I found myself playing RIFT this week and I don't even bother reading the story text , maybe because I don't actually need to because I get waypoints to the area and it tells me what I need etc etc .. it's all spoon fed to me.

Knowing the  story is really insignificant to the actual game.

This is kinda why Im so looking forward to SWTOR because you have to interact with the quest giver and make decisions and having to make the RIGHT DECISION means you have understand what the quest is about.

Currently the only DECISION I make in a quest that I actually read about it when I get to CHOOSE what item I get rewarded , I can assure you I am reading the text very carefully at that point.

So am I the only one that doesnt bothers to read quest story text ?

lol. I pretty much do the same thing. They don't really matter.

I think this is a good thing because it makes people focus on the real fun stuff... The battles and crafting.

I used to read every bit of quest text in Everquest because when there was text it was interesting and enjoyable, and it was also rare when you'd get a quest so you didn't mind.

Now with the amount of quests and text the games have gone to basically reading a book. When i'm playing a game i'm in the game mindset not the reading mindset.  Yes my mind works that way.  So i sort of have to "trick" myself into thinking i'm reading a book.  When i suceed, then my mind start picking out all the flaws and how boring the story is.  It can't really think oh it's a game so it's okay the story isn't good. Because if it does the trick fails and now i'm back in the game mindset where reading is something i should do rarely.

Maybe it's me getting older or not having the time to read a novel worth of game content but having to stop to read now a days when games are so focused on action seems to be counter productive.  Nothing like killing 100s of mobs to get to the npc and...read.  It's not the time it just reading and action don't really fit with me. One is one thing i do while i'm relaxed, i'm not relaxed while i'm fighting, i'm hyped up, and ready to go.

For me VO just fit better to what is going on.   They are lively, can be actiony, give the feelihng the npc is alive (much like the action is) and flows better.

In action sequences i don't want to have to read: hold up a minute while i heal up my good friend. Instead i'd prefer to hear it.  But thats just me.

Nope, dont bother for the most part.

Why? Most of what I read is at its best Rated: Teen, at its worst Rated: G

Does that mean I want text loaded with sh*t, f**k, t*ts, and so on? No.

But I'd love to read a quests that are closer to say Steven King, not horror mind you, just adult/young adult. Leave the Harry Potter Recue Rangers for Wizard101.

Heck Im not even asking for G.R.R.M. that would be a little much, although I'd love it. But I understand its too dark and too adult for 80% of the MMO players.

In my opinion quest text (for the most part) is crap, and will countinue that way for a long time to come. Not even sure WoD will be as dark and adult as it needs/should be.

Depends on the game of course.  I would say that most of the time I do.  For instance in Guild Wars, I read everything.  My first time 1-60 in WoW I read pretty much every quest.  Warhammer I read most of them the first time through.  Even read a lot of them in EQ2.  As far as Rift, I did not bother reading much of the quests.  The story did not interest me in the least.  The ones I did read were not bad, just didn't interest me personally.

Really depends on how I feel at the time. 

Week night, only got an hour to play before hitting the sack?  Screw reading, I wanna kill something. 

Weekend, all caught up on schoolwork, nothing better to do?  Goin all out nerd and reading every bit of text that crosses my quest journal.

If they are well written.

I read it in Guildwars but in Rift I got bored 15 minutes into the beta and stopped reading.

Most MMO quests are rather pathetic written. Not stuff anyone will turn into a best seller.

Yes I usually do, but I didn't in Rift after about level 8, it was way too dull.

I would if their reasoning for me collecting/killing/going somewhere was actually interesting. Mostly it just sounds like they're saying "because I said so." Quest text is by far the dullest attempt at player involvment I've ever seen.

Originally posted by Hokie

Nope, dont bother for the most part.

 

Why? Most of what I read is at its best Rated: Teen, at its worst Rated: G

 

Does that mean I want text loaded with sh*t, f**k, t*ts, and so on? No.

But I'd love to read a quests that are closer to say Steven King, not horror mind you, just adult/young adult. Leave the Harry Potter Recue Rangers for Wizard101.

Heck Im not even asking for G.R.R.M. that would be a little much, although I'd love it. But I understand its too dark and too adult for 80% of the MMO players.

 

In my opinion quest text (for the most part) is crap, and will countinue that way for a long time to come. Not even sure WoD will be as dark and adult as it needs/should be.

After playing Divinity II: Ego Draconis (Which, by the way, is an excellent, action-based, single-player RPG), I have come to the conclusion that I will probably never be able to read the kind of brilliantly written dialogue that such a game has.

And I was right. JRPGs and Korean RPGs tend to get cheesy (Maybe its just the limitations of the translations). Here's the average, Rated Teen dialogue from the average, quest giving NPC:

Joe: Hello Adventurer! Might I take a moment of your time?

