Comments on: Questing for Fun not Profit

By: Anjin

Anjin — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 23:28:29 +0000

I have very different relationships with gray quests depending on whether I’m not my first play through or I’m playing an alt. My first time through a game, I’m more than happy to do everything, even if I out level it, just to experience the story. On a second, third, or more time through, I just want to hit the leveling treadmill as fast as possible.

By: xXJayeDuBXx

xXJayeDuBXx — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 02:33:11 +0000

I have been going back and finishing those grey quests in LOTRO for the money and the rep if there is any.

By: Yeebo

Yeebo — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 17:58:47 +0000

LoTRO is one of the few MMOs with story lines strong enough to make gray quests worthwhile IMO. Even in LoTRO, I tend to leave gray quests for my alts. I see it as content that will still be fresh my next time through a zone.

By: Ysharros

Ysharros — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 21:14:20 +0000

I love grey quests! Most of the time I’m too busy doing something else in level-appropriate zones (no, not THAT! — usually it’s harvesting), and I don’t adventure all that much. That and with me being mostly solo and a slacker, a lot of what I experience in games is grey content. Doesn’t bother me at all, because I don’t give a rat’s ass whether content is challenging or not, since that’s not what entertains me. Actually, I have zero problems being hopelessly overpowered for stuff.

So count me in as another grey-quest lover!

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 18:41:49 +0000

Nice. That adds to the 1000 other things I like about EQ2’s design. Unfortunately the lore just doesn’t have the same draw for me as LotRO.

By: Stargrace

Stargrace — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 17:26:46 +0000

EQ2 takes care of this by allowing gray quests to still give the regular amount of xp as well as alternate advancement (aa) for completion as it would normally give. The only thing you’re “missing” out on, is the experience that the mobs themselves would have awarded you had you done the quest while they conned. Of course you don’t get nearly as much experience because of your level (ie: you need more experience to level when it’s gray and so it doesn’t show a significant amount any more) but the SOE team worked hard to give players a ‘reason’ to do those outdated quests. As well as achievements for quests, and other little ‘carrots’ to entice players.

By: Longasc

Longasc — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:59:59 +0000

I think the idea of permanent growth has proven to be dangerous and detrimental not only to the economy, but also to games. Long live “horizontal progression” – there is advancemenet at the level cap. Reputation grinds are the usual form, but I don’t see why this could not be enhanced to incorporate more than that.

And yes, especially the book quests are fun. And in LOTRO, the SoM quests offer a ton of item XP and rep progression besides the usual xp and gear stuff. The quest chain involving Tristan is also highly inspired by medieval literature, and then Gollum appeared as well – I just loved it. This is a good example that quests can and should be more than to do lists where the benefit can be measured directly by the gain in xp, gold and items/stats.