I’ve talked about my general likes and dislikes related to questing on this site before. To keep it simple: I hate quests that feel like they’re artificially extending the length of the game.
Sometimes this leads to quests that require 15 of something with a 5% drop rate. Other times it leads to different characters asking for body parts of some animal without the ability to complete any of them simultaneously. Guy A wants 10 Lizard Tongues, I turn that in and then find out Guy B wants Lizard Scales, I turn that in to find out Guy C wants Lizard Tails. Meanwhile, I’ve spent two hours on this when I could have gathered all of this Lizard stuff at once. Obnoxious!
This bores me to tears and it’s the single biggest reason why I play MMORPGs for a month and are done with them indefinitely.
I’ve played World of Warcraft to some degree on and off since its launch. I’ve found questing in the game, particularly in the starting areas, to consist largely of what I was just describing. I felt like playing something “different” alongside LotRO the past few weeks, so I picked up a game time card and reinstalled the game. I chose a Tauren Druid and at first things were great. Unfortunately, monotony very quickly set in for me and I found myself collecting countless bird, cat and wolf parts and doing what felt like the same quest several times over.
I can handle this within reason, but at some point it makes me feel disconnected from the world. It makes me realize that I’m just playing a game. I know I’m just a lowly Tauren at this point and that things will get better, but it’s hard to want to push on. A lot of people can manage it. I simply just can’t.
This doesn’t mean WoW is bad, it just means it’s not for me. To me that’s a huge differentiation. I’ve found this out a few times over now. Unfortunately every several months I give it another shot because I figure “How can 11.5 million people like this? I must have missed something!”. It’d probably be one thing if I could start at Level 50, but unfortunately that’s not the case.
Anyway, I went on a bit of a tangent. What does this have to do with LotRO? Well, it’s related largely because it seems as though Turbine has gone out of their way to avoid this sort of stuff. You want 10 bear pelts? Go kill 10 bears. The main exceptions to this are obvious, as well. If a character is looking for a special item and he knows a thief stole it, you might have to kill 10 thieves before you get it. I can live with that.
In the interest of being honest and slightly objective, there are times when things don’t quite work out this well. I have had quests that I felt should have been handled simultaneously that weren’t. I also have had quests where the drops were less common. In both cases, these situations are rare compared to other MMORPGs, but it does happen. The unfortunate side effect is that because these are rare, their existance is made more painful and obvious. I trudge through it, though.
I’ve found that most of the time, questing frustrations are simply due to the fact that I’m in the wrong area. If someone wants you to kill spiders north of the town then you better kill spiders north of the town. The ones just to the east won’t necessarily count. Keep this in mind and you’ll largely be set.
Like anything else in this game, it does help that I’m interested in what’s going on. I don’t typically read MMORPG quest text, but in LotRO most of it is very well written and is clear about where you need to go. I rarely feel the need to look a quest up if I read what I’m given and think a bit about it. I also feel like many of the characters give me decent reasons for doing these things, which certainly helps my motivation as well.
Questing isn’t the most important thing for all people who play MMORPGs, but it’s certainly high on the list for me. I’ve been very happy with how Turbine has handled this overall, despite relatively rare falls into traditional MMORPG trappings. There’s always going to be some exceptions, but as long as they remain uncommon I’m happy.
