Personally I enjoy questing and reading. But I do understand some people just want to fight stuff and play MMORPG based games like they were shooters or FPS games.
"But I do understand..." - I don't I sure can accept it, but I'm wired differently enough to understand it... Why not playing shooters then? I guess that's the beauty of diversity, everyone's different with a unique view, sometimes the total opposite of yours. I'm in the camp of "combat is the least important, the most worthless aspect of an rpg", so skipping everything important just to jump from pointless combat to pointless combat, seems kinda dumb.
Actually, I don't think the example is entirely correct either, since not all shooters are brainless "just want to fight stuff". I've spent years in CS (back then, pre 1.6 and pre-Gabe's steamy addiction), and it was awesome, the tactical aspect, the teamwork, etc. - still, if I should name favourites, I'd say Deus Ex or System Shock, hands down. Because lore and story matters even in shooters. (Max Payne was cool too, I think the noir-esque setting was much more important to the game than its ever-praised bullet-time... XIII was also a shooter with nice plot.)
I play the game for the first time, I read the stuff. Then I quickly find out whether the developers had good writers or just assumed that nobody would read it anyway. If it's written well, I read it, and it makes the games a lot better. But that is a rare case.
I make a point to read everything if I can unless I find the game is uninteresting then I stop playing after awhile so if the game is good I always try my best to read.
I loved reading the stuff in Wildstar because it had so many nods to scifi and it as truly a good read.
So-called "lore" is just a cobbled together, cliché-ridden, superfluous crap created purely to make the game seem deeper than it is. Quest dialogue hasn't changed in about 20 years, so there's no point in reading it - everything written has already been seen thousands of times in every game you have ever played.
I read text of quest sometimes and sometimes I don't. It depends on how the game is going. If I am doing stupid things like kill 10 after awhile I just block out the droning voice overs and txt.
It depends on the game, but for the majority I tend to click through very fast. I know with SWTOR I tried to pay attention... but spacebar became my best friend.
Yeah there are a lot of fans of actual rpg's where questing is the point of the game, myself included. I don't mind people that don't read quest at all till they start asking in chat over and over where do I go or how do I do this, when it was in the quest text.
To each there own, I was curious how many others like me actually preferred questing.
Sometimes, if it looks interesting then i will probably read it, the first time i encounter it that is, if its a repeat, or if the storyline/lore in question is a bit cringeworthy, then i'll just click through it, so quality definitely matters.
I'm more into the game play then lore. Swtor was nice with the voice acting. I rather watch a video then read about it. I'm just more of visual hands on kinda of person.
In any game, for me: it depends on the quality of writing. Have filler or badly written nonsense and I'll click over it. Have an interesting world and decent lore (I'm not expecting the very best) and I'll invest my time into it.
Yeah there are a lot of fans of actual rpg's where questing is the point of the game, myself included. I don't mind people that don't read quest at all till they start asking in chat over and over where do I go or how do I do this, when it was in the quest text.
To each there own, I was curious how many others like me actually preferred questing.
And that is the problem to me. MMORPG's have done a horrible job of creating any sort of engaging story. Compared to any single player RPG they are just complete garbage. Maybe if they actually tried to make it worth doing. Very few and far between have actually had a story good enough to hold my attention. But I"m not about to read through 100 pages of crappy quests hoping to find a good story. If they did cinematics or something like SWTOR or TSW it would help a lot.
Yeah there are a lot of fans of actual rpg's where questing is the point of the game, myself included. I don't mind people that don't read quest at all till they start asking in chat over and over where do I go or how do I do this, when it was in the quest text.
To each there own, I was curious how many others like me actually preferred questing.
And that is the problem to me. MMORPG's have done a horrible job of creating any sort of engaging story. Compared to any single player RPG they are just complete garbage. Maybe if they actually tried to make it worth doing. Very few and far between have actually had a story good enough to hold my attention. But I"m not about to read through 100 pages of crappy quests hoping to find a good story. If they did cinematics or something like SWTOR or TSW it would help a lot.
