Anyone play an MMO with quests that are actually interesting? That maybe actually use the MMO mechanic other than just teaming up with 2 or 3 people to defeat 20 generic enemies? Or collecting 20 of whatever?

The main quest missions of Guild Wars are actually objective driven and are quite satisfying to beat, especially since they're quite challenging. The rest of the game is more standard MMO fare, though the combat itself does a great job at keeping it from becoming all that boring.

Pretty much this. GW isn't your standard MMO.

Guild Wars is MMO-like but isn't really one. That said, ya usually in a group between 4-8 people to mix and match performances abilities against foes that mix and match as well (ie both side might have a melee, nuker, healer, whatever supporting each other in real time). Ya not ganna really collect 20 X item unless its for the the "Elite" Armor and even then those are optional.

Its purchased game without monthly fee but if one wanna experiment, one can try a http://www.guildwars.com/freetrial/.

Also, no subscription. You buy the disks and play.

Every MMO has "collect" and "grinding" quest. It's unavoidable. There is NO MMO that doesn't do this. It's just how they work. It's the nature of an MMO. I think the only exception is something like the space MMO's, where you're in a ship. But it's still XP grinding.

However, the new quest in World of Warcraft introduced in Cataclysm are a lot less of "go kill x amount of bandits and loot x amount of goblin candles" etc. It's very story based. Each zone now has a pretty awesome story arc that's actually interesting now. Very fun. That's from 1-60 however. After that, you gotta wait until level 80-85 to experience those types of quest again. You can also do the entire game now 1-85 without grouping at all. Or you can group the entire way. Your choice.

For a MMO you are not going to escape the grab this and that or kill this or that quest any time soon. Hey you can be like some crazy people in WoW and level through battlegrounds, I mean jump off a [censored] cliff.

I leveled my Mage through BG's only, didn't take that long either. Pretty fun way of leveling too. It's completely viable.

For those who don't know, BG's = Battlegrounds, or PvP. Capture the Flag, or Arathi Basin, which is kind of like, there are 5 "nodes", each node has a flag, you capture the nodes and the first team to 1600 wins. Each node counts towards points gained every few seconds, the more nodes you have, the more points. There's also Alterac Valley, where each team consist of 40 players, and you have a huge battlefield and resources, and each side has a boss, and each team tries to collect resources and towers to disrupt the buffs on the other teams boss so that they can kill him. First team to run out of resources loses, or the first team to have their boss killed loses. It's very fun.

There's nothing like doing a grouping with 7 other players to do a mission in guild wars, escorting a NPC to a meeting point with another NPC that came from overseas to help you with the local "end of the world problem", making a stand in a plaza while attacked by waves after waves of badies only to be rescued by that NPC from other seas with his escort of players from other seas (read, toons made on the other campaigns) in an unexpected 16 player mission

I don't even want to imagine that , getting all the BOAs for the character and then just pvping to 85 sounds boring to me. Then again I am not a pvper.

What about getting a group of tiny green goblins who parachute out of the sky at your beckon call while you clear out a mystical den of Naga in Azshara and they shoot grenades and rocket launchers at the Naga and blow up the relics around them and set bombs at the feet of statues to blow them up? That's a new quest in WoW. Very fun, very interesting, and completely hilarious.

@Fishy wanderer, it's not that bad. I mean yeah, you have to like BG's to grind BG's to level. But I love PvP, I have an 85 Warrior, Druid, Warlock, and Hunter I PvE and PvP on them all, it's just fun to me. I guess being good at the game from playing for 5 years helps but, I just wreck people in BG's. I'm not one for Arena, though. I can't stand Arena. Although I do it weekly for Conquest points, but that's about it.

Where did I miss this quest. I loved the gnome ball thing in Uldum and the rainbow machine.

Vizunah Square, am I correct?

In terms of grinding for Guild Wars, those are for title. Level cap is 20 but when a player hit that number, that when the game truly start.

