quest-design
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The Mists of Pandaria that never was
It wasn't until after a few weeks of raiding Siege of Orgrimmar that it really hit me: Mists of Pandaria is winding down. Unless Blizzard has a fast one up its sleeve, this is the last tier of raiding before the new expansion, whatever that happens to be. It seems almost too fast, seeing as how we've just hit the one-year anniversary for Mists, but at the same time the faster pace has left me very little time to be bored. Between patches with raid content and patches with quest content, there has always been something to do -- and in patch 5.4, we get not only a new raid, but a delightful island on which to while away the hours. And I was flying to the Timeless Isle to go farm a rare mob or two when I started thinking about the expansion as it comes to its end. More specifically, the Jade Forest. A lush, tropical paradise the likes of which we hadn't really seen in such scale, the gorgeous scenery and introductory quests ushered players through what ended up being an emotional, gripping, and overall entertaining roller coaster of an expansion. But there's a catch to that. Once upon a time, the Jade Forest wore a very different face -- and had it gone live, Pandaria itself may have looked very, very different to players.
Patch 5.2 and beyond with Dave Kosak
Hot on the heels of the official patch 5.2 trailer, we had the opportunity to sit down and speak with one of the developers behind it all. While chatting with Lead Quest Designer Dave Kosak about patch 5.2 and its development, one thing became incredibly clear -- 5.2 is definitely not just a raid and a few dailies. There is far, far more to be seen and experienced in the new patch. Read on for some of the details behind the trailer released earlier today, the story in the new patch, daily quest development, scenarios, and even a few hints at what's in store for patch 5.3. Please note: There are a couple of minor spoilers for 5.2 content in the interview. Nothing huge, we promise!
A spoiler-free look at the Mists of Pandaria beta
Are you in the beta for Mists of Pandaria yet? Are you fastidiously avoiding spoilers about all beta-related content? As a site that covers Warcraft news, you'll find more often than not that we have a lot of content up on the site that could be considered spoilers. And if you're someone who's avoiding all that spoiler content, it can get a little frustrating to have to keep scrolling past all that information -- or even more frustrating, dealing with the temptation that all of the spoiler information you could ever want to indulge, just behind that click. Well, that's not what this article is about. It's about the beta, but it's a spoiler-free look at the beta. You'll see some screenshots, but mostly what you'll be reading is what the beta is like. No spoilers of cool story information or anything of that nature here -- just information on Mists, how it looks, how it's shaping up, and what to expect in the event that you do get a beta invite and would like to indulge.
Mists of Pandaria Beta: New icons make questing a breeze
Do you remember the times you had a quest in your log that asked you to go speak to someone in particular? Or the quests that required you to speak to or deliver something to several different people? It was almost impossible to track where those people were, since they weren't marked with a yellow exclamation point, and they didn't glitter like most quest objectives. Well, that issue has suddenly evaporated in Mists of Pandaria with the introduction of a new quest icon. In much the same fashion as the usual exclamation points in blue and yellow (and question marks of the same color), all of those pesky people you have to talk to are now marked by a simple yellow word balloon over their head. But the improvements go further than just that -- quest targets are also marked on your minimap for you with a white word balloon icon, as well. And if that's not enough for you, there's also a new icon for interactive objects -- a floating yellow set of gears. This seems to be for quests that involve searching for clues or items you need to examine; the gears float over the various quest objectives. Both new icons are bright and easy to see, clear indicators that whatever they're floating over is part of a quest you have in your logs. Both of these situations are something I'd chalked up to one of those little annoyances that I rarely thought about. But now that I've seen the solution in action, it's elegantly done and makes the entire questing experience much smoother. These improvements are both small additions, but they add so much to the overall experience that you start to wonder how you lived without them. The Mists leveling experience is pleasant so far, but it's the little additions like these that make all the difference. It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
Mists of Pandaria: Dave "Fargo" Kosak interview
Dave "Fargo" Kosak, lead quest designer for World of Warcraft, sat down with us at the Mists of Pandaria press event for an interview. We talked about the Horde/Alliance conflict, voice acting, pop culture references, Mists' accelerated production schedule, and more. Check it out! WoW Insider: I guess I'm just gonna start off with some basic stuff. Dave Kosak: Basic stuff is good! Let's start with your overall philosophy for Mists of Pandaria. Well, we're constantly experimenting with quests, and in Cataclysm, we created some pretty linear zones, as I'm sure you might've noticed. Some really big story arcs and big finishes. Certainly like in Mount Hyjal, we phased a huge amount of the zone, which worked because it was a pretty linear zone. A couple drawbacks, though: It was a shame that on your second or third time through, you had to play it exactly the same way. You know, you kinda lose some of that open-world feeling, you lose a little bit of that exploration when it's linear like that. But we loved the storytelling, so what we wanted to do with Mists was keep that kind of storytelling but make sure that you have the opportunity to go out and explore and experience the expansion differently, so ... let's see.