I was out in the woods when some evil bunny suddenly attacked me from a bush nearby! To my shock, I ran away leaving my jar of peanut butter out in the open fields. Now my family is starving and we need that peanut butter! A bunny probably grabbed it. Would you please find it and bring it back?

Rewards: Unicorn-leather shoes and  a pink dagger.

If you're used to that crap, you will be amazed by how awesome RPGs are that have brilliant dialogue. Divinity II has the best so far.

Depends. If there are quest hubs, with 50 different NPC's offering quests, probably not unless it's needed to know where to go and what to click on. Im not gonna read all that shit.

Lazy ass NPC's cant go get there own package? Now they tell me they also need wolf tails when they just had me out there getting wolfs feet? Assholes!! Couldnt tell me that before? I dont care about their sob story at that point anyway.

 Reading stuff like that pisses me off. And it's 90% of the game. Bah.

I'd say I read quest text more often than not. Rarely do I find that it is worth reading.

This screenshot is from Aion; it's a funny message that I received for turning down a quest. Feels kind of special to know I'm one of a select few people who've ever seen the message.

I love turning down quests... I do it at every opportunity. Best reward ever was the time in FFXI that I earned a title for turning down a quest.

Originally posted by ViKtoricus 

Joe: Hello Adventurer! Might I take a moment of your time?

I was out in the woods when some evil bunny suddenly attacked me from a bush nearby! To my shock, I ran away leaving my jar of peanut butter out in the open fields. Now my family is starving and we need that peanut butter! A bunny probably grabbed it. Would you please find it and bring it back?

Rewards: Unicorn-leather shoes and  a pink dagger.

Perfect imitation.

I did read the text in some games, but others... not worth it at all. I almost always try and read some text to get the gist if it's well-written or not, and usually it's the latter, so I just click the crap out of the "continue button".

Nope, I hate it.

Haven't read quest text in a VERY long time. I did in my first play through of Guild Wars. And I sometimes did when I used to play WoW. But that's it.

Now, in single player RPGS, you bet your ass I do. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind was like a frigging book and the majority of it was absolutely amazing.

I don't anymore. I practically fall asleep when trying to read quest text in an mmo. Single player games are different as usually they are much better written plus they usually don't show you exactly where to go with an arrow pointing at the npc or objective like they do in an mmo.

Some of it.

If it's the typical kill x number of critter type I skip it. I do read the important or so called storyline quest texts the first time through but perhaps never again after that.

Heh, a true story of the bad things about not reading the quests:

A buddy of mine was questing in EQ2, leveling up. So this faerie in Kel gave him some quests, gather some things and so on... And then he told him to go and poison the entire Kel councel... When my buddy suddenly rather shocked realized he almost did the entire betrayal questline to change side to evil...

Just one more without any reading and it would have been hilarious. :)

I used to read all the quest text in MMO's, I liked the added immersion that lore has to offer.

However, like many, I find it harder and harder to read the quest text in MMORPG's, mainly because I've trouble deigning myself to care enough about the lore.

I notice the same with books though, I used to read everything that could be found on the field of scifi, horror and fantasy, but nowadays I limit myself to only the most interesting titles of the crop (Steven Erikson's The Crippled God, yep, here I come).

VO and cutscenes seem a better option for quest immersion, however I'm pretty sure that I'll read every single quest text that can be found in The Secret World. Mainly because I find the world setting and theme that interesting that I want to learn everything that can be learnt about it, but also because Tornquist and his gang will put all kinds of hints and clues into the game for a new type of quests they'll introduce, mystery and puzzle missions, that can slip you by if you're not paying attention (there'll even be raid-level mystery missions, where whole guilds need to work together to solve mysteries and uncover secrets).

So maybe it's a matter of how enticing a world and its lore is and how the presentation of the quests is that can overcome the growing desensitization that many MMO gamers have after years of playing MMO's and doing quests.

Originally posted by Loke666

Heh, a true story of the bad things about not reading the quests:

A buddy of mine was questing in EQ2, leveling up. So this faerie in Kel gave him some quests, gather some things and so on... And then he told him to go and poison the entire Kel councel... When my buddy suddenly rather shocked realized he almost did the entire betrayal questline to change side to evil...

Just one more without any reading and it would have been hilarious. :)

Funny

That could be a good MMO quest mechanic though, quests with consequences, quests that don't warn you of their impact but where you have to be wary and pay attention whether you really want to finish them and suffer the moral/game consequences that finishing them will have

Quests that are a trap, betrayal quests, quests with a plot twist that turn everything topsy turvy and leave you with that 'whoa, wtf is happening here?' sensation.

Only MMO where I ever read all the text for every quest was The Chronicles of Spellborn. Very well written, and often quite comedic. That game had so much potential.