I did enjoy the questing in TSW was dead on for having to think to finish some of the quest. This is probably one of the best games for questing as you actually have to think and read or you will be lost a good bit. Hell sometimes it even caused me to go out of game to look up something they were talking about in the game.
To be honest personally a lot of the quest in SWTOR just where not good to me. I did enjoy some of the dark side storylines, but found a lot of the quest just generic boring crap. I don't want a ton of cutscenes throughout an MMO either. One here or there for a major questline is OK though.
It also depends on the quality of quest; I never read the text of skeleton quests (kill X, collect X, etc) like those found in MMOs such as WoW, but I made a second Runescape account just to go through and reread all the quests that I rushed through on my main when I was younger.
Hint to OP: there should be more than running errands for npcs and killing things in an mmorpg.
This is very true about having other things to do. But if you give me a game without quest I probably won't play it as that is what I enjoy. I remember when LOTRO first came out I ran into developers in game a good bit and they actually created content to be played right on the spot a few times by taking over random mobs and just destroying players to get players to feel engaged. But you won't see those types of things in games MMO's to much anymore.
What I would call a perfect example of questing would the TSW. Some of those quest have actually stumped me and I had to sit back and think for a min or two on where to go or what to do. They didn't give you quest arrows saying go here do this. You actually had to read the quest text or you would be lost. Not all quest were like this but most were spot on.
Probably the worst thing ever done to questing was giving quest arrows and markers on the map of where you need to go. Make a person figure it out, make them read. Quest arrows and markers are the lazy man way of doing things, for the gamers and the developers.
Probably the worst thing ever done to questing was giving quest arrows and markers on the map of where you need to go. Make a person figure it out, make them read. Quest arrows and markers are the lazy man way of doing things, for the gamers and the developers.
You make a solid point. Back in the day when we actually had to find an NPC, we had to really read and reread quests to understand everything. That type of involvement is very rare these days.
Depends on the game too and how many times I've ran through it. When I first played TESO for a while, I did like the questing and the voice acting for the most part. Learning what was going on and such was alright, but after you level more toons it kind of fades.
Depends on my mood and the quality of the writing. When I play solo - I try to make the effort, regardless of quality.
However, I mostly play MMOs with friends or with my partner - and I find that it disrupts the flow of the game if we have to wait for too long because people are reading when others are ready to go on.
I'm a very fast reader, and I'm an extremely impatient person (not by choice). That's very unfortunate for me, because I actually strongly prefer to immerse myself in the quest - even if it's a bad one.
Thankfully, most - if not all - the people I play with prefer to just skip the stories altogether. So, it works out alright - as I can usually get the gist of the story just by skimming the text. But I always feel like I'm missing out on something really important when we just "quest-click" and go through the motions. It makes me feel like the proverbial hamster on the wheel.
Also, there's this problem with MMO longevity design and story presentation that makes quests so obviously about prolonging the process and sugarcoating an activity that's really not that interesting or distinct. I mean, even when the writing is excellent - like it is in Secret World - the illusion that you're doing something important that will change things is rarely able to hold.
I'm simply too aware of how progression must last for hundreds of hours - and I understand that no reward and no quest outcome can ever change things like it might in a singleplayer game - where the world is entirely yours. Developers simply don't have the courage or the imagination to design an MMO around a dynamic playfield with true player agency. I'm not talking about empty sandboxes with full loot PvP here, I'm talking about player created quests and the power to mold the world and its infrastructure.
Games like EQNext and ArcheAge tried some of that, but we all know what happened to them.
Nah, I will read quests when I'm in the mood - but only in a desperate effort to sustain the illusion that my actions have meaning beyond getting to the next level or getting a new ability.
Nah I don't play video games to read. I thought maybe voiceovers would be cool, but after SWTOR, it turns out I don't play video games to listen to a guy talk either.