Dave Kosak talks quest design in Cataclysm
World of Warcraft Lead Quest Designer Dave "Fargo" Kosak posted a long entry today giving a post-mortem of Cataclysm's questing experience. It's a very interesting read for everyone who wants a little insight into the inner workings of WoW's design right now. Of note is that Blizzard felt spread too thin with the ambitious revamping of the entire old world. That lead to less-than-ideal elements in the current endgame experience, which in turn is a key component of many player's dislike of Cataclysm. Say what you will about people's complaints, but it's a good thing that Blizzard is able to look at itself with such a critical eye and fine tune its future processes to make things even better. Some of the key points: The primary goal of Cataclysm was to remake the 1-to-60 experience, keep it relevant to new players. Blizzard is happy with the old world revamp. Blizzard felt spread too thin, which resulted from the total revamp of the old world. The 80-to-85 zones don't feel as connected to each other as Blizzard would have liked. "Phasing is like a story sledgehammer." They want future phasing to not split players up but to provide visual changes only you can see (like in the 4.2 dailies). "Cataclysm was in many ways Thrall's story." Future legendary quest lines will be a lot like the Fangs of the Father quests that rogues are experiencing right now. Blizzard is refocusing on core gameplay mechanics. The full post after the break. You can also take a look at our own post-mortem of Cataclysm's zones we did in late 2011.
WildStar unveils questing with a Twitter budget
Nobody likes reading quest text. Having to sift through five paragraphs of text just to figure out what you're doing isn't anyone's idea of a good time. The latest entry in the WildStar Wednesday series of developer blogs is all about how the team has tried to do away with mind-numbing and ponderous quest text. And the narrative design team does so by paring down quest text to a quick snippet no longer than a Twitter post. While there are ways to construct smaller entries, of course, the entry discusses how the 140-character limit makes for a good building block to keep players engaged -- it's short enough that you can read it quickly but not so short that it omits important information. In addition to showing a quest get brought down to a quick bite-sized snippet, the entry also talks about keeping control in the hands of the player and letting the story unfold organically, both things that should be of interest to WildStar fans eager for more information.
BioWare's Erickson talks about creating MMO story
Story is on everyone's mind when it comes to discussing Star Wars: The Old Republic, and who better to talk to than one of the devs primarily responsible for creating it. PC Gamer does just that in a new interview with BioWare writer Daniel Erickson. The development process is quite complex, and it's also one that takes some time given the hundreds of hours of dialogue required, not to mention the interplay between quest NPCs and players. Erickson says that the world-building team uses "greybox" placeholders to connect story quests together while the technical and narrative details are ironed out, and there's a lot less room for error than there is in a typical single-player RPG. "You can teleport people around in a normal RPG, you can fake things, you can make it look like you went from one place to another because there's a secret room hidden in the wall – you can do all sorts of chicanery that, if you tried to do in an MMO somebody's gonna find that room, somebody's gonna teleport out. We have to cheat a lot less, and that takes more time," Erickson explains.
City of Heroes explores the process of making missions
It's been a little while since the last installment of City of Heroes' developer dispatch newsletter, the Intrepid Informer, due in no small part to the upcoming hybrid business model domination the news sphere. But the second part of the series on designing missions for the games has just recently been posted, giving players a look behind the scenes at the process that goes into crafting compelling arcs for players to enjoy time and again. Penned by Matt Miller, the installment explains some of the thought processes that go on during mission development. For example, as Miller explains, the main reason that level bands restrict available enemy groups is simply plausibility -- if you're still seeing Hellions at level 50, it implies that the Rikti are essentially equivalent to punks in red jackets. Miller also talks about the importance of finding little quirks to help the mission feel unique and memorable, an important element in a game that allows you to flash back to older missions at almost any time. It's sure to be an interesting read for longtime fans interested in seeing how the team goes about taking a broad concept and turns it into a playable arc.
