There are some ridiculous quests in WoW but I think I've got the winner here with: The Kurken is Lurkin'.
On Azuremyst Isle, the Dranei starting area, Furbolg High Chief Stillpine sends you into Stillpine Hold to search for clues as to why the Wildkin have turned on the Furbolg, their former allies, and driven them from their home.
Deep within the hold you find a large, blood red crystal guarded by the Kurkin, a two-headed Cerberus-like beast. Slaying the Kurkin you examine the Blood Crystal, completing the Chief's quest and getting a second quest to report back to him.
When you get back outside the hold and give your report to High Chief Stillpine you notice that one of the Chief's Lieutenants, Kurz the Revelator, now has a quest for you, so you head over to Kurz to find out what he wants you to do.
And what he wants you to do is what you've just done. Kill the Kurkin and bring him its hide.
* * * * *
You: You do realize that in order to complete the Chief's quest I had to kill the Kurkin, right?
Kurz: Yes, but I need you to kill it again.
You: But, I just killed it.
Kurz: But I need you to kill it and bring back its hide!
You: I see. So, why didn't you ask me to kill the Kurkin and bring back its hide before I went into the cave for the Chief?
Kurz: Because you had to explore the cave for the Chief and examine the crystal before I could send you into the cave to kill the Kurkin.
You: But the Kurkin was guarding the crystal! There was no way to examine the crystal without slaying the beast! And now, you want me to go back into the cave, and kill the Kurkin, again?
Kurz: Yes.
You: Son of a bitch!
Kurz: . . .
You (sighing): I'll be right back.
* * * * *
The quest line really is that ridiculous. You get a quest to enter a cave and examine a crystal hidden deep inside, but to examine the crystal you have to kill the Mob guarding it. There is a quest to kill the Mob, but you can't get that quest without doing the prerequisite quest, which is to examine the crystal. So before you can get the quest to kill the Kurkin, you have to kill the Kurkin.
I think it might have been one of WAR's podcasts where the designer was talking about intuitive quests. The opposite of an intuitive quest would be one where you fight your way through a dozen wolves to get to a besieged quest giver, who tells you "The wolves are a real problem around here. Could you kill 10 of them for me?"
You: Did you not notice that I killed a dozen wolves just to get to you?
Him: Yes, but they didn't count; I hadn't given you the quest. I need you to kill 10 more.
You (sighing): I'll be right back.
In Elwynn Forest there are Kobolds which drop Candles and Gold Dust, but the only time they drop those Candles and Gold Dust are when you're on the quests to gather them. Of course it could be argued that they do drop them but you don't collect them, and I say, "Why the hell not???" We pick up all their other useless crap. Why can't they drop the quest items when you're not on the quest? You're out killing Kobolds filling your packs with crap, and when you head back into town a villager says, "Ha-hey! I see you've got a bunch of Kobold candles there! I'll give you 50 silver pieces for all those candles."
And you go, "Wha? Huh? I mean, sure. Here's your 10 candles. Thanks a lot."
Or you're out killing wolves, and with wolves being wolves, you've gone and filled your packs with wolf tails, or pelts, or whatever. You head into town and one of the locals says "Ha-hey! I'll give you 25 silver for those wolf tails!"
You quickly check the vendor price...10 wolf tails, 50-copper each, he's offering 25 silver, five times market value. "Sure! Here's your wolf parts!" Ka-ching. Silver, and XP to boot! Bonus!
Apparently this is how quests used to be (pre-WoW), and what tended to happen was people would go out, kill a ton of Mobs and collect their sticky bits, then do some research on Teh Interwebz and see if any NPCs were willing to reward players for collecting Goblin scrotums. Ha-hey! Here's a guy who'll pay a shiny gold piece for a dozen scrotums! Awesome!
So instead of players seeking out quests to do then going out and slaying a bunch of Mobs, they'd do all their killing first, fill their packs with monster bits, then see if anyone would be willing to reward them. In both cases players would get rewarded for doing the same thing; Killing goblins and collecting their scrotums. But in one scenario we can't collect goblin scrotums until Ima Pervert tells us he wants them and then we collect just enough for Ima and no more, while in the other more logical scenario we collect goblin scrotums (don't ask me why. I don't know. I don't want to know!) until we have scrotums coming out our ears and our packs are full of them then we head into the nearest town where we find every man and his dog wants a goblin scrotum or two. Perhaps to make a handy coin purse or some other kitschy souvenir for the visiting tourists. Who knows? I already said I didn't.
What I do know is that it doesn't make sense for Mobs to only drop Quest items when you're on the quest to collect those items.
And it really doesn't make sense to send me into a cave to kill a Mob when I've just come out of that very same cave covered in that exact mob's blood. That makes no sense at all.
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6 comments:
It could be said that the quest giver gives you specific instructions as to what he wants, that requires you to collect the junk that he wants...
...
...I know, its a lame excuse. What I hate is when you're asked to collect skulls from the Hillsbrad farmers and NOT ALL OF THEM DROP IT. Like, huh?
Actually that's a very good reason, Crucifer. Combining it with my example, you'd have no valid reason to collect Goblin Scrotums unless you knew Ima Pervert wanted them.
Drops like you mentioned are ridiculous too. Like when you need to collect 12 Wolves Paws, so you kill 3 Wolves. 3 Wolves with 4 paws each makes 12 Paws, so we should be done, right? Except somehow those 3 wolves only had 2 paws between them. WTF happened to the other 10 paws?
Or the quest in Dun Murogh to collect Troggs' Teeth. The average human has 32 teeth, yet you're lucky to get one tooth per Trogg. No teeth again??? Come on! I didn't hit him that hard!
I suppose the other problem is the most overlooked issue of tabletop games. Weapon-type damage on different monsters. For example, if I need skulls from Hillsbrad farmers and I bash them over the head with my huge mace, wouldn't that damage the skull?
Perhaps the loot required should be pre-fixed with [Pristine] that would indicate just how hard it is to collect those perfect specimans out of the bloody mess you have left behind.
What do you think about the idea that another player could set up shop as they log off and set a quest for 10 x [wolfpaws] for 3g, so that another player could come along, take the quest, get the xp AND the quest reward money?
This feature could be available from the zone inn, meaning that new arrivals to the zone could go there, check out what is needed before going out and obtaining it...?
Being able to set yourself up as a Quest Giver when you log out is a great idea. I've read of people doing a similar thing with beggars, offering them gold if they bring them certain items. In some cases the beggars have actually gone out and worked for their gold.
Uh...I've done that quest on 3 seperate draenei, and I only killed the Kurkin before I had the quest the very first time. You do realize that the upper part of the cave bypasses the kurkin completely and lets you practically drop down on the crystal you need, after you just killed your way through the mobs you needed to kill for the other quest...
Seems like that is how it is supposed to work, no?
Caleb, even if you take the upper path to get to the crystal, the Kurkin is guarding the only way out so unless you hearth you'll still have to kill him to get back outside.
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