Fun, Fun, Fun, which rift will I take?
One thing I’ve noticed about Rift is that they failed to make interesting quests. It really bothers me. No special effort went into them. Whether it be writing, objectives, mechanics or implementation, I felt it was all quite lazy. Probably the best thing about them is that the objectives are located beside one another and you can complete multiple boring quests at the same time.
Chris and Anjin, along with a few others, quite disagree with me. Their argument is that the quests are no different or no worse than virtually any other MMO. That these quests would have been acceptable 2 years ago, and Trion shouldn’t be at fault for not innovating further. Chris even goes further in saying that “It does it with style. It’s flashy. It’s fast paced. It’s dangerous. Those are three things quests should be.”
If your best argument is that Rebecca Black is no worse than Justin Bieber, then you’ve got yourself a really terrible argument.
We are talking about an extremely well funded game company using quest design from at least 7 or 8 years ago. It’s a shocking disappointment for an otherwise well done game. In what other game genre would this be acceptable exactly?
Why are big MMO fans ready and willing to just roll over and accept poor quests? Not just accept it. Defend and even champion it. Flashy? Fast Paced?
I’m no expert of course. I’m not sure how I would have made better quests. I might have started with the lore. Except Rift’s lore appears to be cribbed from other games. The entire game’s model is taken from World of Warcraft, and everything appears to be shaped in Rift to achieve a very similar lore based antagonistic relationship with the other faction.
Only that doesn’t work when you’re just copying somebody else. Rift has good lore ideas, but they are undermined when hammered into a WoW mold.
I might have used humour, as some games tend to do. A good laugh can make a quest worth while. I haven’t laughed that much. I can remember one particular quest in Silverwood with Scottie that was quite original and funny. There appear to be 2 or 3 funny quests in a zone. Out of 100.
I could make my quests more difficult or more intricate. A boss that requires skill to defeat, a complicated quest solution that requires thinking, quests that need you to work and cooperate with others. How about anything that requires more thought than just killing 6 of these. There is none of this in Rift. There is no variety.
I take issue with the very foundation of their arguments, that Rift quests are no worse than other games. I think they are worse. They don’t have lore, humour, or variety going for them when most games have at least one of these. Their quality is perhaps improved by the art, noise, (most of all) rifts, and whatever else breaks up the game. If this game did not have rifts, I wonder how much people would be defending the quest system then?
That’s probably my most important point. Try imagining Rift with no rifts. You are left with a quest system that no one would praise.
Perhaps I am being too harsh. There are rifts, and art, and whatever else and they do break up the monotony of the quests. It is an enjoyable game, I will be subscribing. I would even recommend the game despite the quests. I guess this post is about one thing only. I don’t see why you would spend any time at all defending the quests. Trion didn’t put in the effort, neither should you.