TERA's David Noonan on building smart quests
Quests are such an integral part of current-gen MMORPG gameplay that players sometimes take them for granted. Collecting this or killing that is so ingrained in the gamer psyche that it's easy to overlook the work that goes into making a good quest (or the potential impact that unique quests have on the play experience). TERA lead writer David Noonan has been thinking a lot about quests, and he recently shared a bit of insight with GameZone regarding how the team of writers at En Masse Entertainment is building better quests. Much of the team's effort goes toward ensuring the quality (and relevancy) of a given quest regardless of when a player chooses to accept it. Quests that capture a player's interest before (or after) a villain or boss fight are the ultimate goal. "That's what we call a smart quest: a quest that's designed with an awareness of its emotional, storytelling, and world-building surroundings... When you see a smart quest... it's because someone thought through all the narrative, emotional, and gameplay implications beforehand," Noonan explains.
Cataclysm Preview: Ashenvale
To be honest with you, I never really cared too much for Ashenvale. I quested there on my first character, and it was a little bit frustrating. I kept getting mauled by these ultra-high-level Horde NPCs whenever I tried sneaking through Splintertree Post. There were a bunch of Alliance NPCs in Raynewood Retreat who had no quests to offer, nothing to sell me and nothing to say to me. The whole zone felt a little weird and creepy. Oh, and there was no volcano. That part sucked the most. Well, good news. Blizzard just did an in-house interview with Ashenvale quest designers Eric Maloof and Steve Burke to give us all some insight on the changes coming to the zone in Cataclysm. Like how there's a volcano now. A really big volcano. It sounds like most of the changes involved really play up the Horde-vs.-Alliance aspect of the zone, so it sounds like Ashenvale will be a very interesting place on RP PvP servers. Just think: You could be ganking a gnome priest ... in a freakin' volcano. The full interview is after the break, if you're one of those people who really likes spoilers. If you don't like spoilers, you should maybe forget that part about the volcano. Sorry.
Quaggan sad: A look back at the Guild Wars 2 Dynamic Events panel
At the top of my to-do list for Saturday morning at PAX was Designing Dynamic Events, a Guild Wars 2 panel with designers Eric Flannum and Colin Johanson. Talk and video of the panel have been everywhere this week, and I wanted to take a little bit of time to give my thoughts on what they did and how it was received. The panel was billed as a discussion about "how Guild Wars 2 designers create events in the dynamic, living game world and the many factors to consider when designing any kind of MMO content." It sounded interesting, but it was a ticketed event with limited attendance, which seemed strange to me. I managed to get a ticket and was even more confused when I walked into the relatively tiny room. Why such a small place for something that would certainly have drawn a huge crowd? It all became clear very soon, so follow along after the cut to hear more about my take on the new things we learned in Designing Dynamic Events.
Telling a story without quest text
Tyllendel's friend had an interesting reaction to the game when he first played it: he felt that all of the quest text was unbearable, and that he wanted to play the game rather than reading what NPCs told him. We've talked a little bit about this before -- obviously, when Blizzard kicked off WoW nearly five years ago, quest text was just the way quests were done, and while Blizzard has expanded the concept a bit since, it's still mostly the way MMOs work: you go to a character, talk to them, and they tell you where to go and what to do.But I can see Tyl's friend's point: games are much less about telling these days and more about showing. You might understand how, if you've never played an MMO before, reading the quest text can take you right out of the game, rather than running off with an NPC or having the game show you rather than just tell you what to do. And Blizzard is getting there: later in the thread Slorkuz points out the recent Afrasiabi interview, and talks about how Alex mentions new ways of doing quests. For example, the quest team is trying to do a quest with no text, or direct players' attention without actually telling them, "look here." Text is the easiest and most basic way to help players accomplish goals, but as the game moves on, even the developers realize it's not the most elegant or immersive way to do it.
