Quests, quests, quests...
Our real life is full of obligations to fulfill, tasks to complete, plans to achieve, goals to accomplish, duties to get done with, or even directions, orders to follow and oblige...
Just think of all those bound real-life obligations, some toward our family and relatives, some toward our friends and neighbourhood, some at our jobs or work, (like Bosses' orders for example), some expected by certain communities, groups we are a member of, (including even the cyber-world of internet), and in general, all the "civil" duties prescribed, defined by this human society we are living in...
All the above mentioned bound, more or less obligatory, determined or expected behavior-norms, in matter fact moral duties, tasks, and obligations, can actually be considered as a form of "real-life quests", which we are either obliged, or strongly recommended to accept and complete in the real world.
Or just take the Television for an other example: It is a tot
ally passive, one-way limited media, meaning it only emits things, while on the other side, people watching it are mere receipients, without any chance of any type of active interference or interaction.
We just sit back, passively watch and/or listen what other people do and/or say, being totally unable to actively influence anything, even in movies, the most we can do is to either "root, cheer" for/against a certain character, or try to identify ourselves with some of its protagonists, but with already predefined actions and story-line, which we cannot change, or influence in any way at all.
Now, when we play computer games, including even the most simple ones, we finally get the chance to actively control and decide about our actions, make decisions which most likely influence the gameplay, or even other players in the game, (in case of online games of course), so it's finally on us to pick our actions, and by doing that, most often actively cause our own
successes or failures.
So I am asking You people, when You finally get the chance to be in active control, and influence the game-outcome with Your actions and decisions, why don't you use it???
Why do You let Your actions, moves, and decisions be dictated by some automated quests, instead of finally decide about, and make them Yourselves???
Don't You have already enough accepted "real-life quests" to complete, do You have to let Yourselves guided by them even during Your spare-time entertainment, while playing computer-games???
Don't get me wrong, I am not against the idea of quests in general, I even support it in cases when they make the gameplay more diverse and colorful, or merely speed-up our game-advance, I only disapprove and condemn those heavily quest-centric games,where quests either severely limit or dictate player's advance and movement, or even make them totally linear, instead of letting them to pick their own action
s, make their own choices and decisions, and play the game the way they like the most, or at least have the option to play it totally "freely", without being limited by obligatory quests in any way.
So optional quests for certain rewards are just fine, as long they don't predefine, dictate, or limit the gameplay in some way, robbing the players of all creative, or intuitive actions, moves, or decisions. (like free movement over the game map, using certain skills, choosing certain actions, picking certain options, completing certain game-achievements, or severely limiting, sometimes even totally blocking their general game-advance!)
Ok, I know, quests are "in", I keep hearing players whining, shouting in MMO games for "more quests!, we need more quests!", including even us blind gamers, (like in !Survive the wild" for example, which luckily is not one of quest-oriented games...yet), newer games are usually made more-and-more qu
est-based and centered, but can't You see where that leads???
As 1st, less-and-less game-freedom, meaning creativity, and productivity are remaining, instead of gaining diversity, games are becoming more linear-and-linear every day, untill they will make people playing them just as passive, as if they were completing some of their "real-life quests" listed above, or watching a movie on TV. (case also mentioned above)
As second, they make games shorter-and-shorter, probably in order to be completed by most players by the time the next game-sequel gets released...and I say, real good, entertaining, addictive games can usually be only the truely "infinite" ones, which one can play forever, whenever in the mood for them, and which don't just end or restart after story-line is finished, or all the quests get completed!
So real high-quality games prevail forever, and in order for that, they cannot, MUST NOT be linear, meaning heavily influence d by story-line and quests!!!
Please try to understand, this is no question of "game-taste" anymore, (for I know some of You will try to come out with that "argument"), but an alert, an appeal to preserve our right of making free choices, decisions, taking free actions at will, if not in our real-lives, but at least in computer-games we play in our free-time, for our own entertainment!!!
Regards,
Caccio
from Hungary
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