Quest (video games)

A quest in a gaming context, especially in MMORPGs, is generally a task or series of tasks, which a player or group of players may complete in order to gain a reward. Rewards may include experience points, loot, spells, in-game currency, faction hits, access to new rooms or areas, or any combination of the above.

Overview of quests

Typical quests involve killing a set number of creatures or collecting a list of specific items. Some quests may take only a few minutes or hours to complete, while others may take several days or weeks. Often, the larger the reward, the longer the quest takes to finish, and it is common for a quest to require characters to be a certain level before they are allowed to begin.

Some games, like EverQuest, have certain quests that can only be completed by player characters of a specific class or race. In turn, the rewards for those quests are often only usable by that class (or race). Other quests can be completed by anyone and their rewards are useful to any character.

Furthermore, some quests may only be completed once per character for as long as they play the game. Other quests may be done several times, and still others can be completed as many times as a player likes. A common type of quest that is allowed to be done over and over is one that yields a reward of faction with a particular group of NPCs. In EverQuest and other games, "building up" or "raising" faction with certain NPCs opens up new quests and gives players safe passage through the lands inhabited by those NPCs.

Another type of quest found in MMORPGs such as EverQuest, EverQuest II, RuneScape, or World of Warcraft involves the use of trade skills. Generally, in these types of quests the player is required to obtain raw materials (e.g. chopping or gathering wood for carpentry or fletching, mining ore for smithing, etc.) for their specific trade skill(s) and combine them together with other (sometimes "storebought") items to produce usable items to wear (clothes), equip (weapons), or to sell to other players or NPC merchants for game currency.

Questing to obtain rewards or loot is one of the main attractions to MMORPGs because it gives players a sense of accomplishment. Items awarded to a player through a quest may also be tradeable, providing a secondary financial reward when the item is sold. Some quests however restrict their rewards to the player completing the quest (no-drop or soulbound).

Side-quest

A side-quest is an optional section of a video game, usually an RPG. It is a smaller mission within a larger storyline. As a general rule, the completion of side-quests are not essential for the game to be finished, but bring various benefits to the player characters. Side-quests often give high amounts of experience points, additional or hidden weapons (for example, the Ultima Weapon in various Final Fantasy games), treasures, background information, or new playable characters. Examples includes non-player characters encountered outside a town, who might ask the player to escort them to a location, retrieve a lost object, or so forth.

Sometimes side-quests even unlock new characters within the game, enhancing the game experience. Some games, such as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, include side quests that exist only for the purpose of character development, so that the player may learn more about the NPCs who have joined his party (which allows the player to promote them to Jedihood), or otherwise give the player a better understanding of the game's storyline or setting (although in this example, some sidequests provide items otherwise unavailable). Planescape: Torment particularly relied on such quests, with much of the back-story exposed during long conversations with other party members. A drawback of this approach when used extensively is that the story is obscured if too much is hidden in character dialogues that the player must remember to access or even arrange to "unlock". Notable criticism of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords was levelled at what were seen as plot holes, when they could be filled in with conscious (but unobvious) player effort.

While some mini-quests are often little more than annoyances, game-designers will often use them to inject some humour, as in the case of the scroll of Icarian Flight from The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Game series such as The Elder Scrolls, Baldur's Gate, Fallout, Legend of Mana, and especially Romancing Saga are primarily or almost entirely based on side-quests, creating many possibilities of development to the game.

Multiquest

In some multiplayer games, fetch quests can be completed by two or more player characters turning in the required items. This provides an additional dimension to questing, as players who collect rare quest pieces can either sell their participation in the quest or assist friends with completion of more involved quests. Only one player, however, gets the reward for participating in the quest.

Quest chain

A quest chain is a group of quests that are completed in sequence. Completion of each quest is prerequisite to beginning the next quest in the chain. Quests usually increase in difficulty as a player progresses through the chain. The quests typically reveal a single plotline in stages that explain the reason for the quests. City of Heroes uses these "story arcs" extensively.

Types of quests

Fetch quest

The fetch quest is a somewhat derogatory name for a common sort of quest seen in many video game role-playing games (RPGs) and adventure games.

There are several highly recognizable stages to the standard fetch quest:

1. The character or party is told to go find an item, usually rare, usually obtainable in only one place.
2. The character or party must travel to the designated place, which is usually a dungeon complete with a guardian boss that must be defeated before the party can escape with the item.
3. The item must be returned to the person who assigned the quest or taken to a designated person or place.
4. The character or party usually earns a reward in addition to experience points: a power-up, money, access to a new area in the game, or an item for another fetch quest.
   • Optionally, the party can choose not to fulfill the quest, but keep the item. The party may decide that the item, being usually a magic weapon, armor or amulet, is more valuable than the quest reward. In some cases, breaking the quest agreement may be a more appropriate course of action for the party's alignment. The player will lose the reward but will benefit from the item's powers.

