by Garrett Fuller



Questing is an intricate part of any RPG. Save the kingdom, rescue the
princess, fight the dragon, all of these scenarios come to mind as
concepts of quests for players. And yes, I did watch style="font-style: italic;">Shrek last night.
The issue with quests in modern RPGs or MMOGs is that they are very
linear. All single-player style gameplay comes down to completing
quests. Some are long and epic, others are short and simple.
Let’s face it, some of them suck. Having to kill fifty
chickens to collect five chicken legs for Farmer Brown to make his
special chicken broth that heals you for ten points is so lame
I’d rather sit in the dentist’s chair for two hours
with a drill stuck in my mouth. Questing has gotten lame in MMOGs. You
are on the path to being an epic warrior of the apocalypse; your first
task is to…kill chickens.

style="margin: 10px; border-collapse: collapse; float: left; width: 136px; height: 165px;"
border="1">

href="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?set_albumName=Guide-Screenshots&id=quest_ring&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php"> src="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/Guide-Screenshots/quest_ring.sized.jpg"
width="200"> src="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/modules/gallery/images/pixel_trans.gif"
alt="" height="1" width="1">

style="font-style: italic;">Garrett hopes that
developers will move past the NPC sit and wait scenario.

Is there any hope out there to expand the concept of the quest?



Exclamation points and question marks aside, how can we improve the
idea and quality of game play in RPGs by making a better quest system?
I am not necessarily have the answer, but hopefully some ideas will
surface that help make gameplay more dynamic.



Let’s start by looking at doing quests from point A to point
B. You get your quest and off you go to complete your mission. You come
back and get a reward. HUZZAH! You’re now level two. Please
continue this course of action until you reach level 100, and then go
kill other players.



Even following a story line creates linear game play. Why not give
players a chance to impact the story line on their own? The game style="font-style: italic;">Fable
- though far too short in my opinion - gave players options on how to
do their quests. If you did them correctly and followed the rules, you
eventually got a halo around your head. If you did them poorly and
followed the dark path, you looked like the devil. (Evil is good.) This
is the first step in creating a broader theme for players during
quests.



Give them options on how they can go about completing them. Maybe they
tell Farmer Brown to stuff his chicken broth and kill him then burn his
damn farm. Funny right, well…what if? How would an act like
that impact the player, their reputation or their abilities? Maybe that
person develops a colder heart and a stronger disregard for life,
perhaps the NPCs will now look at him/her differently. The good versus
evil option in questing definitely broadens the player’s
options when completing tasks.



Allowing players to impact the game around them is critical to pushing
the questing system even further. I will say the public quests in
Warhammer Online
take a step in the right direction on getting players
involved. By entering an area you are automatically part of the quest.
You can help out, or choose not to.



Stepping away from this idea, players like options and new ideas. I
remember a quest in WoW where the trolls charged up a temple, and
you fought them from at the top, trying to live through hundreds of
these crunchy critters. Now that was a fight. It was great and you
really had to work together as a team to beat them away. This type of
scenario coupled with a great quest concept supports dynamic game play.
Instead of having to randomly pull ten chickens one at a time, why not
have a chicken uprising!

style="margin: 10px; border-collapse: collapse; float: right; width: 136px; height: 165px;"
border="1">

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/10059" title="TTH2"> src="/image/view/10059/preview"
width="200">

style="font-style: italic;">Tabula Rasa has
introduced some Ethical Parables into their quest system, making it a
bit more dynamic.

Let’s look at the NPC quest giver. It has remained the same
in all RPG games recently. Someone standing there waiting for you to
help. Perhaps giving these NPCs more life would make getting a quest
more fun. I will say that the Mechanical Yeti quests in style="font-style: italic;">World of
Warcraft remain one of my all time favorite quest chains.
Having to
travel to each village and scare the goblins with the little yeti was
hilarious. Also it added some fun to questing. You as a player had an
impact; you caused something to happen that other players could watch.
That quest was a step in the right direction. Humor and small yetis can
really make a player laugh and make the quest grind a little bit more
bearable. Giving NPCs something to do rather than just stand there may
help add some fun or difference to a quest chain.



I know I have not given too many answers to the quest problem, so here
is a short list of concepts that might work:

• Having quests drive the player through the story line,
  instead of
  always going back to the point where you received the quest, why not
  move the player forward to a different area.
• Random boss encounters and group battles in open field play
  and not in
  an instance is always fun to bring players together and get experience
  for a major battle.
• Rewarding players experience for social networking (I know
  this has
  been suggested before but it makes sense to mention it here).
• Creating a more dynamic world where quests have an impact
  and are not
  just a linear tool for experience.
• Allowing higher level players the ability to give lower
  level players
  quests.
• Having in game scenarios that give players different
  options to help
  out in the game, an example of this is defending a town. Maybe some
  players build walls or ramparts to boost crafting, maybe some players
  defend the walls, some players make weapons, either way it all adds up
  to a giant battle where everyone pitches in.

I do realize that in this Cutting Edge I have pointed at the problem
more than to a solution. I hope that game designers read this and think
about what they are giving their players to do. Really ask yourself how
much fun is it to kill endless mobs for some loot. Having the content
become more dynamic and interactive will definitely boost
players’ enjoyment of completing a quest. If a good story and
some dynamic impact is involved it no longer feels like
you’re just collect experience points. I hope more MMOGs in
the future look to bring depth and new ideas to questing in the future.
Until then, I’ll see you at the farm. 

---

Check out all of our Ten Ton Hammer
editorials!