GDC09: Spending time with the cruise director of Azeroth
At GDC09, we got to talk with many people and listened to a variety of panels on all aspects of game design. But there was little doubt as to which panel attracted loads of attention -- the Jeff Kaplan panel on quest design in World of Warcraft.Warcraft has come extremely far in terms of their UI design and quest implementation since the game launched back in 2004. Just between 2007 and 2009, Kaplan revealed that over 8,570,222,436 quests have been completed, while the daily average was 16,641,409. With those numbers in place, it's safe to say that World of Warcraft players are driven by their questing.Kaplan's panel revealed a few tricks of the trade, as well as his beliefs regarding questing, so without further adieu let's get into the meat of his panel.%Gallery-49071%
GDC09: Spending time with the cruise director of Azeroth pt. 2
Mistakes of World of Warcraft Kaplan was quick to note that Warcraft was far from perfect, and he wanted to highlight some of his own mistakes inside of the design. The first mistake was the idea of the "Christmas tree effect," otherwise known as having so many quests in a quest hub that the minimap lights up with exclamation points like a Christmas tree. While players enjoy this, Kaplan wanted to say that the developer loses call control over the player at these points, as the player will not read any quest text in their clicking frenzy. There's no control over what quest leads into what or which order the player will do the quests in. The second was the internet adage of "too long, didn't read." Quest designers don't need to write a book to get their point across with the quests. He brought up that video games had a type of "medium envy," where sometimes they get too preachy with their topics. Games should be fun first, story second. Mystery also falls in this category. The story can provide mystery, but the quest log should never have any mystery to it. The quest log should always point where to go and what to do, but the overall story of those quests may provide some solution to some mystery. Also avoid poorly placed quest chains, like the Chains of Myzrael questline in Arathi Highlands. The Myzrael line was hard to find, ended up spanning 14 levels, and ended with killing an elite mob that was level 44. This quest line was a "brick wall" according to Kaplan, because most players never stuck with it. It's good to have quest chains that span content, but quest chains like this break down trust the player has with the developer. When the player runs into a chain that he can't finish with a monster he can't kill, the player loses trust in the developer's sense of guiding them to fun. He also emphasized to avoid inserting "gimmick quests." His example here was part of the Oculus dungeon where players ride on dragons. These types of quests center around doing something the client may not be able to properly handle. Warcraft was not designed to accommodate vehicles. When developers resort to putting in parts of the game that center around a gimmick, it can detract from the fun of the rest of the game. The horror of collection quests Kaplan's speech ended with an analysis of why people hate collection quests so much, and a few tips on how to make collection quests into a better experience. His problems with the quests stemmed from three areas -- dense creature population, too few of a creature to kill, and having a wide variety of items required for the quest. Having a dense creature population can put off people, especially when there's a lack of the monster required for the quest. If someone has to kill four lions for every one raptor required for the quest, then there's a problem. His other point was that collection quests shouldn't require an insane amount of items. To everyone's amusement, he brought up the Green Hills of Stranglethorn quest chain (a chain he wrote) as the exact thing a designer should never do. Collection quests should be an easily obtainable number of items, and not such a long grind fest with the hope that your required item might drop. Lastly, never have the player question why they're collecting the item required -- it should be clear from the onset. Kaplan brought up the infamous gnoll paw collecting quests, in which gnolls may or may not drop paws upon death, where obviously a gnoll has four paws and not a number between 0 and 1 (which everyone applauded at loudly). Quests should make sense and not become a gimmick in their own right. This causes the player to once again, lose trust. Most of these points that Kaplan has brought up pertain to Warcraft, but can easily be applied to any game on the market. With all of this in mind, perhaps we'll get to see some better design in our MMOs from other developers, now that we're all on the same page... of the Green Hills of Stranglethorn.
When questing is the reward
I've never been a big fan of quests. I've always done them as a means to an end, whether to level up or to earn a bit of Gold. My questing rate dropped considerably once I hit Level 80, with the only quests I did consisting mostly of Wintergrasp dailies and about a week's worth of Ebon Blade dailies in Icecrown to raise my reputation. But the truth is, quests in Wrath of the Lich King have been downright phenomenal. They are well-designed, fun to do, and -- if you actually stop to read the quest text (something I'm often guilty of skipping) -- wonderfully written and filled with story.I finally got off my lazy butt to do the long Sons of Hodir quest chain, a "necessary evil" to raise reputation with what Alex has dubbed one of the most important factions in Wrath. There was little urgency for me to do the chain, considering I was satisfied with the Wintergrasp shoulder enchants even though they wasted points on Resilience. On the other hand, it became increasingly frustrating for me not to be able to assist my wife whenever her character (often) became the target of merciless gankage. You see, like many parts of Northrend, the Storm Peaks zones where you do Sons of Hodir quests are phased. I simply wanted to get to the point where we would be in the same phased stage, so using Alex's handy guide to the Sons of Hodir quest chain, I set off on what was a surprisingly good and fun adventure.
