The next level of questing
by Mike Schramm 
Aug 2nd 2009 at 2:00PM
Elnia at the Pink Pigtail Inn has some excellent and interesting advice for Blizzard's quest designers (or whoever they hire for the current position). As big a component as quests are in the game, they haven't been innovated on much since the game's release. Blizzard has played around a little bit with allowing us to repeat certain quests, and they've streamlined the group questing mechanic, but other than that, quests are pretty much the same: pick up a task, do it, and bring it back for a reward.So how can it be done differently? Elnia has some great ideas: she asks for quests that span a little farther, that push players through a storyline that might even follow them all the way up to 80 (of course, there are quests like that, though they're few and far between -- and not all players have the patience to finish them). Rewards could be mixed up, too -- instead of the old gold and XP, how about some profession skill, or a tradeoff of badges based on certain quests done. Finally, Elnia suggests that every quest in the game become repeatable. Questing is paced to keep us interested in from 1-60, but we all know how the game works now -- why not let us do some of our favorite quests over more than once?
I'd suggest we go even farther -- Warhammer Online offers Public Quests that are an interesting twist on the usual "go kill boars" mechanic. I'd like to see branching quests with more than one outcome -- maybe a moral choice to make that affects the storyline of the quest you're doing. And talking real pie-in-the-sky here, I'd like to see questgivers treat you different based on the way you look or maybe what title you've got equipped. If you've got "Jenkins," they might not expect you to do much, but with "Champion of Ulduar" over your head, they should probably be groveling at your feet.
Filed under: Virtual selves, Quests, Leveling
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Aarkan Aug 2nd 2009 2:08PM
What's with all the Jenkins hate?
ziggler Aug 2nd 2009 3:12PM
jenkins title is the new night elf melee hunter named xxlegolasxx
Amaxe Aug 2nd 2009 4:40PM
*EVERYONE* has it, so it isn't worth much.
Or at least that is why I never use it
McRaider Aug 3rd 2009 10:33AM
I don't have it. Haven't bothered yet.
Hawk Aug 2nd 2009 2:08PM
Public Quests would be awesome! That was the one thing I did like in WAR. But I feel like they went for quantity over quality. Some were really cool, like the first Greenskin one, where you feed the giant a ton of beer and he helps you blow up the Dwarfs stronghold. Blizzard could offer their own spin on PQ's, and I'm sure it would be incredible.
usagizero Aug 2nd 2009 3:47PM
I loved the public quests... until people out leveled them and there was no one to help do past stage one. The idea is sound though, it's sort of like a quick pug raid, that you can jump into at any stage. How i play the most, this is perfect.
Bossy Aug 2nd 2009 2:09PM
PLEASE Blizzard stay away as far as possible with Public Quests ...
Group quest killing EVERY 15 minutes the same boss is SOOOOOO stupid.
One of the MANY failures of Warhammer.
And Blizz please do NOT hire Mark Jacobs or that jumping Jack idiot of a Paul guy.
If they would I 'LL leave World of Warcraft NOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mr. Tastix Aug 2nd 2009 3:21PM
Meh, Public Quests were pretty good. One of the few things I liked about WAR because it was completely different and not a rip-off of something from WoW (since WoW doesn't have PQ's). And why the hell would they hire Mark Jacobs? It'd be like hiring the bloody enemy.
Tolkfan Aug 2nd 2009 2:20PM
Here's a pro tip on what quests NOT to make:
quest#1 - go kill me some bad guys at location X and come back to me
quest#2 - go bring/use some item at location X and come back to me
quest #3 - escort some guy TWICE through location X and come back to me
quest #4 - go back to location X AGAIN (!) and kill the big bad guy at the end
ofc, each time the mobs have respawned and you'll have to kill them over and over and over
YES Felwood Shadow Council Quest, I'm looking at you!
