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[Gattsu25]

<Gattsu25> hmm...now that i think about it...lack of direction is what i hate most about MMORPGs

<soakrates> some dude on the forum posting in that Pledge of Allegiance thread

<soakrates> and making an utter ass of himself

<Gattsu25> back in the EQ:OA beta, i remember being dropped off into the game without even an explanation of the controls...the quest system...or WHAT THE FUCK I WAS SUPPOSED TO DO

<Gattsu25> FFXI gave me a similar feeling

<Scott> ya, that's my biggest complaint with FFXI.. you don't get told nearly enough to do things half the time

<Gattsu25> and my experience with ALL MMO's that i've played is that their quests systems suck

<Reno-> shattered galaxy is still the best mmorpg!

<soakrates> MMORPGs are pretty self-explanatory in my experience

<soakrates> you just start killing stuff and leveling

<Gattsu25> they want you to do some very specific action (or series of actions) and here are your instructions: Well, my back's been aching. Can you help me out?

<Scott> lmao

<Gattsu25> so you accept and then find out from another player that you need to:

<Scott> There's so much more to do than leveling, though, and more often than that, THAT'S where the lack of information becomes apparent

<Scott> than not*

<Gattsu25> Go into the cursed castle of Ra'Ze and Find the 3rd torch from the left, put the holy water of Ashtale into the fire and get the Mystaker's stone. Take that to the purifier's mill and come up with some ibuprofin...take it back to the guy and get 100gold pieces



MMORPGs

 

[Bizarro Sun Yat-sen]

They probably make them vague to force you to share info with other players, although on second thought I'm not sure quests in MMORPGs are any more vague than those in plenty of old single-player RPGs, adventure games, etc. Games that hold your hand through a scenario, like most of the FF series, are a recent innovation.

 

[Azrael]

I don't want the game to hold my hand too much, but I do want the game to provide me with enough information that I can figure out the solution for a quest based on the instructions I received from NPCs alone. I shouldn't be forced to consult a guide or other players to be told how to solve half the quests in the game. That's like playing through a traditional RPG while using a walkthrough step-by-step. Once I've completed the quest, there's no sense of accomplishment from it. An MMORPG should foster a sense of discovery and adventure.

One case in FFXI like this for me was the rank 2-3 mission. I'm told to go to Giddeus and give the Yagudo a shield offering, but then steal two shields off the Yagudo before I return. The game gives you zero information about how to get the shields. Only one Yagudo, a notorious monster that spawns in a tiny spot on the map once every 20 minutes or so, drops shields. No other Yagudo drops the shields. You have to kill it, wait 20 minutes for another one to spawn, then kill that one too to get the second shield. If you didn't consult a guide that told you exactly what monster you have to kill and where it spawns on the map, this mission would be unsolvable. You'd probably systematically kill every monster that appears in the area dozens of times each thinking it's a rare drop and spend hours wandering around without ever seeing the monster you need to kill if you tried to solve the mission on your own without cheating with a guide.