I'll watch cutscenes (and not just different camera angles of a guy talking), and I think those are a good way of telling story, but otherwise I pretty much just skip to the game part of the game.
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I sure can accept it, but I'm wired differently enough to understand it... Why not playing shooters then?
I guess that's the beauty of diversity, everyone's different with a unique view, sometimes the total opposite of yours. I'm in the camp of "combat is the least important, the most worthless aspect of an rpg", so skipping everything important just to jump from pointless combat to pointless combat, seems kinda dumb.
Actually, I don't think the example is entirely correct either, since not all shooters are brainless "just want to fight stuff". I've spent years in CS (back then, pre 1.6 and pre-Gabe's steamy addiction), and it was awesome, the tactical aspect, the teamwork, etc. - still, if I should name favourites, I'd say Deus Ex or System Shock, hands down. Because lore and story matters even in shooters.
(Max Payne was cool too, I think the noir-esque setting was much more important to the game than its ever-praised bullet-time... XIII was also a shooter with nice plot.)
I play the game for the first time, I read the stuff. Then I quickly find out whether the developers had good writers or just assumed that nobody would read it anyway. If it's written well, I read it, and it makes the games a lot better. But that is a rare case.
Let's play Fallen Earth (blind, 300 episodes)
Let's play Guild Wars 2 (blind, 45 episodes)
I loved reading the stuff in Wildstar because it had so many nods to scifi and it as truly a good read.
To each there own, I was curious how many others like me actually preferred questing.
Some games I get drawn into an read it all. Others are pretty shallow and I couldn't care less.
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To be honest personally a lot of the quest in SWTOR just where not good to me. I did enjoy some of the dark side storylines, but found a lot of the quest just generic boring crap. I don't want a ton of cutscenes throughout an MMO either. One here or there for a major questline is OK though.
Hint to OP: there should be more than running errands for npcs and killing things in an mmorpg.
What I would call a perfect example of questing would the TSW. Some of those quest have actually stumped me and I had to sit back and think for a min or two on where to go or what to do. They didn't give you quest arrows saying go here do this. You actually had to read the quest text or you would be lost. Not all quest were like this but most were spot on.
Probably the worst thing ever done to questing was giving quest arrows and markers on the map of where you need to go. Make a person figure it out, make them read. Quest arrows and markers are the lazy man way of doing things, for the gamers and the developers.
However, I mostly play MMOs with friends or with my partner - and I find that it disrupts the flow of the game if we have to wait for too long because people are reading when others are ready to go on.
I'm a very fast reader, and I'm an extremely impatient person (not by choice). That's very unfortunate for me, because I actually strongly prefer to immerse myself in the quest - even if it's a bad one.
Thankfully, most - if not all - the people I play with prefer to just skip the stories altogether. So, it works out alright - as I can usually get the gist of the story just by skimming the text. But I always feel like I'm missing out on something really important when we just "quest-click" and go through the motions. It makes me feel like the proverbial hamster on the wheel.
Also, there's this problem with MMO longevity design and story presentation that makes quests so obviously about prolonging the process and sugarcoating an activity that's really not that interesting or distinct. I mean, even when the writing is excellent - like it is in Secret World - the illusion that you're doing something important that will change things is rarely able to hold.
I'm simply too aware of how progression must last for hundreds of hours - and I understand that no reward and no quest outcome can ever change things like it might in a singleplayer game - where the world is entirely yours. Developers simply don't have the courage or the imagination to design an MMO around a dynamic playfield with true player agency. I'm not talking about empty sandboxes with full loot PvP here, I'm talking about player created quests and the power to mold the world and its infrastructure.
Games like EQNext and ArcheAge tried some of that, but we all know what happened to them.
Nah, I will read quests when I'm in the mood - but only in a desperate effort to sustain the illusion that my actions have meaning beyond getting to the next level or getting a new ability.
I'll watch cutscenes (and not just different camera angles of a guy talking), and I think those are a good way of telling story, but otherwise I pretty much just skip to the game part of the game.