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Am I the only one who hates quest grinding? (rant inside)
Neanderthal
Member RarePosts: 1,861
Ok, I know I'm not the only one but are we vastly outnumbered by the people who do like it?
I tried WoW a few months back....quest grinding. I just tried the Lotr trial....more quest grinding.
Alright, I don't get it, what is the fun in that? You log into a game and are immediately told where to go and what to do. It piles one quest on top of another so that you always have ten or fifteen stupid arse tasks you're supposed to do. Go collect seven rat butts. Go pick 10 daisies. Talk to that guy then come back then go over there. Hop on one foot while singing "I'm a little teapot" and smacking your own behind with a fly swatter then report back to me.
I can't take it. I want freedom. I don't want the damn game telling me what to do every step of the way. I hate that crap. I hate having 15 different little odd jobs demanding my attention and feeling like I really should do them even though I don't give a damn about any of it. But that's how you get upgrades, class skills, the best experiece, and you never know if one of those idiot "quests" will lead to another "quest" that rewards you with something vital (like a class skill) so you feel like you might be missing something important if you don't do them.
Holy Christ, what the hell happened? What happened to freedom? What happened to just going out and finding things for yourself? Do people really like being led by the nose through their games? Is this really the future of mmorpgs?
And you know what else? That quest grinding crap is like the final nail in the coffin of grouping. Even though mobs in those games are so easy to kill that they practically fall over dead if you even look at them funny I still think people might group some just to speed things up if they weren't all running around spastically picking daisies and collecting rat butts.
The thing is; why would you bother trying to group with anyone when your chances of finding someone who is at the exact same spot in the sequence of quests as you are is practically nill. Any given person is probablly either three quests ahead of you or at least three quests behind you. You aren't going to wait for anyone to catch up to you and no one is going to wait for you to catch up to them. And even if you did get into a group for a particular quest, as soon as it's over the other guy is going to want to go <that way> while you need to go <this way> so that's it, your group lasted all of five minutes and then your quests pulled you in different directions. And everyone knows all of this so nobody bothers with grouping in the first place.
So everyone just runs around doing these stupid errands alone. Never talking to another person (why would they?). Never grouping. Just playing connect the dots or paint by numbers or whatever analogy you prefer for this crap. No exploration, no adventure, no social play, no fun...just...do as you're told and follow the dotted line through the game alone.
Dang, it's some pretty depressing sh...er, stuff. If that's what people really want, to be errand boys taking orders from NPCs and being told what to do and where to go every step of the way, then I think my faith in humanity has just dropped significantly.
Comments
I just hate grinding unless it requires actual skill like PVP. PVE is just boring cause the AI is so dumb and single player games have the story to make up for the dumb AI but mmorpgs don't so it feels like grinding.
i agree freedom is a must. I like quests but not linear quests nodes. I like just talking to some random person out in the middle of no where who escaped a cave but his friends were not so lucky and you have to go save them at the bottom of the dungeon from the boss. not go here get this come back go right back to where i sent you than come back.
So bottom line is i like quests in my mmos but i don't like that you have to qeust grind to lvl effectifly. I want to explore and go kill in dungeons that other groups might be in. never knowing exactly how long before the mobs respawn. But alas i am having a hard time finding something out there right now that i enjoy.
Thought i was loving The chronicles of spellborn until it became apparent that it is a solo quest grinding game with a cool combat system. And limited pvp so far.
I hope something comes out soon that can give me the fun from a game i crave.
Dead fucking on. OP nailed the GLARING flaw in the modern day MMORPG, and one of the many reasons that old school MMORPG players are left feeling out of place, unsatisfied, and frankly pissed off.
This is why we yearn for the old days....and hope beyond hope that some game developer will finally "get it" and make the game we all so desperately crave.
This precisely why I do not play either of those games you mentioned above. I never had an issue with the "grinding" in games like L2 and FFXI because when it came down to it you weren't by yourself. More so in L2 though because the people you grinded with were typically apart of your clan and you had to watch your back the entire time to ward off other clans. Either way though it's better then running around just looking for that dude with an "!" above his head and getting his 10 rat butts.
Yep, I agree with you, as long as WoW is as stupidly popular as it is there will be no end in site to the clones that drag you through te game quest by quest. Not that I totally hate WoW, I'd never play it again but I think Blizzard is in a unique position to take some leaps for some real innovation.
Amen, you just nailed it why I just can't get over myself to play WoW or any other of this new MMOs. Though in LotR it is easier to get a group but one has nothing of this freedom I'm used to since I play DAoC. I don't get it why anyone wants to play a MMO where everyone grinds quests on his own....for this I don't need a MMO, a simple singleplayer game works just as well.
Agreed sick to death of quest grinding.
WoW's questing isn't so bad, because you can still get good xp off of killing mobs. If you don't feel like questing, you can just go kill mobs if you want. You can level up fine either way.
What I hate are games like LOTRO, where mob xp sucks, so you are forced to quest. That's the main reason I cancelled my LOTRO account two months after launch. I hated being forced to quest. Gimme a choice!
