What I would do.

smilingbob

If I were to be hired by a compqany to write quests, the very first quest would play out something like this:

 

Ok, so you just got done with creating your character, right? Hopefully it was a badass character creation process, and you're already starting to like the game, but you're getting this sinking feeling in your gut, because you know it's all about to go downhill with the boring grind ahead.

As soon as you enter the world for the first time, there's no dumb cutscene, no dumb window saying press wasd to move, instead, it shows your character ingame, but you don't yet have control of him (or her).

Your character would actually spawn into this new world through a rather rediculous looking portal, look side to side, then say "Fuckin' sweet." with voice acting. Your character would then proceed to walk toward the npc who just happens to be standing nearby, while muttering "Oh I wonder who that could be." As soon as you reach said npc, your character would say to her "Lemme guess... you want me to go report to someone, or deliver a package, or kill some wolves or bring you some wolf fur... You'll probably have some creative reason why you want me to do one of those things, however, but to be honest that still doesn't make your quest creative. But what choice do I have? I want to get to endgame asap" The npc would then look at you as if you had lost your mind, and respond, "Are you talking to me? Where's endgame? ...Why would I want you to do any of those things... I don't even know you..."

Your character would then look rather embarassed and say, "Oh, right, my bad. I'll just be on my way then." As you start to walk away, hhowever, she would say "Wait! Um, there is something I could use your help with, if it's not too much trouble. It isn't just some mundane chore or anything- it's actually somewhat of a mystery..." You would then reply, "Oh? I'm intrigued. Do go on."

...if you want me to finish, give me money, lol...

smilingbob

Oh, and also this would NOT be skippable the first time. Same goes with all quests that would be in the game. You would have to have done them on at least one other character to be allowed to skip them.

smilingbob

Ok fine I'll do a bit more for free (lol)

She would then tell you to follow her, and lead you to the cellar of a nearby tavern, where some strange glowing symbols have appeared all over the walls, floor, and ceiling. On top of that, several valuable items have been being reported stolen in the village ever since these symbols appeared. She will tell you she thinks it's related somehow, and will ask you to help her figure it out.

You will then have to solve the puzzle, and find out it was in fact the cause of the stolen items, retrieve them, and be given the choice to return them to their rightful owners, or keep them.

You will be given one of two options:

Say "Well, isn't there like some library around here with all sorts of books about magic and stuff?"

And she would reply "Yes, how did you know? Are you thinking one of those books might help us?" You would then look at her with a rather blank stare, obviously holding back what you want to say, and say. "Perhaps. Could you show me where it is please?" She would say "I wish I could, but the truth is it's not exactly somewhere you could just walk into- I mean it is a library dedicated to magic and all. The old man upstairs can explain it better than I can." So you would go upstairs, talk to the old man, who would give you a riddle, would provide you with the location you need to go to, but you have to solve it and find it yourself, your character doesn't. Once you get there, you find out it's as the woman said, you can't just walk into it, cause there's nothing to walk into. Instead, you find another riddle written on a nearby rock. Literally written on it, not like you press a button when near it and a text window pops up, no you would have to zoom into first person, walk up close to the rock and read it. Everytime you walk near the rock, your character's head would turn toward it, and If you have been there long enough, he would start to mutter things like "That's a funny looking rock." Once you find, then solve this new riddle, it will tell you how to enter the library. Once you get in, a grumpy old wizzard tries to shoo you out, and you say "Hey old man, knock it off already! I went through a great deal just to get in here! I need a book that can help me figure out what all the wierd glowy symbol things in the tavern are. And who stole all those peoples things." The old man would look at you, somewhat confused, and start muttering incoheriently under his breath, then say "Just don't break anything." You then will have to open up each book, and read them, until you find the one that relates to the symbols. All the books would look basically the same, and the text in them would all be rather short, and somewhat funny, but the one you need would be very obviously the one you need as soon as you open it up. Once you take it back to the old man in the upstairs of the tavern, he'll go downstairs, open it up, and start reading in some nonsense language, then the symbols would get brighter, and 3 imps would appear outta nowhere, and start running around like chickens with their heads cut off. You pick up a chair to smash one, but the old man stops you "Wait! I could use those for some... experiments. Toss em in that cage over there." So you now have to chase them around, grab em by the neck, and drag em over to the cage, but they can squirm around and break free from your grasp. Luckily the old man had the sense to close the door, so they can't escape from the cellar.

Your second option would be to say "I know! this is one of those secret passage things! let's start smashing the walls with stuff to try to find it!"

And as you pick up a nearby chair she would say "I'm not so sure that's such a good idea..." Then you would say "Ok, then what did you have in mind?" She would say "Well, these are obviously not ordinary symbols..." After about 30 seconds of her not saying anything more, with a serious thinking face, you would say "...so, um. You think, maybe they're magical?" Then she would say "Yeah! It all makes sense now! Boy we're really smart huh! You know who knows about magical things? The old man upstairs! Maybe he knows what these are!" So you go upstairs, but the old man says he's not in the mood for your silly games- go get him a snack and maybe he'll help you. So the woman goes downstairs, muttering furiously under her breath about sexist remarks while the old man chuckles and grins at you. "That got rid of her. Now on a serious note, I do know what those symbols are, and you're in luck, because I just happened accross this book in the library the other day... Only problem is, I can't do anything about this whole situation... maybe 15 years ago things would have been different... but you look like the kinda guy who enjoys bashing heads in! You can go in there and defeat him for me!" You then say "Alright, now that's what I'm talkin about! Finally, some action!" The woman gets back with some snacks, and the old man heads downstairs. He starts muttering with a mouthful of sandwich, and all of a sudden your screen turns black. Then you fall out of a portal and land face first in the mud in some alternate dimension, in like a swamp area. You get up, cussing your head off, then notice a giant lizardish thing staring at you, hungrily. You pause for a momment, then say "Oh shit!" **Commence boss battle music** Since you don't have any weapons yet, you will have to first run over to a log sticking outta the water, and snap a branch off it, to whack the lizzard in the skull. You find out this only stunns it, though, and the old man starts talking to you, telepathically. He tells you to ignore the lizzard and just get the stolen goods, so he can seal off that dimension for good. So you stun the lizzard, grab one thing, throw it through the portal, etc for all the items, then jump through yourself. Good thing lizards can't jump, so no need to worry about it getting through the portal.

If multiple players were creating new characters at the same time on the same server, they would have various voice acted reactions to greet each other as they steped out of the portal, and they would make a few comments to each other about the npc standing nearby before approaching her as a group. She would respond to the entire group at once, and they would be automatically put into a party for the starter quest once it starts.

The party version of the puzzle would be larger and more complex, but there would just be one version, and would require a lot of teamwork to solve.