Guild Wars 2

Hey all, was looking for a discussion on whether quests would be truly detrimental to GW2 or if they could offer potential benefits to the game. I apologize if a topic like this already exists – I wasn’t able to find it, and I’d be happy to post there if someone can share a link.

My friends and I were discussing the topic recently, and while we don’t have an issue with the Dynamic Event system, we felt that the system limits our experience to what’s currently going on in Tyria. With so much interesting lore only hinted at by the progression of the Living Story, we felt that traditional quests – particularly optional side quests – could help players get acquainted with other elements of Tyria that aren’t the focus of the Living Story, Personal Story, or Heart of Thorns. That ‘quest packs’ could be released between chapters of the story to encourage players to revisit old maps and learn more about the game world.

It was just an idle conversation, but I’m curious as to what the community thinks about quests and whether or not implementing them would be a good idea.

Like the many threads about the trinity, the response is and always will be: this game was designed to not have traditional quests. There is a lot of lore and it could be brought into the spotlight, but for this game, quests aren’t the way to do it.

I know ANet’s stance regarding quests – I’m just curious as to whether its a good stance to stick to or if quests might still have a place within the framework they’ve built. They can’t address everything in the game through Living Story and expansions, and people have complained in the past about all the focus on the dragons when there’s so many other forces at work – so why would quests not work in this environment? Is ANet right in avoiding them or do people feel differently?

The quests you have are the 301 or so hearts. A lot of people don’t even speak to the heart NPC so they don’t know the story behind what they’re doing along with it coinciding with any dynamic events within the vicinity.

As they’re currently implemented, Hearts have you working in a limited area for a specific task – namely helping out the NPC perform some task. Is there room in the game – or could the game benefit from – a system that sends players trekking across a map, or multiple map, to uncover information for an NPC? The Living Story does a good job of it on a grand scale, furthering the primary plot of the game, but there are side characters, side plots, and background information that could benefit by some low-key attention. Would it be better for the game to leave them in the background until a major plot point require them or would it be interesting to explore those stories between updates?

Ancelas.8216:

As they’re currently implemented, Hearts have you working in a limited area for a specific task – namely helping out the NPC perform some task. Is there room in the game – or could the game benefit from – a system that sends players trekking across a map, or multiple map, to uncover information for an NPC? The Living Story does a good job of it on a grand scale, furthering the primary plot of the game, but there are side characters, side plots, and background information that could benefit by some low-key attention. Would it be better for the game to leave them in the background until a major plot point require them or would it be interesting to explore those stories between updates?

Yeah but you’re doing the same thing in that limited area as you would be if you had gone outside of the map.

I think the way Mawdrey and the Karka hunt and also the Marriners Plaque achievement should be the way they continue to plug lore during “downtimes” rather than traditional quests. These fit the game much better and as Marriner showed, can really highlight the lore in exceptional ways.

And are 10x more fun imo.

Ayrilana.1396:

Ancelas.8216:

As they’re currently implemented, Hearts have you working in a limited area for a specific task – namely helping out the NPC perform some task. Is there room in the game – or could the game benefit from – a system that sends players trekking across a map, or multiple map, to uncover information for an NPC? The Living Story does a good job of it on a grand scale, furthering the primary plot of the game, but there are side characters, side plots, and background information that could benefit by some low-key attention. Would it be better for the game to leave them in the background until a major plot point require them or would it be interesting to explore those stories between updates?

Yeah but you’re doing the same thing in that limited area as you would be if you had gone outside of the map.

Perhaps. Given how people treat the hearts – like you said, players tend to power through them – do you think that a system that would push players out of the map and back, revealing more information about the history of the world/actions of the side-characters/etc would be similarly overlooked and potentially pointless?

Randulf.7614:

I think the way Mawdrey and the Karka hunt and also the Marriners Plaque achievement should be the way they continue to plug lore during “downtimes” rather than traditional quests. These fit the game much better and as Marriner showed, can really highlight the lore in exceptional ways.

And are 10x more fun imo.

Interesting! So put in more pieces of lore scattered about the world – maybe hidden in dialogue – and possibly set up an Achievement track to reward searching them out?

Ancelas.8216:

Ayrilana.1396:

Ancelas.8216:

As they’re currently implemented, Hearts have you working in a limited area for a specific task – namely helping out the NPC perform some task. Is there room in the game – or could the game benefit from – a system that sends players trekking across a map, or multiple map, to uncover information for an NPC? The Living Story does a good job of it on a grand scale, furthering the primary plot of the game, but there are side characters, side plots, and background information that could benefit by some low-key attention. Would it be better for the game to leave them in the background until a major plot point require them or would it be interesting to explore those stories between updates?

Yeah but you’re doing the same thing in that limited area as you would be if you had gone outside of the map.

Perhaps. Given how people treat the hearts – like you said, players tend to power through them – do you think that a system that would push players out of the map and back, revealing more information about the history of the world/actions of the side-characters/etc would be similarly overlooked and potentially pointless?