Now I'm back in DAOC where I can explore and farm mobs all I want, and still do the occasional quest.
Currently Playing: DAOC Uthgard
Previously Played: UO, DAOC, Shadowbane, AC2, SWG, Horizons, COX, WOW, EQ2, LOTRO, AOC, WAR, Vanguard, Rift, SWTOR, ESO, GW2.
I agreed with the OP and nice read might I add. I don't mind quests but thats because when playing WAR I choose not to do pve unless I group with friends I know. Quests really should be long and more than simple jobs. There should be less of them so each one can feel more unique. I like when I hear about SW:tOR having quests that can only be done once by one player then they are removed from the game.
Aye this is one of the biggest flaws with modern MMOs. Quests can be nice if they are long, have an inspiring story line and have a nice reward. I don’t mind doing that kind of quests once a level. Having 15 different “fetch me a kobold hide”- quests is one of the biggest reason I keep quitting WoW.
I agree with the OP on all points.
DAoC had it just right for me. Indeed you could explore and farm mobs, and finding the right spot to do so was an art in itself. YOu had to take into consideration how many in your group, and what levels, and what gear, and match that to just the right spot to take on the baddest mobs you were capable of with that set up.
To really find out your potential, you had to keep upping the ante until sometimes you wiped the party, but that was fun too.
IN additition to this, you could also do some questing that required a good group, adn would get you some good loot, but, you didin't have to quest grind. The good long quests came along every few levels or so. Questing with a group can also be fun, if it's once in a while, not constant solo questing.
I also agree with the OP.
Quest grinding feels like running on a treadmill to me.
...
This is where I draw the line: __________________.
Thank God for these replies. My faith in humanity just went back up a notch.
No matter its downsides quest grinding is still thousnad times better than simply XP grinding.
Camping a respawn spot for hours just killing the same mobs over and over was pathetic and looking back I want to kick myself for ever playing that way.
The problem with the quest grind is that just focusing on finishing the quests gets boring fast. The trick is to use the quests as a guide to explore the area you are in and check out the content that is available. Obsessing about finishing quests is just as bad as obsessing about gaining XP or leveling. If you just do quests as a natural part of your character's progresion you stop feeling the grind.
In contrast to the OP I really like how WoW is incorporating quests into the natural progression of the game. When I play WoW I raraly look at my XP bar and simply move through the zones doing various quests until I feel that I did what I wanted in the area and move on to the next zone.
Even then they will complain about having to grind lvl 1 bunnies to get gold.
btw I do agree with the OP. I am waiting on the new SE mmo as I am hoping that its not a quest grind.
Waiting for:EQ-Next, ArcheAge (not so much anymore)
Now Playing: N/A
Worst MMO: FFXIV
Favorite MMO: FFXI
And now I understand, what I've been missing in modern MMOs (being a new player, who never got to experience old ones fully). I think developers should focus more on the process of killing stuff being more enjoyable, rather, than doing flimsy justifications for it. Take, for example, FFXI. Or, hell, even the recent Wizard101 - fresh spin, new ideas - combat becomes something you look forward to. Questing should be something other, than just exp grinding - it should bring tangible rewards, like acsess to new zones/skills. Fewer number of quests work, simply because they play greater importance and may force player to actually care about the storyline.
I don't understand, why must I try to avoid free combat in WoW-like games, "just to turn in the quest faster", yet I still do it.
Oh, and seeing your questlog cluttered is... Freaky.
I hate WoW because it made my plush hamster kill himself, created twin clones of Hitler, punched Superboy Prime in reality, stared my dog down, spoiled my grandmother, assimilated me into the Borg, then made me into a real boy, just to make me a woman again.
I guess the OP didn't realize you didn't have to do one quest in WOW if you didn't want to, besides, class specific ones that open special abilities, ect. And even then, you don't HAVE TO do those quests either. You could of just picked a direction and started off on your own doing and killing whatever the heck you wanted. You can get EXP just fine by grinding or doing dungeons ignoring every ? and ! that you saw. The game is only suggesting something to do. Its not forcing you to press the buttons. If you cared about lore and story, you'd care about the quests. What seems meaingless, suddenly starts connecting together the more and more of them you do. You'll eventually hit a chain that connects from one place to the next, revealing what the world is about, if you care to look. But, you not forced. THAT's freedom.
Its always funny when people complain about being led by the nose when theres nothing forcing them to do it. Its esspecially funny when people talk about freedom and the good ol days, when older MMOs had NONE of it. In EQ or DAOC for example, you were FORCED to get a group to advance. Sure, you could solo, but it was so painful, it wasn't really a viable option. You had 1 option. Camping spawns. They might be in a dungeon. They might be out in the world. But you were always just sitting in one place, once you found a good spot and mindlessly pulled, killed, and pulled for 4 hours. That wasn't freedom buddy boy.
People not talking to eachother sucks though. Thats the side effect of having the FREEDOM to solo OR group up. People have the freedom not to talk to eachother. They also have the freedom to socialize.
I disagree 100% with your first sentence, for that matter your whole post.
