[MUD-Dev] Interesting EQ rant (very long quote)

[msew]

At 21:00 02/23/2001 -0600, Jeff Freeman wrote:

>> That's not quite what I meant actually. I meant that there's
>> nothing at all unreasonable or 'cheaty' about going to a spoiler
>> site to learn how to do a quest. I just find it silly to bitch
>> about players enlisting the aid of other players in a multiplayer
>> game.

> Ah, I think the perceived problem there is that they go to the
> spoiler site to learn how *not* to do the quest (but to get the
> quest reward anyway).  Maybe it has more to do with the manner in
> which the quest is designed.

<SNIP the long quest details>

> A spolier site completely derails that type of quest.  You look up
> the sword, see where to get it, never learn why it's there or
> anything about it, etc.

You don't really need to know that information is the problem.  It is
just some content maker's generated minutia.  It is utterly and
completely pointless in the game environment.  Knowing that little
timmy once had a long lost grandfather who was in fact a great
magician who first created the item blah blah blah blah, doesn't
matter one bit.

Even hardcore RPers and people that "really want to get into the game
story" are, in time just, going to say: "this is the thousandth quest
I have gone on and I have never ever ever used any of the story behind
the quest for anything else in the game."  Quests == reward and that
is it.

>  Your not "doing the quest" at all, which was the >previous point,
>  too, I think: Why even bother to have quests?  Instead >of getting
>  a magic widget by camping a mob (and never knowing why that >mob
>  has the magic widget), then giving it Joe for a magic sword
>  >(without ever knowing why Joe wanted the magic widget in the first
>  >place), why not just stick the sword on the mob and save all the
>  >fluff?

The issue is: should the story line for each quest have an _unique
impact_ on that _specific_ character's life as time progresses.

If there are not an infinite amount of "quest content lines", then the
quest websites will pop up and EVEN if the the story line of the quest
matters in the world scope, players will just read the parts/data they
need to know about.

Another thing of importance, is that all of the achiever archetypes
will turn quest accomplishment, quest info, item info into a sub game
for them to compete in.  You get reknown (or your guild does) for
being the first to find an item, or find a quest and post it.










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