11-04-2009, 11:36 AM
Did you really read all the quests in WOW? If so, then yes, WOW was quest driven for you.
If you did what I did and clicked through them to get to the point then WOW wasn't really quest driven -- we didn't even read the quests. It would be better to say it was "goal driven", where your goal was another level or another item of loot and clicking through this page of text is just part of reaching that goal.
I do believe that games must present goals. You can't simply have a giant sandbox and say "ok go play in the sandbox". The game has to have some driving force in it. In EQ it was levels and loot. In WOW it was levels and loot sometimes disguised as "quests". In Planetside and WW2O it's the defense and capture of objects on the map.
Of these three, quest driven gameplay is the most restrictive and, in my opinion, the worst choice. Quest driven gameplay is what makes it hard for us to play games together.
If you did what I did and clicked through them to get to the point then WOW wasn't really quest driven -- we didn't even read the quests. It would be better to say it was "goal driven", where your goal was another level or another item of loot and clicking through this page of text is just part of reaching that goal.
I do believe that games must present goals. You can't simply have a giant sandbox and say "ok go play in the sandbox". The game has to have some driving force in it. In EQ it was levels and loot. In WOW it was levels and loot sometimes disguised as "quests". In Planetside and WW2O it's the defense and capture of objects on the map.
Of these three, quest driven gameplay is the most restrictive and, in my opinion, the worst choice. Quest driven gameplay is what makes it hard for us to play games together.