Exclusive interview with AoC Senior Dialog Writer Aaron Dembski-Bowden
Age of Conan has received acclaim from all quarters, especially for the quality of the Tortage quests, dialog and voiceover acting. The credit for a bewilderingly vast amount of this material goes to Aaron Dembski-Bowden, a young British writer already known for his work in the tabletop roleplaying field. We tracked him down and managed to secure an interview. Despite the look in his eyes above, which is the sort of thing you see immediately before your character's arms and head are cut off, he proved a very approachable guy... Let's start with your background, your work to date, what position you held in the AoC team, and what responsibilities that entailed. I've done a bunch of pen 'n paper RPG work (primarily for White Wolf on their World of Darkness game lines) and Mongoose Publishing's various Fantasy genre licences. I'm currently alternating between videogame work and writing Warhammer 40,000 novels for the Black Library, Games Workshop's publishing house. Also, in the few moments of clarity that reach me through the haze of over-coffeed sleepless nights, I still cling to the shreds of useful lore I picked up from my writing degree. This is the part where I should say I've always wanted to be a writer. That's not entirely true. I wanted to be a writer in my teens, when I realised I was too much of a coward to be a paramedic. All that lifesaving sounded like hard work, y'know? And before I wanted to be a paramedic, my only ambition was to be one of the kids that got to hang out with Optimus Prime. In my defence, I was about 4 at the time.
Interview with AoC dialog writer Aaron Dembski-Bowden, part 2
The original Conan stories had some fairly racist dialog. How did you reconcile a hero who makes a point of never abandoning a fellow 'white man' with the gamers of the 21st century? I just didn't present that aspect of him. That links into a later question, actually... Inter-cultural enmity is very much a part of Conan's world, though. Some AoC servers now have 'cultural PvP' where you can attack anyone who's not your countryman. Obviously, much of Howard's original inspiration came from real-world cultures, so stuff like the 'dusky' Stygians being treacherous and decadent is that much closer to the knuckle than, say, a more fantasy-based setting with elves and orcs and so on. How did you feel writing for a world with such a lack of inter-cultural tolerance? Honestly, I didn't feel bad about writing this world for two reasons: one personal, one professional. Firstly, maybe I should have felt bad about it on a personal level, but I never did. That's because I have such little respect for Howard as a person, it was easy to dismiss his attitudes as those of a bastard and not feel bad about it all by ignoring them. I have immense and total respect for his skills as a writer and a storyteller, I know his writings very well, but the guy himself was racist, sexist and the reasons for his suicide always unnerved me. I think there should be room in the world to say 'I love Guy X's work, but I don't want a cup of tea with him' without being fired or sued. Secondly, and far more importantly, because all quests had to be generic for The Player instead of race/class combos, the only intercultural intolerance in the game itself comes from dialog. I did a huge bunch of nation-based dialog options to try and squeeze in the variety wherever I could. That felt great, because it was fun as hell. Just focus on aspects of the culture that aren't linked in any way to today's cultural climate. Stygians have fewer rights than snakes in their homeland. Aquilonians and Cimmerians can mock that instead of calling a Stygian all manner of names because he happens to have dark skin. And those aspects of the cultures are by far the most interesting and relevant parts of the lore, anyway. The Cimmerians believe their god doesn't even answer prayers. A Stygian in the thrall of Set-worship, who sees his god as all-powerful, would focus heavily on cultural differences like that. Mentioning that stuff was cool, and was the main way I missed out on the open racism inherent in Howard's work. On a similar subject, as a dialog writer, how did you tackle the characterization of women in Conan's world? We couldn't help but notice that the second NPC you encounter is a hapless prostitute chained across your path, who begs you for your help! Yeah. A lot of Hyboria as written by Howard was sexist and racist up to 11. A lot of people who've dealt with Conan in the past use the excuse that Howard was from a different era – a product of a different age. It's something even people on the project have said. There's an obvious truth to that, but I don't really accept that as an entirely valid justification. I'm of the mind that the year you were born doesn't really excuse you for being a bastard. I also wasn't overly keen on the way some aspects of the game pander to it. F'rex, calling the whorehouse 'the Bearded Clam' still grinds my gears just a little. The 'boobs and blood' marketing never sat well with me, to be perfectly honest. But then, that's Howardian through and through. Just amped up even further to get attention. I tried very hard to present Howardian writing in both technical form and getting the spirit right. 