Why WoW quests suck, and are awesome
by Eliah Hecht 
Apr 9th 2008 at 3:00PM
Any poster that leads off talking about how Feralas is her favorite zone is a friend of mine. Cuppycake (great name there as well) has an excellent post up about questing in WoW (warning: some NSFW language). On the one hand, WoW quests are repetitive -- most of them are either "kill 10 rats" or "be my FedEx guy" -- and they don't tend to tie in to or have lasting effects on the broader story of the game (the current Shattered Sun story excepted).But on the other hand, it's very fun (Cuppycake uses a different word than "very"). It's a bit hard to put my finger on it, but WoW quests (most of them, anyway) have that little extra something that makes for a very satisfying gaming experience. It's like getting a star in Super Mario Galaxy. A small fragment of lasting achievement is enough to make it feel worth doing to me -- as the post says, an objective is what I need. Give me something to work for and I'll do it, as long as it feels like I'm making progress, and it isn't too slow (I'm not the best at rep grinds).
I know people that are the opposite. I tried to set my girlfriend up with WoW one day (I've tried a few times, but this was the first). She picked human, figured out the controls relatively quickly, and soon grabbed Wolves Across the Border. And stopped. "Why do I want to kill the wolves?" she asked. "They didn't do anything to me. And they're clearly not dangerous -- look, there's one standing there. It's friendly." I tried to explain that the reason to kill the wolves is because that's what the quest is for, and you want to do the quests, but she wasn't having any of it. We ended up playing hide-and-seek around the abbey for a while before she got tired of my nagging her and logged off. Maybe she would like Second Life better. She wasn't motivated by the goal of the quest, because it had nothing to do with her and her character's story.
The interesting thing is, I've had this experience in other games. LotRO, Puzzle Pirates, Super Smash Brothers Brawl. They didn't grab me, at least not in terms of trying to reach goals. And as I said earlier, I can't quite put my finger on why. The quests are the right level of easy but not boringly so, big enough to feel like an accomplishment, but small enough to be done in a discrete block of time. And that's certainly part of it. The rewards, small as they may be, are a big part of it to; ever since the beginning of my WoW playing days, I've loved nothing more than coming back to town and seeing gold dots light up the mini-map (gold question marks now). Anyway, whatever it is, I'm glad WoW has it.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Quests
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Manatank Apr 9th 2008 3:31PM
Kill quests are awesome. Drop rate quests suck.
peaglemancer Apr 9th 2008 3:50PM
Lies, the Nesingwary kill 10, now kill 100, now kill 1000 pattern is evidence of Lucifer himself.
Manatank Apr 9th 2008 3:53PM
But you always know how long it will take, and more importantly if you are in a group everyone's kills count to the total. With drop rate quests you have no idea how long it will take, and if you are grouping, then everyone has to get all the drops. That said, kill quests that require more than 10 kills can get pretty annoying.
John Apr 9th 2008 3:35PM
It's pretty simple really, you want to kill the wolves because if memory serves you will get enough xp to ding level 2.
Malyfactian Apr 9th 2008 3:35PM
"Why do I want to kill the wolves?" she asked. "They didn't do anything to me. And they're clearly not dangerous -- look, there's one standing there. It's friendly."
My wife said almost the EXACT same thing!! :-D
Blizzard are the masters of the 'constant reward system' theory of gaming. Cue-driven, goal oriented progression. It's the unseen force behind of World of WarCrack.
John Apr 9th 2008 3:40PM
watch the wolves long enough and you'll notice them hunting the critters, the poor defenseless critters, so save the critters from the wolves if you need justification. :)
Ashwin Apr 10th 2008 12:10PM
It's fun to play your character, it's even more fun to level up, the fact that even between levels you get rewards adds another bonus.
As for that quest, well, killing wolves to feed a hungry man seems a good deed to me.
Or you can see some area with more compelling starting quests. the draenei area comes to mind.
Although no area feels less frivolous and more business like than the UD starting area, so that may be a good idea if she is not turned off by the nastiness.
Once she gets to higher levels she can be more selective in questing.
Zali Apr 9th 2008 3:48PM
I think they have a very good mix when it comes to questing. Yes, some can be quite dullsville, but most seem to have a point.
Early leveling quests are usually designed to just do simple tasks that help the user with learning the mechanics of the game, open up parts of the map, and give directions to a new zone. As you get higher in level, you start to find better lore related quests and some story lines. I just dig these ones.
I'm not a lore guy myself. I can hardly remember what boss is where, and who did what to whom when and why everyone is so pissed off at whatshisname. Too complicated. But I just dig an epic quest line. In fact, one of the most enjoyable in game experiences that I've had since I lvl 70 was the quest line for my epic flight form. Good gravy, thats the longest quest chain in the game I bet. How many quests is it? 20? It took hours, but it never got dull. I can't spend a couple hours killing netherweb spiders for their silk, even though I need them every day for tailoring... I have about a 30 minute attention span for grinding. But a great quest line is a beaty to behold.
Now that I have gotten a few pieces of gold back in my pocket after spending the 5000G on epic flight, I am planning on working my way through zones and starting to do every low level quest I can find. Partly because I'm a completist, partly for the rep, but mostly because I enjoy the little mini-story's that you get in a lot of them.
