Repost from MTG: Dynamic Quest Systems

The following post comes from my days at ny old blog. I repost it here in essence so I don't lose the content, as I may someday want to revisit the ideas I put forth here. This particular post dates back to January 2007, and covers my thoughts on a possible implementation of dynamic quest systems in MMOs. Hopefully it's still an interesting read. Enjoy!

I've spent a decent amount of the past 5 years playing MMOs, which is pretty impressive considering my short attention span. I cut my teeth with the original Everquest, and have played several of the larger titles since (DAoC, AC2, SWG, EQ2, WoW). For many people, part of the enjoyment of the game comes with the completion of quests. There's a certain rush to working your way through a long chain of quests, and eliminating the 'boss mob' at the end, then triumphantly marching back to the questgiver for your reward. With this said, the entire experience is cheapened a bit (well, a lot actually) if and when you happen to wander past the area where you experienced the epic struggle, only to see the same boss mob sitting there, just waiting for the next player/group to come along.

This experience is fundamentally different than that of a single player RPG, where your actions can and will affect the story in direct and powerful ways. Once you've worked your way through a particular mission or quest, the gameworld is changed because that objective (killing a boss, freeing a town from occupation or assault, rescuing a damsel in distress, etc.) is gone, and the world is altered accordingly (the boss is dead, the town is free, the damsel is no longer in distress and appropriately grateful to you). Your efforts in the game move the storyline forward, closing certain avenues but inevitably opening others, and in this manner the game continues.

Another major difference between MMOs and single player RPGs is that the single player RPG has an ultimate goal to complete to end the game or finish the main questline. You free the world, kill the demon menacing the coutnryside or save the princess (sometimes all three or even more), the world is grateful, and the credits start to roll. There is a definite feeling of accomplishment and, hopefully, satisfaction in this event. An MMO does not, because the point of an MMO is to have people continue to log in and play (thus requiring them to continue to pay the subscription fee), and to have an ultimate end to the gameplay experience would be counterproductive to this goal. There may be an end boss that players strive to face and destroy, but unlike that of a single player RPG, after the end boss is destroyed, it will respawn after a prescribed period of time, just waiting for the next lucky raid group to come along and test their mettle (or most likely, get killed by the same group for the 50th time for the epic loot they drop, but that is a topic for another post).

This game mechanic is somewhat required, because there are so many players in an MMO that to have a quest or mob disappear after one player or group solving the riddle would be counterproductive to the overall experience. There would be a mad rush, as players compete to finish all of the available quests, and then there would be a general clamoring by the player base for more content, which, if not provided, would cause a mass exodus from the game. But, since there is a need for content to be available to all players that meet the requirements of the content, it cannot be permanently removed. While this is the most fair, equitable and accessible method to provide content to players available at this time, it does not lend itself to developing the 'epic' feeling that often comes from single player games of the same type.

I'd like to think that at some point in the near future the MMO genre will evolve to the point where events can alter the environment, but not to the complete detriment of players. To start, it would be great to have quests that, after the first player or group completes the quest, it disappears. For example, you talk to an NPC in a town that's been attacked by a band of kobolds on a trail outside town, and had a valuable [insert item here] stolen. They're willing to pay some intrepid adventurer(s) to retrieve this item. The player/group travels out to the area indicated by the NPC and finds the signs of a struggle. Following the signs left behind by the marauding kobolds (either simple tracks that can be followed or maybe requiring the use of a player-character hunter/ranger and their tracking skill), they come upon the kobolds at a campsite. After a fierce battle, the player/group wins and begins to search the bodies and the camp. They don't find the [insert item here], but do discover some sort of 'receipt' or clue to who the kobolds have already pawned the [insert item here] to. They then track down this character (say a shady merchant in a seedy part of town) and 'persuades' the merchant to give back the [insert item here] (by force, coercion or simply buying it). The player/group then returns to the original NPC and gives the [insert item here] back, receiving as a reward whatever was promised.

