ? Getting boar ribs for the farmer, is it a real logical and flavored way to make your character stronger ?
Edit: The problem appears as well when the quests are trying an epic dimension : Saving 10 villages in a row makes saving a village a common act.
@Akilae
I'd argue that some of the boredom in EQ is due to it being a game from 1999 as well. I've replayed it hundreds of times, but nostalgia does wear off, and without playing a version with the difficulty curve of P1999 server at least, the nostalgia is even less as EQ is a a shell of the former game.
Back on topic for quests though, I'm not completely aganist them, but I think they should be very few and far between. I've always been more of a "choose your own adventure" type - and what made EQ great for me was there was no true forced progression paths - if you wanted to level in Guk literally from level 8 - 50 you could. I firmly believe that if you build the game with loot, and multiple locations to find good pieces of gear at specific level ranges, various level ranges in zones, etc. players will create their own quests based on the gear available within the zones. For example, with EQ, I used to research places I wanted to adventure based on the gear drops and then I created my own groups/quests based on those needs. Obviously, other guildies did the same, and it wasn't always selfishly about me, but we experienced much of the world that way. I'd argue there's no point to funnel people through quest progression paths.
With that said, I'm all for sprawling epic quests similar to the Coldain Prayer Shawl and Ring and/or epic quests, but I would want them tied with factions/tradeskills, etc. not simply kill XYZ.