Quest Chains
Rant warning.
Quest chains drive me mad. I almost talked about them at ION, but I cut that part because it was superfluous. So, now I’m going to complain about them here!
Kevin recently convinced me to return to WoW, and I’m working on leveling up a new character. As a level 28 shaman, I tried to group with my brother’s level 31 warrior to do some quests. Yes, grouping to level in WoW is generally a mistake, but it shouldn’t be maddening. Three levels really shouldn’t be a problem. Anyways, I ran into the same problem I always end up having when I try to group in MMOs with quest chains that reward the individual quest holders.
There were two acceptable areas for us that we could both easily access. I had done some quests in one, and he had done some in the other. That meant our attempts to get any shared quests were futile, because we weren’t eligible due to the chains. That meant we needed to grind if we wanted to make reasonable progress. (It’s off topic, but that failed too - I did virtually no damage to mobs a couple levels above him, which were the only ones worth decent xp)
So, we’re left with a choice. One of us must make a sacrifice in order to group. Do I need to emphasize how bad that is in an MMO? Whoever is getting quests completed is going to be making faster progress. The other person’s way better off playing alone, even though it’s not as fun.
In a loose quest structure, we would have had plenty of tasks in common. With the damned chains, there wasn’t anything we could do and we just wasted our time trying to sync up some quests. And it only gets exponentially worse as the groups grow larger.
I understand why we keep using quest chains. Need chains to tell the story? Fine, but that should never impede someone’s ability ability to play with their friends. It’s not like it’s a hard problem to solve, but it seems like we’re reluctant to take the necessary steps.