I’m not against additional content so doing something like that could be interesting.

That’s mostly what I’m interested – some additional content that wouldn’t need big cutscenes or productions to add into the game. They could be ways to tell smaller stories set across the world, or in the cities, which would encourage more people to poke around them. Quests/Expanded Hearts could be a potential way to do that.

I’m intrigued by what Randulf said, though. Scavenger hunts can be fun, and could be a way to bring attention to past events/old lore.

Ancelas.8216:

Randulf.7614:

I think the way Mawdrey and the Karka hunt and also the Marriners Plaque achievement should be the way they continue to plug lore during “downtimes” rather than traditional quests. These fit the game much better and as Marriner showed, can really highlight the lore in exceptional ways.

And are 10x more fun imo.

Interesting! So put in more pieces of lore scattered about the world – maybe hidden in dialogue – and possibly set up an Achievement track to reward searching them out?

I see no reason why not. Let people search for them who want them and be rewarded for it. I thoroughly enjoyed looking for the Plaques after Sea of Sorrows and using the book rather than Dulfy to find them.

More of that is welcome

Think of the GW1 locations we could be sent to find. Imagine going to the Priory and being sent on a “lore quest” which involves finding something in dungeons or JPs or from specific vendors in the open world. Or by visiting libraries in other towns.

Hundreds, upon hundreds of possibilities using a system popular and that has worked already – I typed that up in less than a minute whilst fighting a Breach boss. Now imagine what a real developer and imaginative storyteller could do.

I got excited by the idea of being tasked with locating things in dungeons and JPs, lol. I think that’s a viable idea. You don’t necessarily need a formal quest so much as a sort of Collections tab where you can track your findings. Or perhaps in the logbook that tracks LS progress – you could turn it into a full logbook that tracks your efforts in completing lore from across the world.

That would definitely be something for the players interested in lore as well as collectors, and could easily be expanded on with tiered reward systems. What about more contemporary storylines, though? Do you think the same system could be used to, say, help dig up dirt on Ellen Kiel for Evon Gnashblade to use in the future, or some such thing?

Of course. It can be adapted for almost anything like that. Although I think you mean Ellen digging up dirt on the evil Evon

However, since they ruled out any further development of the core game, I’m not expecting any of that to happen

Maybe the Lore Masteries (those included at HoT launch, and those forthcoming) will provide a way to achieve some of your proposed goals. Anything is possible!

I hope the Devs provide content akin to the Black Moa Chick ‘quest’ and Nicholas (and his ‘quests’) in the future.

Good luck.

You could tie each quest to a collection and have it reward something such as a mini. They’re already doing something similar for the precursor collection(s). You interact with something and get a little snippet about its history/lore. This snippet is also available in the collection once you’ve unlocked it in case you want to read it again. I keep thinking of the black moa quest in GW1 which I see was already referred to

Randulf.7614:

Ancelas.8216:

Randulf.7614:

I think the way Mawdrey and the Karka hunt and also the Marriners Plaque achievement should be the way they continue to plug lore during “downtimes” rather than traditional quests. These fit the game much better and as Marriner showed, can really highlight the lore in exceptional ways.

And are 10x more fun imo.

Interesting! So put in more pieces of lore scattered about the world – maybe hidden in dialogue – and possibly set up an Achievement track to reward searching them out?

I see no reason why not. Let people search for them who want them and be rewarded for it. I thoroughly enjoyed looking for the Plaques after Sea of Sorrows and using the book rather than Dulfy to find them.

More of that is welcome

I completely agree. I absolutely loved looking for the plaques for that achievement (and I didn’t even particularly like the book). I also enjoyed finding Gullik, and Gyda’s gravestone. It’s a nice little touch. It makes the stories more real.

Masteries provide a viable way to provide everything a quest could, in this context. I didn’t know about the Lore Mastery tracks in HoT, but I think that might very well be the way to go. Maybe create Tracks for sub-plots in Tyria and carry out small-scale storytelling like that…. yeah, lol, that’s a really cool idea! It’s a good way to bypass quests altogether.

I think that’s what I would like to see scattered among the LS updates – Mastery Tracks that serve as scavenger hunts/plotlines for side stories in Tyria. Then again, do you think they would work in this regard since you unlock points in the track by ‘leveling up’ after 80? That is, do you think it’d be worthwhile to invest your points in as opposed to a track that influences gameplay, or do you think that these would be a good way to keep people investing points when they complete their gameplay tracks?

I have thought about this often as well. I think it could do nothing but add some spice and variety to the game tbh. I would set them up to be related to the orders personally and maybe have them be part of the daily or have a new daily just for them. Example you get rewarded for completing 1 mission per day.

Of course I would expect new missions to be added often. For the naysayers I would say these could be similar to guild missions except they could be done solo or in smaller parties. So anyone saying “this game was designed not to have this in the game etc etc” may want to re-think that approach.

More gameplay variety and less naysaying is what this game needs tbh.