XP grinding was way more fun then quest grinding for many reason but mainly because i get to group and socialize with people.
I play Video games because I enjoy problem solving and the newer MMos ruin that for me because everything is solved for you, you just have to go grab the pieces. I want to have to figure out the quest my self. Ever done an EQ quest?
Sooner or Later
well alot of times quest grinding yields more xp sometimes faster too
quest grinds > mob grinding
This is why I'm hoping on a classless/leveless game, and why I enjoyed Guild Wars so much. I don't mind quests that give exp, so long as they progress my character either in the main story or in a side story, but I do mind being locked into a recurring cycle of linear quests to grind through.
Even worse though is grinding through "mobs" for expz and phat lewtz.
c'monnnnn dream game! damn i rolled a 1.
I just had to reply to this one.
I prefer XP grinding over Quest grinding. Quests tend to discourage grouping in almost every mmo I've played. Well, quest grinds anyway. I really like old school EQs quests where they forced you to read the text and type in a response, and then were long and drawn out usually with several steps but not too many. More something you did on the side.
XP grinding was rather a nice time to socialize. Find a nice spot, set up camp, keep the pulls coming and chit chat, every now and then go and help a neighboring group so they don't wipe or something.
These days MMOs have like 50 quests you will have active at one time, and groups have no patience to wait for you to read the text, just grab and go. And then what's the point of soloing all the way through an MMO? There needs to be some nice balance I think.
I'd also love to see multiple ways to complete quests. Such as solve a food crisis in a village, you can either steal food for them, raid a neighboring village, or put a stop to some troll that's stealing their food or something. All valid ways of completion. But certainly make it something that'd take a little while, a couple hours maybe.
I'd like to see quests that'd last for about one average gameplay period, solo-capable or group-oriented. Maybe even scaling depending.
Problem with GW (and most other modern MMOs, at that matter) is that there is NO socializing outside of PVP/raids. Which is just sad. Casual games don't like forced grouping, but it's one thing, that helps forge strong relationships in MMOs.
And seriously, when I can solo a mob 5 levels higher - that just screams "don't wet your feet, dearie".
I hate WoW because it made my plush hamster kill himself, created twin clones of Hitler, punched Superboy Prime in reality, stared my dog down, spoiled my grandmother, assimilated me into the Borg, then made me into a real boy, just to make me a woman again.
Problem with GW (and most other modern MMOs, at that matter) is that there is NO socializing outside of PVP/raids. Which is just sad. Casual games don't like forced grouping, but it's one thing, that helps forge strong relationships in MMOs.
And seriously, when I can solo a mob 5 levels higher - that just screams "don't wet your feet, dearie".
i was in a rather social guild for a while called LaZy. but ill agree, it does lack in that department. but forced grouping causes stress (example ffxi) on the casual gamer. i recall several times forming groups or waiting in one being formed only to find out that since it took 30 minutes, i only had an hour left so no one wanted to keep me in said group. personally i think to solve that issue being rewarded for grouping, but not punished for soloing should be enstated.
Problem with GW (and most other modern MMOs, at that matter) is that there is NO socializing outside of PVP/raids. Which is just sad. Casual games don't like forced grouping, but it's one thing, that helps forge strong relationships in MMOs.
And seriously, when I can solo a mob 5 levels higher - that just screams "don't wet your feet, dearie".
i was in a rather social guild for a while called LaZy. but ill agree, it does lack in that department. but forced grouping causes stress (example ffxi) on the casual gamer. i recall several times forming groups or waiting in one being formed only to find out that since it took 30 minutes, i only had an hour left so no one wanted to keep me in said group. personally i think to solve that issue being rewarded for grouping, but not punished for soloing should be enstated.
Call me weird, but "soloing" in MMO is something, I detest. If I want to play a singleplayer plame, I'll play a singleplayer game!
I hate WoW because it made my plush hamster kill himself, created twin clones of Hitler, punched Superboy Prime in reality, stared my dog down, spoiled my grandmother, assimilated me into the Borg, then made me into a real boy, just to make me a woman again.
Problem with GW (and most other modern MMOs, at that matter) is that there is NO socializing outside of PVP/raids. Which is just sad. Casual games don't like forced grouping, but it's one thing, that helps forge strong relationships in MMOs.
And seriously, when I can solo a mob 5 levels higher - that just screams "don't wet your feet, dearie".
i was in a rather social guild for a while called LaZy. but ill agree, it does lack in that department. but forced grouping causes stress (example ffxi) on the casual gamer. i recall several times forming groups or waiting in one being formed only to find out that since it took 30 minutes, i only had an hour left so no one wanted to keep me in said group. personally i think to solve that issue being rewarded for grouping, but not punished for soloing should be enstated.
Call me weird, but "soloing" in MMO is something, I detest. If I want to play a singleplayer plame, I'll play a singleplayer game!
massively multiplayer online roleplaying game to me means anygame in which i play a role in a story. the mmo part i take as... online, with multiple people. i can see your point of view, but i loathe the i guess you'd call it, "grouping grind" lol