[MUD-Dev] DESIGN: WoW quests and content

[Edward Glowacki]

Dana V. Baldwin wrote:

> A couple other things that make the WoW quests interesting.

> -They are easy to find. Big bright arrows over people s head means
> I don't have to hit every single dwelling in a city and talk to
> every single person to get something to do every level. I'll own
> up to it, I love to log in and have a list of things to do today
> and so much the better when they aren't hard to find.

> -They are sequential. The quests lead me around by the nose very
> well and they integrate together very well. I can generally do a
> couple at the same time and a couple more on the way to where I'm
> going and on the way back.

> The sense of accomplishment is great. In WoW I find that I do
> nothing but quest and really my levels just seem to follow
> along. In EQ2 I had a similar experience yet the time involved to
> attain, arrive at and complete them was too great. The sense of
> accomplishment quickly became a sense of work.

I agree, doing quests makes levels just fly by (at least the levels
I'm working on right now, 10-20).  The other day I got so wrapped up
in quests that I neglected to train my new skills when they became
available because I didn't want to stop questing to go back to
town. ;)

A couple more good points about WoW quests:

  - They are very up-front about the rewards you will get.  Gonna
  reward me with a cooking recipe, but I don't cook?  Maybe I won't
  take the quest then, or maybe I will anyway because the cash and
  XP are worth it. At least I know in advance.

  - The quest difficulty and thus reward level (XP-wise) change as
  you advance levels, and this is very clearly indicated in the
  quest log by the quest name changing colors.  Also, especially
  difficult quests are marked with (Elite).  Thus you know if you're
  not ready for a quest yet, or if the quest is something you
  shouldn't bother turning in because it's too low level and you
  won't get much XP for it.

  - If you're at the minimum level required for a quest, the ! above
  the quest-giver's head is yellow, indicating you can take the
  quest.  If you're *close* to the minimum level required, the ! is
  gray, indicating that a quest will soon be available from that
  NPC, and you should check back in a level or two.  Very nice for
  when you run out of quests in an area, you can ask yourself "Hey,
  where did I see some gray !'s..."

  - It's generally very easy to track your progress within a quest,
  and at any time you can check and see exactly which objectives you
  have completed, or how many more X you need to do.  If you install
  the Cosmos UI enhancements, you get an even better sense of where
  you are by using the Quest Minion, which shows the objectives of
  all selected quests very compactly in a little window on your
  screen.

-ED
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