| Interesting observation and a good write up. It's also valid to say that even if the item reward becomes dated the XP and story remain viable, unlike EQ quests that have minimal XP or story. And yes, along the way the lore should suck you into the world.
There's no reason to make quests the only form of XP. Basically any challenge you undergo should generate XP, that's what its measuring after all. Why limit the possibilities to only one facet?
It occurred to me that part of the reason WoW may really be 2nd generation is if it has heavy use of scripting / AI for quests and gaming. EQ partly went to massive mobs with huge DPS because there ability to script dynamic events was marginal.
The interesting counter-examples are those EQ "stories" which have lore but no real connection to the game. Likewise the newbie quests, which I generally do, are marginally successful in that they give your early levelling a purpose. However they are very basic collection quests and extremely illogical. Your going to make me some armor out of two snake fangs, a bat wing and a short beer? This I have to see. They also tend to have poorly balanced challenges and rarities mixed in. |