[Gaereth]

There is no reason you can't have all varieties of quests. The small tasks that the npc's in the area you are in need completed, the exploration type, the kill quests, the collections, the fedex, the find so and so, and huge chains and epic quests.

They can all be there and actually all need to be there for different play styles. Some folks really only do the smaller one shot stuff and don't want the bigger stuff, some want only the bigger stuff. Some people will do it all. I love the mechanic of a 'found' quest. Its not a quest giver, I didn't get it in town, I found an item, a bottle, an area, a wanted poster, it arrived in the mail, or any other mechanic that caused me to pause and examine what I had found. It added life.

Honestly that is what most of the little quests are to me, added life in the game. They add depth and substance to a pretty 3d world and give a bit of meaning to things. I would love to have a guy in the bar slide up to me and say if I buy him a drink he would tell me a tale and get a quest, or before the final blow lands on a creature he begs me to spare his life in exchange for a 'secret' that he has.

Sure, a lot of folks dislike a certain flavor of quests but if you look over the whole of the responses its more about making the quests look and feel natural. Make it fit, make it seamless, make it worth while and interesting if possible. Will it be worth while and interesting to everyone? Nope, some people could care less unless it gives them something. But others will care.

Make the game know what I am doing, if I have been slaying monsters to return a certain relic to the priest in town then maybe the commander of the city guard hails me on my way back into town and proceeds to thanks me, etc, etc. I know if someone is working their butt off doing something that benefits me I am going to say something about it. Why should I have to walk up to that guy and have him tell me to head right back out to where I was and re-kill the things I was already killing?? Shouldn't he know I was wading knee deep in their blood already? Thats a disconnect that can be bridged with thoughtful character flagging and scripting.

To me it comes down to moving and playing my character naturally in the world. I don't want to mindlessly kill simply because mobs are there and they make my pretty exp bar fill but I also don't want to mindless quest just to get a shiny and some exp. I want to thoughtfully move through a world that allows me to craft my character into something that I enjoy. Add a reason to the journey other than simply the final carrot of max level.

Add more meaningful quests that advance my character in ways that perhaps others choose not to do. Allow me to differentiate my character by what I choose to do. Hell, just allow me to differentiate my character period. I am sick to death with item based games where if you stripped any 2 same level characters of the same class of all their gear they would be essentially the same. They would, or could with ease, have all of the same skills and abilities.

It can be simple things like questing for a new emote of some kind, or a new weapon move, even if they really didn't effect game play a whole lot would create a sense of unique satisfaction for the players. Or you could have class quests where you are required to group and hunt for a period of time to attain group based skills. Make it akin to the leadership exp that EQ1 popped in so that folks that are really interesting in doing the group stuff gain different skills than the soloist. A player that is always soloing shouldn't have the same skill set as one who has always grouped.

The truly revolutionary game will have the fun, polish, and accessability of WOW with the ability to create unique, or at least semi-unique, snowflakes.