Those are just NPCs in a scripted event I'd say. GW quest I mentionned is notorious because the game isn't very MMOish, what with the heavy instance based world. And yet, they managed to script us a main story quest where the unexpected happened : you got teamed up and saved by another group of players. Most MMOs, the only interaction you get with other players that aren't your own group doing the quest with you is some griefing or stuff of the kind

On a side note, there are a lot of weird quests in GW too, what with that dwarf that asks us to come alone to reclaim a debt and we have to punch our way with him through all the guard (yeah, punch, as in no matter which class you play you HAVE to punch and you are giving a fixed punching skill set). Or the one where you play some kind of real time pokemon battles with a deck of creatures you make up before the fact in a tournament like fashion etc...

Pretty much this. I like how EVE does experience, in that there really isn't any experience. You're character simply learns skills and technical knowledge from 'skill books' that take real time to upload. So there really isn't any grinding for experience. Though the grinding missions are still there, but mainly for money (except there's plenty more fun and exciting ways of making money than missions, but some prefer the grind, I suppose).

Runescape

It's in the new Azshara. The quest line is apart of the Cataclysm stuff. It's absurdly fun.


No, the NPC's aren't scripted. They act as a pet. You call them, and then tell them what to do. It's a play on CoD. Cata is full of meme's like that. Especially Uldum. The entirety of Uldum is one giant Indiana Jones pun. It's absolutely hilarious. Probably the funnest questing in the entire game.

Yes.

Indeed GW only has title farming as far as I can see. That and epic armor skin farming too but those are largely optional. There are no "go kill x wolves" quests at all. There ARE NPCs all other the place that trade "red mountain wolf teeths" for some stuff though but those items drop without relation with any quests and no quests ask you to do it (well, except two that I remember). I mostly vendor those trash items unless there's some nice caster wand/focus to be traded though.

Having played both Guild Wars and WoW extensively, I can honestly say without any biased opinion that the quality of content that is dished out for WoW is just..better. I mean, it just is. Probably due to the fact that you pay for it.

Blizzard makes an estimated 150, 000, 000 dollars a month from subs alone. That's not including transfers, pets in the store, initial purchase cost, just subscriptions. Lot of cash. They have a HUGE team that is constantly developing content, but again, you pay for that quality of content for 15 dollars a month.

Wait until December for The Old Republic.

It still kinda pales to the quality of the content you got for 30 dollars flat with no monthly fee Besides, for a new player, how much of the actual content he'll ever see? Most epic stuff that happens
before level 85 is obsolete. You start your quest chain to save the world from some primordial evil, and before you know it you outleveled the area and are in the second expansion zone tackling the other primordial evil which you'll also leave to it's plans before the end cause you reached 85 where all the real content is

At least with GW, nearly every is actual non obsolete content And you can get a bundle wit the 3 games for very cheap. It cost me two months of WoW subscription only and I got months and months of content to play with whereas with WoW you have to buy the game AND pay every month after the first.

I disagree; I can't stand life at 85. I constantly level new characters. Currently leveling an Orc Mage, level 62 atm. Loving it. With the new changes in Cata to questing, questing is the most entertaining aspect of the game IMO.

Life at 85 = sitting in SW or Org, waiting for a Q or BG to pop. Literally all there is. Or grinding dailies for gold. Yaaaaaaaaaay. -_-

It looks like Guild Wars 2's quests are going to be nice.

WoW has become an excercise in tedium.

I was considering leaving WoW over the summer. Then I got a temporary forum ban for challenging a Blue's logical fallacy (which the Blue later admitted to and retracted) and that sealed my decision.

I haven't quit yet (Actually playing in Windowed Mode right now, flag carrying in Twin Peaks like a baws) but I'm close. It's just not the same game it used to be admittedly. I just loved BC raiding, Wrath ruined a lot of what the game was IMO, and Cata has only made those aspects worse.

But, it only ruined the hardcoe aspect of the game. The game from a casual perspective is as good as it has ever been.