Developers Corner

MMORPGs today have cheapened the concept of a Quest and confused it with a task; if their aim was to reduce a Quest to a task, they have succeeded.  What is a task?  What is a Quest?  I raise these questions because completing a quest has a sense of honor and accomplishment to it.  However, completing a task does or should not; it gives a small sense of accomplishment (if any). 


Developers need to create a task key and a Quest key.  Nevertheless, it is appropriately (but will not always be the case) for a Quest to have "steps" to it.  However, it is not necessarily true for all Quests. 


Definitions

Quest:   a journey.

A quest usually transcends levels, requires a considerable amount of time and travel, and generally results in a great reward or some honor.  The focus of the quest is to define your character and in doing so feel apart of the lore of the game. 

Example:  as a young Paladin, you were told about corruption in the ranks of the King's guard.  At level 5, you were charged with discovering documents in a bandit warehouse that indicated this (the warehouse was a fairly easy but fun dungeon crawl).  You were subsequently charged to infiltrate a crime-lord's mansion in the city center at level 15 and arrest him (it was a challenging dungeon crawl at 15).  You practice your negotiation skills on the crime-lord and extract information that leads to the names of the corrupt King's guards.  You learn of a plan to poison the King  (a rogue might have a similar quest to poison the king).  Your commanding Officer, Saint (highest Paladin rank) Grenias charges you with thwarting the plans.  You defeat the corrupt guard(s), which was a very challenging fight.  The King learns of your accomplishment, you subsequently are entered into his loyal retinue of bodyguards (you acquire title - Saint/Sir, a ring to prove membership in the King's guard, access to the King's shops, and a new skill/ability - Heart of the Paladin, ac/str buff).  Upon completing this quest, two quest lines open - one, in service to the Paladin Order, as you are now Saint/Sir.  Two, as a member of the king's bodyguard, new quest line opens up.  If you chose to be a "Shadowknight," you could have joined the corrupt guards and poison the king (who would survive, most-likely). 

Note:  You see how a Shadowknight, Rogue, and Paladin (maybe even a Cleric and other classes if they wanted to join the king's bodyguard) would have similar interlinked quests?  A Rogue could poison the King;  a Shadowknight could join the corrupt guards; a Paladin could attempt to stop it; a Cleric could revive the King; and so forth.


Task:  a job.

A task is usually completed in the same level, does not require a lot of time or travel, and is completed to gain experience, train skills/abilities, or money.  The focus of the task is to complete it and advance your character and obtain nominal rewards. 

Example:  collect 15 boar hides, deliver this note, kill the bandit ring-leader. 


Illustration
                                              Quest                     Task
Exp                                            -                               +
Reward                                      +                               -

I like your definition of quest. Back in the 80s when I played RPGs (people call them Pen and Paper these days), we had a quest.
This would take us either days playing or even a few sessions to complete.

I can imagine Frodo not having a quest to destroy the ring, but collecting 20 wolf pelts. Frodo and the fellowship going from "task" after "task", until the reader was bored to sleep. I can't imagine Conan, Kirk, O'Neil, etc, doing the same.

Originally posted by Ruthgar
I like your definition of quest. Back in the 80s when I played RPGs (people call them Pen and Paper these days), we had a quest.
This would take us either days playing or even a few sessions to complete.

I can imagine Frodo not having a quest to destroy the ring, but collecting 20 wolf pelts. Frodo and the fellowship going from "task" after "task", until the reader was bored to sleep. I can't imagine Conan, Kirk, O'Neil, etc, doing the same.

Hehe.  I like your Frodo analogy.
Edit:  btw, I should mention that I played some table-top games as well, mostly in college - Vampire: the Masquerade as well as DnD. 


I feel that my example of a Quest is not sufficient - but I think it is useful. 


Questing is great fun, and the sense of accomplishment is an aspect of that fun. 

Nice definition to Quest and Task...  I would agree with you.

For me, quest is and should be something that require a growth, and adapt toward change.

Task is the short term situations that may or may not spawn off of the quest.



Personally, I dislike Level-based system (and yes, I've been saying that everywhere now...).  And I always thought quests should not be doing something and given reward.  Since the only requirement is level and time.  (level is when you can take it, time is your time spend on it, whether it is 5 mins or 5 days)  

I like to read different stories, and from them, almost all the time the idea of a quest is not jus a long time/distance for a journey, but there will be situations which will change the priority of the quests, and may even change the quest itself.  It's a very good story-telling by incorporate that kind of idea into a MMO, but the developers need to think more on HOW to make quests truly unique, and adapt to changes.  (i.e.: you were sent to kill an enemy, but you choose NOT to finish the enemy off, and in return, the enemy told you something which changes your quest to help other faction, or something else.)

In fact I had a small discussion with my classmate on the same topic in game design.  And from our experience, there really isn't a game that has that sort of system.  (quest changes based on the result of tasks)

Brilliant idea.


The gaming community yearns for and desires more options, more customization and a sense of a real and authentic world that they are apart of and impact.


Excellent suggestion on quests in which your decisions can alter the path (journey) and outcome. 

I remember when i read the book "the once and future king" in swedish. That was a problem since we dont have a word for "quest".

We have to translate it into task or "a search"?

So I agree to 100% that there have been a slow change in the meaning of the word, lets take the original meaning back.

Great definitions, well-explained especially for the quest part. Nowadays, the word 'quest' is indeed being abused and heralded as tasks instead, when it should be like the Frodo's Ring Quest stated. Tasks are exactly the reason why most MMOs these days feel like a second job.

Slightly OT, I would like to see this category of quest-task being used one day, though radical: favours. It's like a quest or task depending on epic quality and complexity, but you either have 50% chance of receiving the reward or receive nothing at all.

For example, you do a fetch task for a NPC old woman who lost her grandson. However, it's not even certain she will reward you at all, like favours in real life. Story-wise she's just too poor to do so. You finish it altruistically, most likely getting nothing in the end, and you move on to other activities. Though you don't get items or exp points or even unlock storyline elements, you may just get satisfication of helping and the fact you experience the game world's social/cultural implications.

Originally posted by daarco

I remember when i read the book "the once and future king."

So I agree to 100% that there have been a slow change in the meaning of the word, lets take the original meaning back.

I still have yet to read "The Once and Future King" by T.H. White.


The word Quest has been cheapened by developers, and they are becoming "tasks" that feel like forced-tasking.