Dear Sir,
I am not often of the temperment to strike up an acquaintance with just any random stranger I pass by, yet in your case I was struck by the apparition of a floating, glowing symbol above your head.
“But lo!” I pondered, “what devilry is this!”
It was only upon our speaking that you informed me that it was a very limited magical spell designed to draw attention to those in need of dire assistance. If that was the situation, then I question your definition of “dire assistance”, as your bequest was for me to travel twenty feet and butcher a seemingly-innocent pig. Yes, I will admit that the prospect of pork and bacon is tempting, but hardly could be described as so dire that it necessitated assistance from an armored stranger traveling through. The snickers of your comrades after I returned your slaughtered prey indicated that you suckered me into a sham, a farce intended to keep sell-swords at work and away from your local taverns and farmgirls.
Is this how the peons of your village while away the day, pretending to be in distress as a practical joke upon the naive traveler? The only alternative to this theory is that you and your chums are so incompetant that you must beggar assistance and become parasites on the very frabric of our civilization. If this is the case, then my foot shall meet your backside until you grab a sharp piece of metal and go solve your own dilemnas. Cease your entreaties to us men and women of action, and become one yourself. Keep what pathetic rewards you plan to dole out for my hard labor, and use the proceeds to reinvest into your village’s economy.
You may say that I need you, but you are sorely mistaken — I am more than capable, sir, of assigning tasks to myself. I may spot that swine, a score away, and slit his throat to feed my own table instead of yours. If I am starving for vague notions of experience, then I will wage war against you and your kin until I become far stronger and more unstoppable than anyone of your level… of society.
Flee from me, you coward, you warthog-faced buffoon. For I no longer heed your call, plod down your path, and bend to your whims — I am an adventurer, free and unbound, and you are beneath my contempt.
Poor boars. Why does it always have to be boars?
There is definitely something that needs to be explored. Why do random strangers ask us to do rather random stuff. Why are MMOs are just like that.
! Muckbeast and ! Wolfshead wrote about this already, I would like to ask:
“When have quests gone wild? And Why?”
I think developers are catering to the lowest denominator among MMO players, which is why we end up with the stereotypical “Kill 10 Rats” quests.
You can read my take on how questing could be made a lot more interactive on my Blog: http://capnjohnsblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/new-way-of-questing.html
[...] wants MMO NPCs to man up and solve their OWN problems rather than snare unwitting players to solve them — and like as not just ask the next person [...]
But good Sir, did I not see you enter into conversation with said farmer behind his farmstead? Was it negotiations to further the quest into yet un-track lands where it is said wealth is to be had for the adventurous? No it was for another pig wasn’t it, wasn’t it! Oh the shame a low ranked warrior of untested mettle must do to get ahead.