LAGWAR | PC GAMING'S BEST IN TOP NOTCH MEDIOCRITY

I’m going to jump on the quest topic bandwagon. Some people hate quests. Let me restate that; Some people hate what WoW has done with MMO quests. I can safely say that I am one of them. At the time, it seemed like a good idea. Quests that actually reward you to the point that they are worth doing? Who’da thunk?? The ease of doing them made the game very approachable to all sorts of people. But the problem lies with the monotony. It got old real quick to us who like a little thing called “depth”.

Now lets talk…Fallout 3.

I’m scared of it. Not scared of content, I’ve played a bit. But I stopped playing it because I love WAR. I cannot bring myself to play too much Fallout 3 because I will be hooked. I was a huge fan of the series and was quite honestly scared as to what Bathesda would do to the game. But they did an awesome job, and so awesome that I think that the system that they have in place for questing could be the MMO wave of the future. It’s not a new system, just a system that they have nearly perfected. I speak of quest options. Options you get for when interacting with NPC’s. I realize that this studio did not invent this wheel. Can anyone tell me who did? Was it Lucasarts with Monkey Island or Maniac Mansion? Or was it before these? Anyways, These games gave you options for NPC interaction, but games like Fable, Fallout, and Oblivion have those selections define your character.

This is where MMO’s must go. No more, “go kill 10 of these and bring me the ears”. I want, “hey buddy, could you go bring me 10 of these ears because of this reason.” You then say one of the following 3 or 4 things:

“I’m to busy for you.”
“What do I get out of this?”
“Sure thing, you want fries with that?”

Or something along those lines. Probably more thought out. Every option gives a different outcome of the quest, and thus rewards your character in some other way. If you are constantly a jerk, word will spread and people may not interact with you that normally would. Vice versa, people who may have not spoke with you before will start talking to you, and the ladies will love you for being the “Bad Boy” that their father always warned them about.

Another thing that I hope will be challenged is the need of “levels”. I personally don’t see the need. Bring me back the UO mentality that I don’t level my character, I raise my stats based on what I do day to day. That way you never know for sure if one character will be able to beat the crap out of you based on the law of averages. It may come down to *gasp* skill.

Long story short, I love WAR for its environment, its lore, and the RvR. But I hope its one of the last MMO’s to incorporate the WoW mentality for quests and care bareness for PvE.