MMORPGDot Editorial: The Future of Questing
Dialogue, 2003-11-07

With Ekim out for a second week and Hyrrix busy with other issues, I've been asked to step in for the Editorial today. I've decided to talk about an issue that lies close to my heart when it comes to MMOGs: Questing. For me, questing is the ultimate activity in a massively multiplayer game. It's where the rubber meets the road when it comes to game mechanics. Fighting mobs is the same thing over and over again, and while I like socializing with other folks you can do that just as easily in an IRC channel. Questing is a big part of the "Game" in Massively Multiplayer Game. Having this attitude has made me something of a frustrated player, however, when dealing with the games that are out today.

Do I look like I wear a Uniform?

The problem with questing in most games nowadays is that they amount to one of two things: Search and Destroy or Fedex missions. Either you go out and kill the mobs the NPC wants dead, and you get your reward or you take the black hooziwhatsis to Tinytown in exchange for some gold. Repeat until ready to play A Tale in the Desert. Questing should be *fun*, not the constant repetition of two themes over and over again. There are variations on these themes to be sure (Like, go kill the mob and then bring me back its head: A search and destroy Fedex mission.), but for the most part those two categories cover something like 90% of all quests in today's games.

First and foremost, enough with the repeatable quests. If I've brought Daniel at the palace his soup from the comely barmaid, then I should never bring him his soup again. Other people can bring him soup. I'm not philosophically disinclined to give people the privilege of bringing Daniel soup. But why would I bring him soup twice? As far as I'm concerned, he should now be en-souped. Allowing players to repeat quests is just a silly cop-out when it comes to content.

Next, give us some variety. You can start small. One of the best ideas that Star Wars Galaxies has is the profession specific mission terminals. Unfortunately, this great idea is carried out with the odd mix of non-funness and mediocrity I've come to expect from content in SWG. Instead of "Go here and survey for a mineral", I was hoping that artisans would have a chance to, you know, craft something! A simple, great quest would be something like this:

J. NPC: Oh thank goodness, a skilled weaponsmith! You must help me! The village is being threatened by beasts from the woods, and the blacksmith has been wounded in the fighting. The militia is in need of arms. Will you help us by crafting 5 long swords so that our soldiers can arm themselves?

You punch out the swords, and turn them in to the local militia leader. At this point in most other games you would get some coin and experience, and go off on your merry way. Why can't you choose what you want your reward to be? Everquest's new Lost Dungeons of Norrath expansion allows you to do this, as does the upcoming MMOG Worlds of WarCraft. This choice can aid the player in molding the sort of character that he wants to project into the game. For your standard warrior type, coin and xp is more than enough. But what about a crafter? Instead of some coin, which he can easily earn by selling his wares, why not offer him some materials along with that xp? That way he saves himself time in gathering more materials for future works and he recoups the loss of the materials that went into the swords. Another great reward would be some xp and.... the gratitude of the townsfolk.

Repercussions...

One of the biggest things that bugs me about most MMOG quests is the lack of repercussions from your actions. As I said above, I can bring that soup to Daniel in the palace 100 times, then what does that tell me about the game world? It tells me that I have no impact on the world at large, that my actions are meaningless. This is not a good idea to get into a player's head. So, as long as you're offering up options to the player about what reward he's going to get, why not give him the option of accepting no tangible reward from the villagers? He still gets his experience for completing the quest, but no physical goods change hands. What is the good of this, you ask? Well, nothing....yet. Maybe after a few quests for the villagers, the people of the village begin treating him with respect. Perhaps the player's name gets dropped in conversation with NPCs as a person of respect in the local society. Eventually, the player could start getting favors back from the townsfolk such as discounted room and board or equipment. After a certain point, the player could in fact become the town protector, with every NPC recognizing him on sight and treating him with a great deal of respect. Some sort of accolade or representation for the player is placed in the village, and the townspeople speak of him glowingly to other players. In short, the player becomes a part of the game.

The questing systems I've proposed are big changes from SOP for MMOGs, and I don't expect to see most of them in games any time soon. Just the same, even small steps in a direction away from where we are now would be an improvement. I can say, with great enthusiasm, that I look forward to the day when I will not need to get my quest out of a vending machine. With steps like these in place, you could move on to getting the player involved in the game in even more ways....but that's another editorial.