[MUD-Dev2] The Future of Quests

[John Buehler]

Cruise writes:

> The number and quality of quests in large scale POW projects has been
> sreadily increasing as each new product attempts to improve over its
> predecessor. It's fair to say this is one of the major time sinks for
> such projects. Additionally, players are becoming jaded with the static
> quest system and an unchanging world.
> 
> It is obvious this cannot keep on going - the manpower required would
> be
> ridiculous. Something must change...but what? Here are some
> possibilities:
> 
> a) Nothing - Quest writing stagnates, and current popularity of POWs
> collapses.
> b) Sandboxes - EVE, and to an extent Warhammer's PvP let player's
> generate their own quests out of the world they're given.
> c) Procedural - An automatic generation of quests. This is what I'm
> working on currently.
> d) Community - CoH is taking the first towards this, by opening up what
> are effectively the developers mission creation tools to the players.

My primary problem with questing in games is that there is no purpose to it.
Backstory supposedly explains to us why my character is supposed to kill
another five whatevers but as we all know that doesn't change anything.
Another five whatevers will be killed by the next character.

Sandbox games such as EVE Online do give players a purpose, and multiple
players can work together to pursue that purpose.  EVE Online tends to find
players pursuing empire-building.  But those empires often fall to dust when
the Napoleonic player force behind them decides that their time needs to be
spent in places other than gaming.

I'd like to see a publisher change backstory into frontstory so that the
players get feedback on the quests that they run because the world changes.
This is the way EVE Online has worked for me.  In order to build an Empire,
many things need to be accomplished.  Player owned structures need to be
deployed, configured and fueled.  Systems need to be mined and explored.
Above all, the area needs to be secured.  Now take each of those tasks and
break it down into its component parts.  Certain ships are involved, so
certain skills and financial resources are required.  Diplomatic ties with
neighboring empires need to be established.  New members need to be
recruited for the empire who have desired skills.

It keeps going on and on like that; there are always things that need to be
done.

But that's a PvP player-directed sandbox.

Now apply that technique to a PvE developer-directed game.

I've taken the idea to the point of replacing the classical island world
with a strip world.  The players start at one end of the strip and are given
a reason to reach the other end.  All the players are struggling from one
end to the other at the same time in the same space.  Everyone experiences
new content at the same time (maps only cover the strip to the most
recently-reached area).

Quests boil down to being whatever it is that the players need to do in
order to continue advancing along the strip.  Developers only have to build
as much of the world as the players can reach.  The developers can be
working on new systems all the time and introduce them as they introduce new
terrain.  It's the ever changing game.

Such games are not replayed, so quests are not revisited.  No documentation,
no speed-questing, etc.  The games also group all characters, young and old,
at the leading edge of the game.  Player goals are primarily communal
instead of personal, eliminating the need for quests to be tailored to an
individual's experience.  So the need for class- and level-specific quests
can be dropped.  As can classes and levels themselves.  Players use their
characters to pursue the goals that they want to pursue and focus on
achievements for the group.  Achieving something for the group should have
some kind of individual recognition associated with it.  Player skill should
be involved in solving problems - as is needed in pursuing many EVE Online
goals.

I've gotta get going, so I'll leave it there.  Drop backstory questing and
turn quests into tasks that advance the game.  Doing that in an island world
would be a bear, as would a game that has classes and levels (what a mess).
So I envision a strip world without classes or levels.

JB