Except for anything that takes me to Gnomeragen. I'm Alliance all the way, but one thing I agree with the Whored on, Gnomes should be KOS, if only because they built that horrid city.
Worst. Instance. Ever!
David Apr 9th 2008 3:55PM
For Drop Quests, I'd rather have to have a TON of pickups than have a drop rate of less than 50%. Its frustrating to kill and kill and get no reward.
And it makes more sense that everyone (or nearly) everyone has a drop. Defias scarfs? every model is wearing one! Fuzz/hair/feathers from a beast? they all have it. You want 40 pieces of hair? Crap. Ok. But I'd rather do that than need to turn in 10 with a 25% drop rate.
D
Carcasshoof Apr 9th 2008 3:54PM
Love Shaman totens quests! :]
Candina@WH Apr 9th 2008 4:00PM
There is a special place in hell for the writer of the shammy totem quests and the druid acquatic form quest.
I'm taking calls for members of the firing squad, and EVERYONE gets a bullet.
Grrr.......
Carcasshoof Apr 9th 2008 4:53PM
(sarcasm) ;(
MechChef Apr 9th 2008 4:03PM
Like every sentient creature I've ever killed in WoW, most have them never done me wrong. Some may aggro on me as I'm riding through a zone, but to them, I'm the invader. I'm on their turf.
What right do I have to take their lives? They're probably trying to irk out a living too, maybe even level up or doing their own quests.
Then again, like everything else in this game, they're immaterial. They aren't alive, they're not real. It's just something I have to do to earn immaterial money, or immaterial items. It's the boring crap this game forces you to do so you can eventually play the real game: Working together with other in instances or raids. (we're just talking PVE right now)
So I wouldn't say most quests are awesome at all. Some are interesting in that I feel as if I'm actually helping the story. The rest are just odd jobs I have to do eventually play the real game.
darian Apr 9th 2008 5:32PM
My main is an undead warrior. Anytime I need to cough up a motivation for why he's carved an indiscriminate path of destruction and death across continents and even worlds I give the following explanation.
My character is a wanted serial killer. In fact, he was caught and executed, but his burning hatred of all things living, and a lucky bit of plague, brought him back to continue his heinous killing spree.
When I had a Night Elf, my explanation was "Now that we're not immortal, who the hell cares about protecting life and nature?"
Xeren Apr 9th 2008 5:51PM
I know that a lot of people would agree that the game starts at 70, but i'm guessing there's an even bigger, but less vocal group of people that think the game ends at 70.
Yeah, the quests are kills this, collect that, but they allow you to immerse yourself in the environment in WoW.
When I look back, my favorite moments in the game so far haven't been downing a really hard boss, they've been when I first traveled to Nagrand and looked to my right as I was heading from the consortium to Telaar and saw this huge crystal off in the distance in the middle of a large green field, or the first time I made it up to the gnomish airport, and then eventually climbed up to the peak of the mountain nearbye and found the sign marking the first dwarf who had climbed that peak.
Not to say that the other view isn't valid, it's just strange to me when some poeple don't appreciate the journey as well as the destination.
pdkm Apr 9th 2008 4:21PM
I would suggest that you have your wife roll a Draeni. The initial questlines there are interesting and all have purpose. Kill 10 fleshbeasts, the Exodar crashlanding here has changed them from harmless little critters into abominations! Please save the environment! Help us to Exterminate them!
Dave Apr 9th 2008 4:36PM
Technically, she doesn't have to roll Draenei. She just has to get someone to help her run her over to the Exodar from her starting zone. Easy for Nelfs. Slightly harder for the other races.
I've been working up a Draenei recently, but started him in the human area. Having done a Nelf and a different Draenei already, I wanted to see a new starting area. My runner was a hunter friend, and that worked beautifully, as he could fire off quick shots from a distance and with no casting time. My aggro range running through the Wetlands was only about 6 miles. Stupid freakin' crocolisks...
Mathion Apr 9th 2008 8:53PM
or a blood elf if she wants a good looking character. and their starting quest is to kill out of control mana worms.
Xeren Apr 9th 2008 5:40PM
Last i'd checked, only draenai could do the levels 1-5 quests in the Draenai starting zone, has this since changed?
zappo Apr 9th 2008 5:16PM
You know what actually makes the quests more interesting? Read the actual text and what the quest is about. The first quests are good tutorials, but after that many of the quests around Azeroth have really cool stories bound to them. In contrast the quests in Outland tend to be more varied and interesting to do but also tend to lack the creativity in the storyline. I also find it a bit sad when I told someone one of my favorite quests involved the blood elf guy having an affair at Falcon Watch. Turns out the person had DONE the quest but simply does not register any of the story lines in their head AT ALL. That's fine, but this person also complained about finding the game's story to be lacking...
And I disagree with Cuppycake about helping NPCs with personal struggles that don't affect Azeroth as a whole. When was the last time you helped someone in a way that made a profound impact on your nation as a whole? Oh yeah, never :p Some quests acknowledge you as being significant if not playing a vital role. WoW is about being able to participate in the world that Blizzard has created, not being supreme being over it - there are lots of single player games for that.