Fetch This...Kill That...Are MMO Quests Too Boring?

swhipgaming.blogspot.com

  Have you ever been playing your favorite MMO, and come to the realization that all the quests/missions are the same?  Maybe the backgrounds where you're killing the enemies or where you're picking up items that you need to return to look quest giver change, but the goals are ultimately the same.  Is there any hope for this style of game or are all in MMOs doomed?

  Luckily for developers, the answer to that would be no, the genre is not doomed.  The key, however, lies in the context which the player is performing these mundane actions. The story is the answer to providing this important context. When I say story, I don't mean give the player 5 paragraphs to read, because quite honestly, a lot of players will not read it if it is that long, sad, but true. So, if you must have a awesome story to provide reason, or context, to the player, but you can't give a wall of text, then there mustn't be anything that can be done about it, right? Wrong, read on...Story devs pay extra attention!

  In this age of ultra short attention spans, developers have to be very efficient and to the point.  So the best solution to the problem at hand is what we like to call "story tib bits".  In other words, try to keep your quest or mission flavor text as short as possible, meaning no longer than three or four sentences or a paragraph.  Another great solution, which a lot of recent games are using, is to have fully voiced NPCs, however, this does not alleviate the problem of the short attention span, as one can also get bored by a overly talkative quest giver, even if it is fully voiced acted.

  I will provide you with a small "quest arc" for one of the projects I'm working on currently: so you're running through the forest, and you happen upon a little hut.  As you near the hut an older lady calls out to you " If you have a second could you please come talk to me?".  Upon talking to her, she says, "I was making stew and I had my carrots all laid out here ready for chopping.  I walked into my home for only a second and something has taken them away, can you please go find more carrots for me or at least get mine back?".  So you travel little ways forward, and you notice there's this little rabbit like creature munching on a pile of carrots.  As you near it is starts to run away, so you have to chase it down, the whole time it's dropping carrots behind it, which you can pick up.  When you finally have it cornered, it turns into a giant rabbit beast, boss monster thing.  After destroying the beast you can finally collect the remaining carrots for the old lady's stew and take them back to her, or you can choose to explore the monsters lair a bit more.  If you decide to do that you are rewarded with another quest. Of course this was just an example of how a little mundane task can be made into an epic adventure.

  So really, It's not important what the task is, whether it's killing 10 giant beetles or collecting herbs, as long as you strive for a fitting context and throw in a few twists and turns anything can seem like an awesome quest line! Games like, The Secret World and, more recently, The Elder Scrolls Online have figured this formula out...Although the latter can be a bit too windy at times. Also, actions speak mush louder words, so if you can show the player something rather than just tell them, do that instead, and I don't mean play some super long cut scene that takes the player oit of the action, but rather make something happen around the player, while they are still in control of their avatars, it's more interesting that way. 'Til next time folks!