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MMORPGs Need Better Quests

Category: Default Game: Default Posted on Aug 27, 2009 12:15 pm


MMORPG developers have gotten way too lazy when it comes to designing quests. Almost every single quest in any MMORPG involves either role playing as a FedEx driver [Take this item and give it to an NPC named John Thunderhoof across town!] or a genocidal maniac [Kill 50 Baby Gnolls, 20 Mother Gnolls and 10 Gnoll Brutes]. Personally, kill quests in MMORPGs are an excellent distraction from mindless grinding, but I feel that quests should add a little more variety to the game. MMORPGs like Runes of Magic, Fiesta Online and WindSlayer are genuinely good games, but they have rather dull quests. To be fair though, 95% of MMORPGs have this same issue, I just used the three games mentioned as examples.

 

 

 

There’s nothing wrong with delivery and kill quests, but there’s no excuse for developers to use only these kinds of quests. Games like MapleStory and Dragonica Online for example, really take questing to the next level because they have a lot of unique quests. MapleStory has a boat load of ‘plat forming’ quests which require players to make it from one end of the screen to the other by dodging obstacles, sort of like a stage in Super Mario. Keep in mind MapleStory has the generic ‘go kill X amount of Y monsters’ and ‘fed ex’ like quests, but the fact that it also has other types of quests makes the game a lot more enjoyable.

Originally from mmohut

comments ( 11 )

eatlyh
Post Time : Sep 09,2009 6:41 am

Good quest example:

OMFG! I lost my necklace to the woods of DOOM!!!!! And then a dragon ate it, but i dont have idea where the heck dragon lives oh and i remember dragon puking my necklace to a different continent... Oh well anyway to get to other continent u have to find it and it doesnt exist LOLZORZ!!! If you dont want to search you can always buy a cash shop item that teleports u to the necklace and it only costs 99999999 (enter cash shop currency) Oh and my sister is sick, she needs medicine, could you also get me 9999 black dragon horns? Their drop rate is 0,000000000000000000000000000001%... Happy hunting!!!

SandyH
Post Time : Sep 03,2009 11:49 am

lolz the quests that tell u 2 speak with some1 beside them or deliver something 2 a person beside them always makes my laugh a ton, including d amount of exp they give you>.<

zx8bc9aw
Post Time : Sep 01,2009 6:23 pm

they need quests that goes over time that be interesting.

SushiSalmon
Post Time : Sep 01,2009 8:07 am

quests just gets to repeative.

sharpnel
Post Time : Aug 30,2009 9:20 pm

Simply agreed.

kagome440
Post Time : Aug 30,2009 7:58 am

I really tolerate some of the quests in most MMOs. Final Fantasy XI quests weren't that bad to do. I like doing the kill such a number of monster in PW because one I can I go grinding without feeling like it is senseless. Dream of Mirror, I do mostly elder quest just for guild fame and those really consist of only team quest, boss print quest, and collecting a number of items. I really don't see the problem with quests in MMOs. They are not really storyline based missions.

Medown
Post Time : Aug 30,2009 1:22 am

World of warcraft has epic questlines when you go to northrend. Those are pretty unique

Emeraq
Post Time : Aug 29,2009 4:52 pm

Aside from escort quests, delivery quests, kill X critter(s) quests, and puzzles, craft and gather quests, what else can you really do with quests?

wsdwfegf
Post Time : Aug 28,2009 7:54 am

lol what the hell do u expect? teleport u into a fairy world  smiling and chaseing after butterfly?

Dax01
Post Time : Aug 28,2009 7:28 am

 Try DDO, its quest based and I tell you, you have done no quest till you play DDO. They even got puzzles.

elve
Post Time : Aug 28,2009 4:38 am

From my own experience the best quests in a MMORPG are the ones in The Chronicles of Spellborn. The quests there are nothing special - go get that, go kill these, go talk to this people but the thing is - you really should think where these stuff are. Some of them are pretty obvious but still these quests are part of a bigger chain. I also played PW some time ago so let's compare two similar quests from PW and TCOS where a father has his father sick due to some kind of poison.

In PW: My child has been bitten by a snake - go and kill 50 snakes to get the venom in their teeth. And I was like "Yeah, sure..."

In TCOS: "My child had fallen ill with several other people in the village. They all drank from the village well, so please check it, I have a fellow assassin at the researchers' guild, let him check the water in the well" - so you go to the well, you get some water, you go to the assassin, you give him the water, he tests it, he finds out someone poisoned the water and he tells you to go and find a plant that grows only in dark places so you go and search for that kind of place, which is a cave, you explore the gave till you find the plant, you;re back to the assassin, he makes the antidote and then you return to the father and give him the antidote. And in every stage of this journey there is a solid lore about why exactly you're doing this stuff.