Now, in this generation of MMO, the next player/group to come along and speak to the NPC would find that this poor person has been attacked by kobolds and lost a valuable [insert item here]...What, was the NPC dumb enough to walk out of town, immediately after getting their item returned, travel back to the scene of the attack, and be attacked once again by the same group of kobolds (who should be dead, by the way)? This occurs so that all characters that so desire can experience this quest, and thus achieve the reward offered.

What if, instead of a static NPC that always gave the same quest, with the same steps, the same solution and the same reward, a dynamic quest system were to be implemented? This would involve players going up to an NPC, receiving a quest, and then no other player/group would be able to receive the same quest from that NPC. This system would involve populating citizens of all cities and towns with probabilities to have quests, and when they are assigned a quest by the system, they will hold this quest until activated by a player/group. The quest generator would have many storylines, with many segments to be able to logically mix and match to create quests for the people of the game world. Because of the nature of the world, there would always be some poor woman who's child has gone missing and needs to be found, some poor merchant who's been assaulted by thugs and needs to get his stolen wares back, some old man who's willing to pay a lot of money for the recovery of some artifact that he remembers from his early years. The segments of the quest could be varied, down to the number of distinct segments required to complete to finish the overall quest. The reward could vary according to length of quest and difficulty to complete, and any loot given could be subtle variations on loot given for other quests.

This would make the cities and towns a more vibrant, 'alive' place, as people would be encouraged to travel through and talk to all citizens to see if they're in need of help at any given time. The system could detect your level range and assign a quest of appropriate difficulty to complete. There could still be static quests, such that there are still rites of passage for classes to achieve status in their particular profession, but instead of going out and killing a named person/being that's the same all the time, the quest generator could generate a different name/beast type every time, to develop a sense of uniqueness for each character.

As I'm not a programmer or developer, I'm not sure of the inherent difficulties and resources required to develop and code a sytem of this type and magnitude. The biggest fear I'd have, after reading a blog (I wish I could remember which one) discussing the fact that many systems have not been implemented because of stress on the servers that host and run the games. This is probably one of those cases...

There is also the fact that, most likely, today's MMO players would completely revolt at the thought of a 'non-static' quest system in an MMO. If this type of system were implemented, how could the game sites that we all like to visit (the ones that have all of the detailed quest walkthroughs, including starting NPC, steps and reward) continue to thrive? Now quest walkthroughs would be essentially useless, other than possibliy revealing the structure of specific quest segments, because each quest would start at a different location, with a different NPC, have a different set of segments making up the quest, as well as a different reward. I'm not sure that this system would go over well in today's MMO world made up of games like WoW, that announces quest-givers with a very unnatural yellow '!' floating in space over the NPC's head. If players had to go in search of their quests, that might not be desirable.

This argument is not even taking into accout the effect that this system might have on the economy. If there are relatively unique rewards for each quest, this could greatly increase the value of the reward to the owner, especially once they 'outgrow' the reward (i.e. a piece of armor that is eventually replaced by a better item) and can put it up for auction, using the in-game auction system. Since there are many fewer of this type of item (if a random reward generator is used to assign items with abilities and effects, there is the good chance that there will be duplicates or very similar items generated), the theoretical value of the item is increased. This system is a topic of its own, one I may try to expound upon in a future post.

I'm not professing to be an expert on this topic, or any topic, I'm just speculating on how the next generation of MMOs might build upon the successes of this generation's titles, and evolve into the overall experience I feel is attainable from the genre. The develope rwould have to be serious about making this system work (from a hardware and coding standpoint, as well as a gameplay mechanic standpoint), but the end result would be a game that would feel a bit more unique and dynamic. This can only benefit the players looking for unique experiences every time they log in and play...

Another time, I'd like to explore other enhancements to today's MMOs that, in my opinion, would move the genre forward, but for now, I'll sign off. Take care and keep gaming!

So anyway, that was it. Does anyone have thoughts on this? If so, please leave them in the comments.