quest design

[Jeeqbit]

When I started playing this game, I was immediately struck by the fact it asked me to kill only 3 enemies for a quest. It made me feel like finally an MMORPG had been developed by someone who gets it. That killing 100 enemies is tedious.

So, although it may not be the best quest design, it is certainly not the worst when so many other games will have you farming easy enemies for hours to complete quests which is a whole lot less waste of time than, you know, actually progressing the storyline.

[Ryaze]

When I started playing this game, I was immediately struck by the fact it asked me to kill only 3 enemies for a quest. It made me feel like finally an MMORPG had been developed by someone who gets it. That killing 100 enemies is tedious.

So, although it may not be the best quest design, it is certainly not the worst when so many other games will have you farming easy enemies for hours to complete quests which is a whole lot less waste of time than, you know, actually progressing the storyline.

To each their own, because I HATE FFXIV quest design. FFXIV might be progressing more story per quest than other MMOs, but it doesn't feel like I'm playing an actual game. And to be honest because of how their job design is tied so strongly to cinematic boss fights and lengthier encounters, it is either intentionally or coincidentally antithetical to traditional MMO quest design and world mobs. Killing mobs in FFXIV is boring. They have too few of HP, the GCD is too long, and there is next to zero mob density outside of ARR. So tbh, it feels like it's quite intentional at this point. When I played in ARR, it felt much similar to other MMOs with the endgame hubs being chock full of bad guys to the point where sleep and other CC was actually useful and you had to be careful how and where you were pulling mobs. Leveling other jobs often significantly increased your power and adaptability via increasing your cross-class skills. A progression system that was directly tied to overworld (and all) combat.

Better quest design is when the quests interact with your other game systems. But outside of solo instances the devs have eschewed this since ARR.

[HappyHubris]

When I started playing this game, I was immediately struck by the fact it asked me to kill only 3 enemies for a quest. It made me feel like finally an MMORPG had been developed by someone who gets it. That killing 100 enemies is tedious.

So, although it may not be the best quest design, it is certainly not the worst when so many other games will have you farming easy enemies for hours to complete quests which is a whole lot less waste of time than, you know, actually progressing the storyline.

I took hardcore WoW Classic for a spin this year and realized how much I missed real questing after FFXIV. You generally fight mobs in the world, keeping an eye open for patrols, spawns, and other challenges. It feels much more engaging to fight your way into the jungle looking for an enemy leader than to walk to the glowy spot on the ground, clicking, waiting, and having a few easy mobs spawning. It's also much more fun to be given a quest, execute it, and then turn it in than to get drip-fed story by running from place to place and watching cutscenes. For example moving into some ruins to grab an artifact might alert you to the involvement of a notorious cult when you find their acolytes there, or you might see discarded gear from an enemy faction that tells you they tried and failed to do the same thing.

Sure some quests in older MMOs would have low drop rates, but that's a minority of the content. The model is more engaging than FFXIV, as you're engaging with the world instead of doing something entirely else on rails and watching endless dialog cutscenes