Itanius Aug 2nd 2009 2:51PM
I agree here, and I'm glad Blizzard has mostly abandoned this old school quest design principle (in WotLK).
usagizero Aug 2nd 2009 3:52PM
one of my least favorite (and actually i hate with a passion) are the quests where you click a clicky and hope it has the item you need, all the while fighting off quickly respawning mobs. :P
Same for the very low drop rate items on mobs, and that stupid cheese for glowersomething cooking daily where you have to try to beat others for those stupid glasses. Frustrating and not fun.
Tori Aug 2nd 2009 4:11PM
Ugh, that's a personal pet peeve of mine:
When you're asked to kill x amount of mobs, then you go hand that quest in and the questgiver says to go back to that same place to do something again. I've done quest chains where you go back and forth 3 or 4 times, and you have to re-kill everything each time. -_-
Malfural Aug 3rd 2009 3:15PM
I remember a really annoying quest that told you to kill Murlocs in Hillsbrad Foothills. When you were done, the guy realised he hadn't asked you to bring back proof, so you get a new quest to kill the exact same murlocs and collect their heads (which don't drop all the time).
TJ Aug 2nd 2009 2:22PM
Public quests are good in theory, but not so much in practice.
I played WAR at launch at was pretty much leveling at the same pace as most of the group, therefore public quests were nice and quick because there was almost always a group there.
Then I went and made an alt just to try it out, and the zones were (for the most part) deserted, as I was now waaaaay behind the curve. Public quests became literally impossible to complete, because I was the only one there, and as you progress through the quests the enemies basically go from normal mobs, to tough mobs, to elite mobs, to boss mobs. Most classes couldn't solo much past tough mobs, if that.
With wow so far into its life cycle, I think PQs would be one of the worst things they could implement.
BooCat Aug 2nd 2009 5:12PM
Public Quests at high levels would not face this problem, at level 80 Public Quest would not get old and thre would be all always players around.
VioletPheonix Aug 2nd 2009 5:29PM
Okay Boo, but what happens when the new expansion hits and no one is in the 80 zones anymore? The quests will be just as abandoned as TJ found them.
Eisengel Aug 3rd 2009 5:01AM
Then what we need are... scaling PQs. Scale them based on the highest level in the party... so you can go back with 80s and hit them if you want. If they dropped items, and then badges based on your level bracket, no prob.
Omega2k3 Aug 3rd 2009 8:24PM
That wouldn't work for a variety of reasons. Mainly, public quests are _public_, so even if you have a party, everyone in the area will be participating. You can't scale to a single party. It would also totally ruin the zone mobs, since that's what the objectives are, and change their levels for people who need them for other things.
They would basically have to restrict it to one zone that's easily closed off at the next expansion to really be worth it. But honestly, from my experience with WAR, the PQs weren't AT ALL worth it, and happened to be kind of boring. Might as well just think of a different mechanic that keep people actually interested instead of simply grinding mobs under the guise of a 'public quest'.
Falcon6 Aug 2nd 2009 2:23PM
I know they've made it so some quest givers treat you differently based on what you've done in the past.
For example, Garrosh will either commend you for your bravery in Nagrand if you did the Thrall questline there, or he'll look to you like dirt, each one telling you to leave Northrend.
I got both with my seasoned 70 Hunter that did the questline and my leveling 70 Warrior that only went to Nagrand for the easy quests.
They've gotten a bit better with NPCs celebrating the victories of the players. Though it's always odd to hear the Kirin Tor NPCs saying "Noobkillz, a pleasure to see you."
Kvothe Aug 2nd 2009 3:43PM
In some cases, the quest givers DO remember if you've done a previous quest. This is especially true during long quest series, where the default "click on npc" text will change in order to be part of the advancing quest dialog. One example that comes to mind is the Linken quest chain in Un'Goro; only at one point in the quest will Linken greet you with the phrase "pay me and I'll talk..."
In terms of actually remembering whether you've done a quest in another zone, that happens too on occasion. Gryan Stoutmantle in Grizzly Hills will remember you from your time in Westfall, greeting you with conversation about which reward you picked from the end of his chain.
Overall, it does happen, it just needs to happen more often to be noticed.