I saw on the fan forum (which I don’t intend to sign up to) a thread discussing the heart quests. Now, it came to my surprise, that the vast majority of the people in the topic, really didn’t like them.
Some commonly used examples were:
It’s too linear
I prefer the WoW typical quest system
It’s too much of a grind
There isn’t much choice
I don’t get why I am doing them, or a feel to them. There’s no story.
You don’t know what you’re getting until you’ve completed them
Of course, there were more. However, personally I enjoy them, in fact, I love them. I’d like to set a few things straight on my own opinion.
How, can one say that they are linear? Yes, one can assume they are your typical MMO quest, but with it’s own design, but I personally feel it allows the player CHOICE on how to do them. Let’s take Warcraft as the general example here:
Player see’s quest icon above the NPC’s head. Player then needs to run to him/her “Hi, I’d like you to deliver this note to the person stood 6 feet away from me, I’m incredibly lazy you see!” Player then get’s a bit of lore as to why their doing it, runs to the quest taker, and get’s a follow up quest with some more lore.
I see that some people don’t agree with not knowing as to why their doing the heart quests in GW. Well, firstly, talk to NPC’s and you will find out. You have that option, but you also have the option to cut the non-sense walking to the QG (quest giver) and get right into it. Secondly, you get a message as to why you are doing it. “Stop the bandits from rallying together to steal the supply. Bring supply to the guards, kill the bandits, collect their badges etc” There you are? Right there you can tell the lore in which bandits are on the assault and they need aid.
The third issue with this, again looking at your generic MMO, for the same amount of lore, you will be given numerous quests. Quest 1 – Run to NPC, get quest, pick up supplies, complete quest, run back to QG, hand in badges, get sent to QG2. QG2 now tells you to kill 10 bandits, perhaps even find X item with a terrible drop rate. Okay, so by the end of the quest chain, you might have done 4-5 quests and get your reward (Which, on the same subject, a reward you don’t know you’re getting, just like a previous complaint). Yet, what if I don’t LIKE killing quests? What if I don’t LIKE doing pick up quests? At least with the hearts I get to pick and choose numerous options on how to do the same quest. I know why I am doing them before even speaking to the NPC, so even for those lazy people who don’t wish to read the text, you get a fair idea as to why.
Once you’ve completed said task, you now get a choice of rewards to buy from the NPC. No good for you? That’s MMO’s for you, no different from any other.
However, quite often these heart quests will lead to a Dynamic event. If you enjoyed the event, you can repeat it, if you didn’t? You can move on. You need the karma? No problem, plenty of them going on. These events also add to the lore, with many of it being told via voice for you lazy people out there. For those even lazier, you might even get lucky and not only get to do a Dynamic event finding out your lore, but get the Heart task done at the same time, killing two birds with one stone.
Still not enough lore for those who like to get a feel for the location/reason as to why? No problem, you get a nice instant mail sent to you giving you something to read (or not) and a little bit of money.
So in reality, the only real difference between these, and Random MMO – You don’t have to walk to Bob, to give Billy Bobs love note who’s stood right next to him to pass on to Kate standing at the end of the pier 20 feet away. You get a choice in how you complete the quests, you get easy-mode lore fed to you and even more for those who wish to take the time to read the note AND even talk to all the random people around the area discussing (via voice in many area’s) and EVEN get to role play your character a bit by progressing which personality you’d like.
So I’m confused? What is not to love?
Yes, I am aware that some of you believe that Arena net told you there would be little to no grinding (I didn’t see this, I purposely stayed away from all content to do with GW2 until it came out, so I’d have it all as a surprise) but here’s the thing! You are not forced to do them! You can level up in pure PvP if you wish. Too much? You can go right into sPvP and get gear given to you, talents given to you, traits given to you, pets given to you and not grind a single thing (You could argue glory, but in that case, would you rather sPvP without the glory and just the fighting?)
Am I missing something here, or is it a case of people will always find something to moan about or do most people genuinely not enjoy doing these heart tasks?