FedEx quest

(also known as an Errand-boy Quest) A FedEx Quest is a common or slang term for a type of mission in a computer role-playing game. It is named after the FedEx Corporation, based on the task at hand. It differs from the Fetch quest (mainly) by the fact that delivery instead of acquisition of an item is the main point - though in fact, the two quest types are very related.

In a FedEx Quest, the player is essentially given one of two options:

• Go to Place A, find me Object B and return with it.
• Take Object B to Place A, and return to me.

Sometimes, a FedEx Quest can be the beginning of the game; a simple quest which is interrupted by events which will lead the player character through the main plot. Other times, the NPC that initiates the quest will actually give you the item that needs to be delivered, making it simply a "run back and forth" style quest.

Reactions to FedEx quests

Some gamers feel that the simple nature of FedEx quests - or over reliance on them - is a sign of a poor role playing game. Instead of formulating interesting ways for a player to explore the game world, these gamers say, the developers instead use FedEx Quests in order to get the player to explore certain areas.

It is argued that, without simple quests such as FedEx Quests, a great deal of time is wasted in-game.

Common examples of FedEx quests

In the Orc campaign of Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, the action begins with the main player being asked to deliver a note to a town leader. The note itself is never mentioned again in the game, and only exists to provide a reason why an otherwise solitary character would enter a town moments after badmouthing civilization.

The popular computer role playing game The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind uses this form of quest often. Most notable is a quest where the player must return with items in order to be considered worthy of a title. Like many of these quests in the game, the player is allowed to keep the items he finds.

One way to win favor with neighbors in Nintendo's Animal Crossing video games and other social sims is to ask them if they need any fetch or delivery quests done.

The RPG-satire program called Progress Quest is filled with a great deal of delivery quests, even though the player literally does none of it.

Collect the pieces plot/quest

A collect the pieces plot is a stock plot in which the objective is to reassemble some item (which usually has mystical powers) which has been broken up in some fashion. A common object in a collect the pieces plot is a crystal. The "collect the pieces" stock plot is particularly useful for creating a long, segmented story such as those found in serials and video games, because each segment brings with it unique challenges as the story's characters attempt to locate a single piece of the puzzle. The protagonist(s) are given this overarching plot as the initial quest, and collecting each piece becomes an additional quest. Usually there is some penultimate quest at the conclusion of collecting all the pieces.

There are two main forms of collect the pieces plots:

Total recovery: A total loss of the item, which results in many sub quests for the pieces. Each sub-quest can have a completely different storyline to it, although each ends in a recovery of one of the pieces.

• Examples: The Triforce or Mirror of Twilight in The Legend of Zelda series, the Star Maps in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

Partial recovery: Only part of the item is missing, but the whole still cannot function without the missing portion. This is differentiated from a fetch quest as the objective item is missing and needs to be replaced, as opposed to retrieving an item that was never in possession.

• Examples: The water-chip in Fallout.

Escort this NPC

This type of quest is a combination of slaying monsters to maintain the well-being of a non-player character all while exploring an area along side that NPC. A typical escort quest would involve protecting a character as he or she moves through a monster-infested area. A majority of the time the the quest will demand of the player to slay multiple monsters to ensure the safety of the NPC.

• Example: The Erland quest in where one must protect Erland from groups of marauding wolves. The quest is completed upon his reunion with his teammate Rane Yorick.

Quests and Narrative

Ultimately, the purpose of a quest is to progress the overall storyline of the game but in addition to helping guide the players along the main narrative, quests offer up small stories within themselves. Often the NPC who offers up the quest needs the player to complete a task or a series of tasks which have no direct connection to the story but offer up a small narrative about the quest-giver and or the location. The quest can provoke the player to explore new areas or give more insight to the area and it's population.

• Example: The Lovers quest in World of Warcraft starts with an NPC named Maybell Maclue at the Maclure Vineyard near Goldshire. She asks the player to aid her in delivering a love letter to Tommy Joe Stonefield. She is unable to deliver the letter herself due to the fact that their families are bitter enemies. Upon delivering the letter the player is asked to complete a series of tasks to help mend the feud and bring the two lovers together.

See also

• MacGuffin
• Computer role-playing game
• List of MMORPGs
• MUD
• MMORPG
• Quest