[MUD-Dev2] The Future of Quests

[Mike Sellers]

Damion wrote:  
> Quests work, and work well, because they are directed 
> activity.  They give a sense of accomplishment that players 
> long for.  They are content drivers.
> Most MMOs are combat simulators, and quests give you a reason 
> to fight.

Hey Damion.

Excellent distillation of what MMOs and quests are and have thus far been.
This form has been highly successful, but is also narrow and is due for a
refit -- at least for some developers and players.  

Directed activity is great, and works well for a lot of players, but works
very poorly for many others.  And most MMOs have almost no self-directed
play, much less socially directed play.  

Similarly, the "combat simulator" nature of MMOs works well within certain
gameplay and demographic parameters, and fails completely outside of those.
Not to say it's bad or unsuccessful (hardly!) but just that it's one
particular point of view, and I think MMOs can (while including combat
simulation) grow significantly beyond this.  

> World of Warcraft succeeded largely because their quests, at 
> ship, were excellently paced, and did a remarkable job of 
> leading the player through the world.  In a good zone, if you 
> complete all the quests, you'll find you have explored 85-90% 
> of the map, meaning explorers like the quests too.
> Quests can lead the player to beautiful vistas, teach the 
> player unexpected mechanics, and challenge the players to 
> meet challenges in unexpected ways.

All true.  But if at some point these quests didn't stop being an aid to
understanding, exploration, and novelty, there would be no discussion of
them being "grindy."  After a certain point, a certain number of repetitions
or close variations on a theme, quests as directed activity have become like
the tortuous exposition in poor fiction: it's the stuff you grind through to
get to what you hope will be the "good parts" of the story, or that you give
up on part way through.  

I'm not saying that quests or other forms of canned tasks are bad and should
be avoided; they're just a limited form that, for many, are unsatisfying
(how many?  Well, some number larger than all the people who played The Sims
and then churned out of an MMO in the first month, say).  Whether that crowd
is important will vary from game to game and depends on the filters you
apply. You remember I'm sure when Bing was cruising the halls at EA saying
that The Sims might sell 250K units, tops...

Mike Sellers