We assume of others what we know of ourselves, and it is thus that I know a lot of people do not even spare a cursory glance toward the quest text before accepting and going off to kill stuff. Why read the text? You have to go to a place to click a thing or kill a thing and the “why” is technically just flavor. Why are you killing fire elementals? Because the ice elementals are two levels higher. Duh.
Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of games wherein the quest text is terrible, either being strictly utilitarian or having so much pretension in the writing that you just want to shut down. But there are many games with quest text that’s well-written and engaging, shares something about the lore, or even winds up just being funny and making you smile. Heck, on the opposite extreme there are times when the quest text is so awful that you decide the gold/reputation/whatever from the quest ain’t worth it. So do you read the quest text in MMOs before you accept quests?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
