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

[msew]

At 17:27 02/25/2001 +0000, Marian Griffith wrote:
>On Sun 25 Feb, msew wrote:

>> 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.

> You are still thinking like a game oriented player here.  There are
> more reasons for doing a quest than to collect a reward. You can do
> it because your online friends want to, or because you want to know
> if you can,

all of those do not need to have created background story :-) In fact
both of the examples you give seem to diminish the importance of a
background story!

friends: you are doing ANY quest with them because it is with them.
The specific quest is not really the over riding factor your friends
are.

doability: this is 100% GoP.  did you accomplish the quest or not?
Extra background doesn't really matter.

>or because you want to know the story.

cf below :-)

> You can set up a quest where the reward is that the character com-
> pleting it dies permanently as she saves the world.  You will never
> find a game player for such a quest, but you might find a roleplay-
> er interested.

This is a really special case :-) And can be a good thing for a GoP
and a RP type player depending on the specifics of the quest.  Special
cases while interesting and important for making certain the game
works, don't make up the majority of the activities / quests.

ie due to time/resource constraints I just don't ever see the majority
of quests being integrated into the rest of the game state.  

below:

Maybe I am just too much of a GoP type player, but I just can't see
why anyone that is at all intelligent would want to go on the 1000th
quest specifically to hear the background story, where the background
story was very similar to something they have done/heard before.
(there are only so many variations on why little timmy needs his sword
back).  I frame this as pavlov's dog experiment.  You have done 1000
quests and heard basically the same story over and over unless you are
just simple minded, the over arching desire to do the quest to hear
the background seems 100% counter intuitive and just warped.

To me, it is as if every time there is the hope of a nice interesting
tidbit from a quest that will enhance the game and my understanding of
the game world, I just get the pavlov smack down; some content
creator's minutia that either misspelled or just silly or has no
affect beyond the scope of that quest.  I get to hear about background
characters that I never get to interact with, a storyline that is
never realized, and a possible plotline that doesn't even matter.

Why should I EVER be concerned or willing to invest my time and
contemplation and posting of the info / sharing the info with my
friends when it NEVER EVER MATTERS beyond the scope of that one
interaction?

I don't want to belittle the quest creators (it is a hard hard job)
but I can either spend time debating/discussing that quest which
consist of maybe 500 words or dialogue, or I could tell everyone to go
read George R. R. Martin's latest series and we can discuss that.  (ie
why on earth do you want to read a 100 x 500 word quests of little
timmy lost his sword vs reading a book)

Now this may sound hypocritical in nature to go and discuss another
thing which really has no effect on me or my character, but the matter
of quality enters the picture here.  You have a churned out quest vs a
novel who's author had time to do in depth character development and
plot.

I choose a book 100%

msew

_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev