Totally agree with the results. I'm looking forward to seeing what other companies decide to incorporate this into their games and how they evolve/tweak it.

Public Quests arn't even innovative and they arn't fun. They basically become solo grinds where you all fight over the mobs and tbh we've been doing this is every launch of a new mmorpg where you're all starting in one area fighting over mobs for quests...... it isn't fun and gets old FAST.

They all sit unused now anyways to show you how much of an innovative feature they are... rofl.

SWG did this type of thing before with Restuss aswel pre WAR and WoW did it with the opening of one of it's new dungeons.

 

 It will be implemented in MMOs to come. I believe I saw Champions Online adding a similar feature in their game. Yes, like it or not, Mythic rightfully took this one home.

Can it be improved upon?  Of course it can.  Other companies will see where Mythics mistakes are and make it better. No doubt Mythic will work on it too. They just have a few "more pressing" matters ATM.

as idea, it's innovative, so the award is well deserved imo, but the implementation in WAR is poor due to the other features slapping it, when 90% of the population are whoring scenarios, it's hard to get PQs at full potential.

Public quest as a innovative feature for multi player games YES it can be among the winners, personaly I don't see how it could become a innovative feature winner in a genre of MMORPG's, isn't this genre about getting the community not only together but also together to communicate?

Is communication needed with PQ's? No it's not, and we all know the general population tends to disregard the community aspect what keeps these games afloat.

Sorry for this negative reaction but I simply can not see someting like this to be innovative in a genre like MMORPG.

Generally accurate results to the poll though I think PoTBS's ship combat was more innovative (and fun) then AoC's combat system. Not to mention it required a lot more thought. If those two had been switched in ranking I think it would have been spot on.

Originally posted by John.A.Zoid

Public Quests arn't even innovative and they arn't fun. They basically become solo grinds where you all fight over the mobs and tbh we've been doing this is every launch of a new mmorpg where you're all starting in one area fighting over mobs for quests...... it isn't fun and gets old FAST.

They all sit unused now anyways to show you how much of an innovative feature they are... rofl.

 

SWG did this type of thing before with Restuss aswel pre WAR and WoW did it with the opening of one of it's new dungeons.

 

 

Firstly, I don't know what server you played on but PQ's are very good, especially if you have friends and guilds to do them with, high end they offer great rewards.

And, Restuss is nothing like a public quest... it's essentially a badly made PvP lake that is very small. NGE SWG is a very bad game.

Warhammer isn't perfect but it definitely deserves this years prize as most innovative. Some of the stuff they've added recently, like PvP Influence rewards, has made ORvR a blast and made Scenarios very uncommon... I love it

I have mixed feelings about it.   I think the first real idea of the public quest comes from FFXI in their besieged feature, where the entire zone rallies up to defend the town from monster raids.  Almost every single public "quest" in Warhammer boils down to kill 100 mobs, kill 10 harder mobs, kill boss mob. 

It highlights for me a greater issue with their quest system where literally 80% of the quests are kill quests, and the other 20% are collection quests.   They really need to mix things up a bit.   If you look at your quest log at any given time, I bet you almost everything in there fits one of these 2 types.  Literally by the time your at 40, your ready to smash your head into a brick wall until your dead from doing the same quest over and over with just a different monster inserted.

I think one of the more innovative features from that list would be from POTBS honestly.  I think the only reason this was picked was because it has more subscribers then the other games who had features nominated.

I agree with this, originally it was one of the most fun things in the game as long as there was opposition from the other side.  Now sadly the PQs seem to be all one side now and the a lot aren't even populated.  However, a very innovative concept.

"a very innovative concept"

Have to disagree with that statement.  The degree of innovation in this genre overall is appalling.  Even the new games did not innovate to any degree.   Half the items on this so called innovation list are take offs on things done in other games. 

Combat combos were in DAoC long before AoC was even conceived.  The only thing different in AoC combat was the ability to choose the attack location.  So that invalidates that choice.

Originally posted by Ozmodan

"a very innovative concept"

Combat combos were in DAoC long before AoC was even conceived.  The only thing different in AoC combat was the ability to choose the attack location.  So that invalidates that choice.

Actually, the additional of directional combat is an innovation on an existing model.

Remember, invention is coming up with something entirely new, while innovation is a cahnge to something already existing. For example, the telephone was an invention, call waiting, or call display were innovations to the telephone.

I'm not saying you have to think that the device is the bees knees. I'm just saying that, like it or not, it IS an innovation to combat.

Originally posted by Stradden

Originally posted by Ozmodan

"a very innovative concept"

Combat combos were in DAoC long before AoC was even conceived.  The only thing different in AoC combat was the ability to choose the attack location.  So that invalidates that choice.

Actually, the additional of directional combat is an innovation on an existing model.

Remember, invention is coming up with something entirely new, while innovation is a cahnge to something already existing. For example, the telephone was an invention, call waiting, or call display were innovations to the telephone.

I'm not saying you have to think that the device is the bees knees. I'm just saying that, like it or not, it IS an innovation to combat.

 

It's a close one as far as AoC's combat goes, but I think I'll side with Jon on this.   Like it or hate it, was it was new approach to fighting.   I didn't like it, which is why I stayed as non-melee classes, but it was definitely different.  

I don't think AoC or WAR should have won though.  The games with the most innovative features in this poll are the ones least played, so most people probably don't fully understand the other choices so voted for what game they knew.    Realize I have never played POTBS or EVE, but from what I have read, one of them probably should have won.   Whoever said the last few MMO's have been appalling in this regard I think is pretty much spot on.

Originally posted by magicktrick

I agree with this, originally it was one of the most fun things in the game as long as there was opposition from the other side.  Now sadly the PQs seem to be all one side now and the a lot aren't even populated.  However, a very innovative concept.

Totally agree. I love PQ because it gives me the chance to group with so many different people.  We don't have to be in the same guild, or all be on ventrillo, or have some pre-arranged time.  I've made more friends through PQ than guild.

I started leveling a new alt and noticed that PQ just doesn't have as many people as before.  I would love to see a little tweaking to draw people back to them.

Originally posted by Paragus1

Originally posted by Stradden

Originally posted by Ozmodan

"a very innovative concept"

Combat combos were in DAoC long before AoC was even conceived.  The only thing different in AoC combat was the ability to choose the attack location.  So that invalidates that choice.

Actually, the additional of directional combat is an innovation on an existing model.

Remember, invention is coming up with something entirely new, while innovation is a cahnge to something already existing. For example, the telephone was an invention, call waiting, or call display were innovations to the telephone.

I'm not saying you have to think that the device is the bees knees. I'm just saying that, like it or not, it IS an innovation to combat.

 

 

It's a close one as far as AoC's combat goes, but I think I'll side with Jon on this.   Like it or hate it, was it was new approach to fighting.   I didn't like it, which is why I stayed as non-melee classes, but it was definitely different.  

I don't think AoC or WAR should have won though.  The games with the most innovative features in this poll are the ones least played, so most people probably don't fully understand the other choices so voted for what game they knew.    Realize I have never played POTBS or EVE, but from what I have read, one of them probably should have won.   Whoever said the last few MMO's have been appalling in this regard I think is pretty much spot on.

I don't think DAOC had player shields either, right? like AoC has. The ability to chose where to defend ones self.

As for Public Quest, I am sure I participated in something similar in Runescape back in 2003, the premise changed and got tweaked with Warhammer so they brought some good ideas with it. Shame it didn't work out so well in integration from my experience.

Seriously, I don't think that the winner deserve that title. First of all, to innovate something you have to create something completely new, which is very hard. I see lots of games copying each other or mixing features (usually mixing features works very well, take WoW as an example). I think EVE innovated much more when comes to features, by the way new games they are coming with very interesting features, I think at the end of this year we will see a more "fair and realistic" result.

I  think the votes to Warhammer Online was based on all the game, not only the features (chech the home page, Warhammer is always on the top of the lists). To bad. Hope this year people vote thinking on the theme, innovative features, not on the game that they like to play.

Well, the idea and concept of public quests may be innovative.  I'll grant you that.  But what I would call this is more of a "Most Innovative Failure of a Feature".  No one does the public quests in the game, and they rarely ever get completed.  Players don't work together much on PvE, and unless you're of a significantly higher level over the PQ, a small group of 2-3 players has no chance of trying to complete the final stages.

The gameplay is so damn lopsided and the only thing anyone does is grind scenarios over and over again.  It's like WoW without the PvE game.  And it's NOT RvR or strategic like DAoC either.  It's just a 2-sided war of death tradeoffs and repetition.  This game doesn't deserve any of the "awards" some sites are shelling out.  I get the feeling that the awards come easily to the games with the more generous advertising budgets.

---

Originally posted by Ephimero
as idea, it's innovative, so the award is well deserved imo, but the implementation in WAR is poor due to the other features slapping it, when 90% of the population are whoring scenarios, it's hard to get PQs at full potential.

---

Things have changed, nobody whores in the senarios anymore,(atleast not on my server) check your facts! People used to do that though, so you probably haven't been online in awhile m8.

PQs are fun!

Originally posted by Stradden

MMORPG.com is pleased to announce the winner of the 2008 Reader's Choice Award for Most Innovative Feature of 2008.

In the voting for Most Innovative Feature of 2008, 2341 votes were cast. The editorial nominees were: Council of Stellar Management (EVE), Combo Combat (Age of Conan), Public Quests (Warhammer Online), Ship Combat (Pirates of the Burning Sea).

With an impressive 41% of the vote, the winner of the Most Innovative Feature of 2008 was Warhammer Online's Public Quests.

Read the Most Innovative Feature: Winner

with all of the innovative features which this site refused to nominate, sort of a hollow victory.

good job.  very impressive on the staff for nominating non-innovative features (seriously, the csm for eve?????) and ignoring TONS of actual innovation done in games in 2008.

but hey, goes hand in hand with the quality of a lot of correspondent articles i've been reading.  trees and apples i guess.

This is a joke.

1. The innovation isn't a innovation

2. PQ's should not have been nominated in the first place

3. It show how biased and immature MMORPGers really are. They are not voting for the best feature they are voting for their game (with all possible multiposting profiles)

Originally posted by ScamMan

This is a joke.

1. The innovation isn't a innovation

2. PQ's should not have been nominated in the first place

3. It show how biased and immature MMORPGers really are. They are not voting for the best feature they are voting for their game (with all possible multiposting profiles)

 

I am not playing WAR atm, but 2 of my RL friends are, and they are loving it, so while I do not play WAR atm, I do feel that WAR did innovate.

You yourself are the perfect example of nr 3

I'm pleased with the result and believe it is worthwhile because it's the one feature that can be seamlessly added to other MMOs. Quests have been static for such a long time with every NPC wanting the same thing, usually to kill some small number of mobs. This feels a lot more artificial than to walk in on a battle in progress.

I hope we see a lot more shared quests like this, maybe handled in a different way, maybe combined with the traditional type as well. So "collect 5 sticks" becomes "collect at least 5 sticks of the 1000 we need with increasing rewards for more sticks".

Questing needs to evolve and public quests are a great first step.

PQs aren't anything new to the MMO market, although WAR did make them more avaible. FFXI had them to some extent, other games have done server vs server contest like the PQs done in WAR. I guess people's memories are short term.

Originally posted by namelessro

Seriously, I don't think that the winner deserve that title. First of all, to innovate something you have to create something completely new, which is very hard. I see lots of games copying each other or mixing features (usually mixing features works very well, take WoW as an example). I think EVE innovated much more when comes to features, by the way new games they are coming with very interesting features, I think at the end of this year we will see a more "fair and realistic" result.

I  think the votes to Warhammer Online was based on all the game, not only the features (chech the home page, Warhammer is always on the top of the lists). To bad. Hope this year people vote thinking on the theme, innovative features, not on the game that they like to play.

Go back and read this:

Remember, invention is coming up with something entirely new, while innovation is a cahnge to something already existing. For example, the telephone was an invention, call waiting, or call display were innovations to the telephone. -Stradden

Reading comprehension -1.

I'm not saying that PQ's should have won necesarily, but it IS an innovation (not an invention) just like combat in AOC was an innovation, (not an invention.)

No one is going to agree with this 100%.  Just like not everyone votes for the same candidate for president...but regardless, one of them will win the polls.

What a joke! PQ's are a means of making mmos even more easy to play than they already are so they are hardly a great addition to the mmo genre. If developers take a look at PQs and think "Yeah we need more of that in our games" then its a step backwards for the mmo genre in general. They minimise the need for any social interaction which kind of defeats the point of online ROLEPLAYING games. I participated in a number of PQs and there was absolutely no need to talk to anyone at all and as a result few people did. It only helped to reduce the feeling that my actions mattered in any way. PQs only help to strengthen the single player mindset that many gamers have and many mmo developers tend to base their game design on.

Why are developers trying to appeal to the lazy crowd anyway? Why are they trying to draw in the type of player who cant be bothered to use their brain or their social skills? Oh yeah thats right its because they want more money. Although I can sympathise with this (afterall everyone wants to make money) it also means that mmos are becoming more and more mainstream and simplistic. Warhammer Online is a casual easy game aimed at casual players who arent looking for any level of complexity, realism or challenge.

Having said that I can see that PQs can have their uses in online gaming but maybe more in FPS or strategy types but not really for RPGs. With the way things are going with the simplification of mmos they may as well completely ditch the whole roleplaying aspect and just make massively multiplayer FPS games instead and stop trying to tell us stories like they are single player games.

Originally posted by neonwire

What a joke! PQ's are a means of making mmos even more easy to play than they already are so they are hardly a great addition to the mmo genre. If developers take a look at PQs and think "Yeah we need more of that in our games" then its a step backwards for the mmo genre in general. They minimise the need for any social interaction which kind of defeats the point of online ROLEPLAYING games. I participated in a number of PQs and there was absolutely no need to talk to anyone at all and as a result few people did. It only helped to reduce the feeling that my actions mattered in any way. PQs only help to strengthen the single player mindset that many gamers have and many mmo developers tend to base their game design on.

Why are developers trying to appeal to the lazy crowd anyway? Why are they trying to draw in the type of player who cant be bothered to use their brain or their social skills? Oh yeah thats right its because they want more money. Although I can sympathise with this (afterall everyone wants to make money) it also means that mmos are becoming more and more mainstream and simplistic. Warhammer Online is a casual easy game aimed at casual players who arent looking for any level of complexity, realism or challenge.

Having said that I can see that PQs can have their uses in online gaming but maybe more in FPS or strategy types but not really for RPGs. With the way things are going with the simplification of mmos they may as well completely ditch the whole roleplaying aspect and just make massively multiplayer FPS games instead and stop trying to tell us stories like they are single player games.

In all reality, they should have made the PQ's much harder, and made the rewards much greater.  The whole point of the PQ was to give people an easy way to work together and interact, hoping that you would then talk to each other, form friendships and groups to do other things with.

This obviously needs improvement, but this was not geared towards the solo game.

Seriously, how jacked up is your mental process that you think a PQ, (most of which there is no way you could complete by yourself, other than grinding stage 1)is geared towards solo??

Like I said, they need lots of work, but the core idea is solid.  It's the implementation that is lacking at this point, and that is due to the fact that you can get decent rewards from grinding out stage 1, instead of having to get the loot bags for decent reward.

PQ's are good in theory and I enjoyed them at the start but the amount available coupled with the option of scenarios makes them pretty useless.  So good idea? Yes but fail due to poor implementation.  After the starting area I never did another PQ and if I tried it would only be one or two people.  So like the rest I line up for scenarios....

Originally posted by brihtwulf

Well, the idea and concept of public quests may be innovative.  I'll grant you that.  But what I would call this is more of a "Most Innovative Failure of a Feature".  No one does the public quests in the game, and they rarely ever get completed.  Players don't work together much on PvE, and unless you're of a significantly higher level over the PQ, a small group of 2-3 players has no chance of trying to complete the final stages.

The gameplay is so damn lopsided and the only thing anyone does is grind scenarios over and over again.  It's like WoW without the PvE game.  And it's NOT RvR or strategic like DAoC either.  It's just a 2-sided war of death tradeoffs and repetition.  This game doesn't deserve any of the "awards" some sites are shelling out.  I get the feeling that the awards come easily to the games with the more generous advertising budgets.

 

 

Thing with WAR is you don't usually need to work together for PvE, as PvE is that shallow in WAR that it's not funny. PQ's were a very innovative feature, but would of worked much better in a game that isn't a PvP niche game... PQ's are probably another thing that a game like LoTRO could rip off but perfect, along with the WAR's tome of knowledge.

The Scenario grind is long over, most of the time it's just log in, find an open RvR group, cruise around killing for a while. Weekends = taking keeps with guildies, whatever. I left the game in the first month due to Scenarios because I hate them, I consider them kiddy carebear PvP. But now that I've returned it seems much better, the crowd who thought the game was 'zomg teh w0w killr' have left and I myself am quite happy to see them go.

Originally posted by namelessro

Seriously, I don't think that the winner deserve that title. First of all, to innovate something you have to create something completely new, which is very hard. I see lots of games copying each other or mixing features (usually mixing features works very well, take WoW as an example). I think EVE innovated much more when comes to features, by the way new games they are coming with very interesting features, I think at the end of this year we will see a more "fair and realistic" result.

I  think the votes to Warhammer Online was based on all the game, not only the features (chech the home page, Warhammer is always on the top of the lists). To bad. Hope this year people vote thinking on the theme, innovative features, not on the game that they like to play.

OK this is not about how good the game is or is not , so stop being fanboys or haters and address only the PQs. (to the other many posts of this mind-set)

Two to be innovative you do NOT have to create somethign entirely new. It simply mean a new way of doing something, which PQ's clewarly fall under. (Wow quest and easy leveling was innovative,etc. That is what the word means and how it is used). So never before has a game had a system of quests/open encounters to be done ad hoc wby any number of random people in the area as a staple or intergral part of the leveling/gaming experience; this as mythic did this and in a way that it was new was a innovation. Good or bad well ill let the votes speak to that.

REally did it have much competition? 

Public quests in concept are nice, but the execution is just aweful for many reasons.  From simplisitic repetative gameplay to yet another feature that breaks down community building by removing player communication.  I even question if public quests are really innovative over previous games efforts with public quest style mechanics (yes they have been done before) or instead they are just such a large part of Warhammer that they seem new, because they are litterly everywhere.  Good concept, poor execution.

I think this poll missed some of the better innovations like phasing in WoW and legendary weapons in Lotro and instead picked some very lackluster choices like ship combat and the council in Eve.  Neither of which is really worth mentioning as they have existed already.

Sidenote: ZOMG eve didn't zerg win a poll!?!?!?!

yay WAR, but winner isn't the right word.  More like number 1 in a year of craptacular non-innovativeness.   Grats to WAR though, it is the best, and got my vote.

The biggest failure of the Public Quest system in WAR was the way other quests were linked into them.

