Originally posted by Scalpless

Guild Wars 1. It's full of well-designed missions, like, for example...

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Assault_on_the_Stronghold

Pretty difficult at times, too. DDO is a runner-up and I really enjoyed Anarchy Online's randomly generated dungeons back when I played it.

my best memories were EQ1 dungeons (but that was rarely questing)

for questing, I agree, GW1 missions and DDO quest instances were memorable

After participating in thousands of quest over the years in countless mmos, I have to say for me The Secret World had the only questing system that didn't make me feel like I was questing. They were very intertwined within the environment (follow trails, pick up clues), intuative by taking in account a player's ability to reference the internet and risky by severely limiting the number of quest players can have at once.

Runner up for me were the class based questing lines in WoW. Paladin mount quest line, Benediction quest line, Rhok'delar, Longbow of the Ancient Keepers hunter quest line, etc. I felt these reflected epic journeys or rites of passage you'd expect players to accomplish for their given class. So much more meaningful (at least for me) than raiding gear.

FFXI almost had it right but there was a little too much dependency on others to have enough patience to finish even one part of the journey to get a single piece of AF gear. In all my months of playing FFXI I only gathered 3 pieces. Once I got to the stage where I need a coffer keys (a random drop from high level mobs) and you could not solo the mobs, I gave up because you feel bad that you're taking away so much time from those that could be leveling themselves or getting something of their own accomplished.

Originally posted by Jimmydean
Everquest. When the quests were optional, and if you did one it actually meant something.

^^ A thousand times, this!

Hell I remember playing EQ before you could find a walkthrough of every damn quest online. That made it incredibly fun and rewarding.

EverQuest or DAoC

aka, no systemized forced quest based leveling system. Quests were actually quests. 

GW2's weren't bad, except for the heart BS. 

Personally, I prefer questing with a ton of backstory, making you feel like you're part of an environment and that your quests actually make a difference (as opposed to 'kill 10 chipmunk' quests). Even though it's gone the way of the dodo, City of Heroes/Villains had a great questing system, with epic villains to fight.

Another great system is Fallen Earth. The backstory in that game is about as in-depth as was in CoH, and is very well thought out. You have your basic quest types (Kill X, Escort, Craft, Go to agent, etc), but they also add the tracking missions (where the spots update as you visit each one, ending with a kill or ambush finale. Another good aspect of the game is the crafting, long rated one of the top 5 crafting systems out there.

For the quality of the quests themselves, I'd say it'd be a tie between TSW and SWTOR.

TSW brought in some brilliant stuff with their investigative quests. They've made more "gameplay" out of quests, which is always good and immersive.

SWTOR has probably the best execution in how the quests are presented. It also brought multiplayer dialogue to questing, which again was another important addition to "questing as gameplay" - one that was innovative in my opinion.

I thought WOW had a nice balance between questing and doing other stuff (in which some characters I'd level through sheer quest-chaining, and others without touching a quest for tens of levels). It also had some memorable characters in the quests. I still remember stuff like The Legend of Stalvan or the "Lady Katrana Prestor" chains.

I loved WoW's then-new total world quest experience when it first came out.  Constantly interacting with in game characters and performing tasks according to the lore and the situation within each zone throughout the entire leveling experience was very immersive for a very long time.  Phasing also helped preserve a sense of having a lasting impact on the world, although it came at some expenses.  Nevertheless, nothing remains fresh forever.  It eventually gets old and tiring.  

I find GW2's event system to be amazingly refreshing at the moment.  Just wandering around the world and encountering stuff as it happens around you (and for everyone else around you as well) feels so much more immediate, fluid, and natural than quests ever could.  Everyone around you is always "on the same quest" as you, so you will usually find yourself playing with other players more naturally--although in GW2, a common criticism is that it tends to feel more like you are playing *alongside* other players than *with* them.  

STO and DDO.

They put you in story instances that can change according to your progress.

right now my favorite questing system is in GW2. I hope other companies take this concept and make it even better instead of cursing us with the ! questing over and over from quest hub A to quest hub B to C etc... 

It doesnt matter how innovative your mmo is, if it has the old generic WoW's quest grinding ill just go play WoW that is more experienced with that old system.

Originally posted by grouikfr
Asheron's Call of course. No marker, no journal, just a storyline evolving each monthes, town criers who would give you hints for coins, and other NPC would lead you to dungeons with platform games and rares items, you would craft items that could be customized with questings, and all of that with no tracker, just your story being written in your memories. I also loved the fact that every quest had a reward which was quite unique and sometimes useful to max level, and that there were loads of quests.

i never played that game, but that questing sounds pretty interesting. As long as its a dynamic system with no hand holding count me in.

oddly, I am not 'feeling' questing anymore.

I couldn't get myself to finish eve's tutorial. I feel a lot more like running around and doing stuff at will nowadays.

the last mmo i liked questing in was WoW, naturally.