'Boobs and blood' marketing has never worked on me overmuch, and I tried my best to resist it in the dialog. Game direction did repeatedly say no to explicit sex, which I always thought was a strange touch given other attitudes on display. I dealt with it as best I could. Several characters (like the mistress of the Tortage whorehouse; the barmaid Alyssa; Countess Albiona) have dialogue relating to sex. I tried to make it thematic and cool without being gratuitous or sounding like something from Beavis & Butthead. The conversation you can have with Sancha in Tortage, when you can question why the whores are complaining about not being paid for their 'pleasurable job', is some of the stuff I'm proudest of. I feel like Sancha's reactions in that conversation tree bring some of the game's attempted maturity to the fore. You make it sound as if there were 'creative differences', as the boy bands put it, between yourself and the game's directors. Not so much. I mean, on a project this size there'll always be differences, but it was actually pretty smooth sailing. Game direction never stamped on any of my pretty-pretty-princess dreams. However, to explain better: the inspirational quote on our internal homepage, for every day of the project, was 'Combat, combat, combat – the game in a nutshell'. That's fine; that's what sells copies of the game more than anything. Let's just say that I was always made very aware that the writing on the project was considered overall as something of a side consideration. More like polish, really. Game direction as regards to the writing was very loose. The strictures I mentioned (no race/class quests, and no sex) were in place, and that was pretty much that. No dream-stamping in view. Besides, I'm sure anyone on any project can point to things they wished they could do differently. Saddur is supposed to be a eunuch, right? Yeah. I really dig his voice, too. Before I heard it, I'd always imagined he'd sound like the narrator in Baldur's Gate. You know the one I mean. That guy. 'You must gather your party before venturing forth.' I put that line in AoC, by the way. And it was freaking worth it, tells ya. How do you feel about writing for a backstory that the player has no choice in? In a shared world, it seems weird that every single Age of Conan character washed up on the same beach with the same Acheronian mark on their breast. Would you have liked to give players more freedom? I'd have loved to do more with it. I've got two things to say to that, I guess. One would be that, well, it's an MMO. We tried hard with the story, but the fact it's an MMO was severely limiting in that regard. It's the same with WoW – you need to suspend your disbelief because the world is populated by a thousand other versions of people on the same story as you. Every Horde character that levels in Eversong Woods and the Ghostlands is 'that one character' responsible for bringing in Dar'Khan's head and getting the Blood Elves involved with the Horde. Same deal here. We wanted the story to be a personal one, but the necessities of the MMO format mean you've got to...hand-wave a little. The second thing I'd say is that we've got a dedicated Live team, which (ahem) I happen to be part of. I genuinely have zero idea what the future holds in this score, but if someone ever said I had to do dialog for more starter areas in future patches, I'd not be stunned. Tortage has been incredibly well-received, after all. Most reviews I've seen pin Tortage, its dialog and its varied quests as the high quality point of the game. I stress, again, that I have no idea. I just wouldn't be surprised at more starter areas in X years. That's not insider info; it's just something I think would be cool. AoC has had a spectacular reception so far, with editions selling out all over the place. Did you expect this much success? Honestly, I did. I don't think it's a disservice to say that the main appeals of the game are the GFX (including the blood 'n guts fatalities elements) and the PvP play style. That was always going to sell the game well, and the boobs 'n blood marketing style was hardly a hindrance. I make no claims to being some erudite, highbrow genius that rules above such things, but the focus on certain aspects of the game meant I was sure it would sell well. I still find the concept of an 18+ game apparently selling game-time cards hilarious, though. What, you have a gaming rig capable of AoC, electricity bills, an ISP, and you buy game cards?) but...whatever. Let's not fight, dear. What has pleased me is that beyond the incredible GFX and the PvP, a lot of other jazz is getting praised, too. And yeah, sure I mean my work – but also the VO quality, the quest system, the music that's beyond awesome, and a thousand other touches that make the game whole. Thanks again, Aaron, and congratulations on the ongoing success of Age of Conan!
The Daily Grind: Quest designing
Well, as anyone who has been around MMOs can tell you, one of the most commonly complained about quest types is the "kill x" quests -- where x is any number, just like back in algebra class. Quest designers have been accused of everything from being unimaginative, to being downright lazy for using this mechanic so frequently in their games. We keep waiting for someone to offer something more. Today we thought we'd ask you what kinds of quests you'd design if you were able to create MMO quests. (And don't be surprised if we pelt you with rotten produce if you answer with the "kill-x" variable.) Would you use more stealthy missions, quests involving retrieving a certain item that you had to fight your way through a bunch of bad guys to get to? Timed? Escorts? What is your ideal quest design?