I have no problem with PQs being hard/impossible to do solo, but the seeding of other quests in the PQ areas made it a nightmare for soloists/small groups - bad enough that you couldn't complete the PQ, but to have to slog through it anyways to get to some other quest item/person just added insult to injury.

As a game design idea though the PQ is a great addition to MMOs and one of the better ways to deal with "open" raids.

I think some people here kinda miss the point of the vote.

It's not about whether or not you personally like the feature.

It's not about whether or not the feature was embraced the way it was intended.

It's not about how the players use (or don't use) the feature.

Not whether you personally think they're a good idea or not.

It's about the feature itself; the concept of Public Quests, or any of the others were nominated.

In this case, yes, Public Quests are an innovative feature in MMORPGs that has not been done before in that format... and that's what the vote is about - which of the innovations - in concept - are better than the others. Most people voted for WAR.

a well deserved award.

Public Quests were indeed a good and innovative feature.  It was quite fun to join in with random people without having to join some queue and wait for ages.  Granted (past level 12 at least) there were more public quests then there were players doing them at the time, i am sure with a little tweaking it will become a widespread feature

Originally posted by WSIMike

I think some people here kinda miss the point of the vote.

It's not about whether or not you personally like the feature.

It's not about whether or not the feature was embraced the way it was intended.

It's not about how the players use (or don't use) the feature.

Not whether you personally think they're a good idea or not.

It's about the feature itself; the concept of Public Quests, or any of the others were nominated.

In this case, yes, Public Quests are an innovative feature in MMORPGs that has not been done before in that format... and that's what the vote is about - which of the innovations - in concept - are better than the others. Most people voted for WAR.

Probably the issue is how different people define innovation.

Is it really something new.. or just doing something else slightly different.

LIke taking contested encounters from another game and making them a co-op version *ta da* PQ's.

Regardless they won and that is that.

/congrats

*edited to make the first line clear*

Originally posted by WSIMike

I think some people here kinda miss the point of the vote.

It's not about whether or not you personally like the feature.

It's not about whether or not the feature was embraced the way it was intended.

It's not about how the players use (or don't use) the feature.

Not whether you personally think they're a good idea or not.

It's about the feature itself; the concept of Public Quests, or any of the others were nominated.

In this case, yes, Public Quests are an innovative feature in MMORPGs that has not been done before in that format... and that's what the vote is about - which of the innovations - in concept - are better than the others. Most people voted for WAR.

QFT.

As for Innovation not being clear enough (lol.): It's not complicated really. Innovation = A new Idea.

PQs are one of the things Mythic did well, and I hope they get even better when integrated into other MMOs in the future. Just a matter of time IMO.

Originally posted by WSIMike

I think some people here kinda miss the point of the vote.

It's not about whether or not you personally like the feature.

It's not about whether or not the feature was embraced the way it was intended.

It's not about how the players use (or don't use) the feature.

Not whether you personally think they're a good idea or not.

It's about the feature itself; the concept of Public Quests, or any of the others were nominated.

In this case, yes, Public Quests are an innovative feature in MMORPGs that has not been done before in that format... and that's what the vote is about - which of the innovations - in concept - are better than the others. Most people voted for WAR.

Even ignoring the debate over how innovative this feature was, the second half of the puzzle is the word best.  The list offered was flawed in many peoples eyes and left out some of the better innovations in other mmos this year. 

Was this really the best innovation overall or just from the list?  On paper it is a fine concept, but the execution leaves so much to be desired that it is hard to believe this is award worthy.   

The "best" innovation of last year lays around empty the majority of the time, because players are busy playing other features[which are standard mmo features in other games] I think that points out just how bad last year was and just how much of a "winner" this feature is.

Please don't get me wrong, I think there is merit in the PQ system just as there is in the many incarnation of it prior to Warhammer,  but just not anything like Mythic implemented it.

I'm shocked that the Level Sync feature in FFXI wasn't even mentioned within choices... shocked.