Friday, June 15, 2012

Create Your Own Quest.

      A staple of World Of Warcraft is the quest. Every expansion numerous quests are added with new characters and objectives to meet and complete. The whole questing dynamic has changed over WoW's lifetime from the scattered quests all over Azeroth in vanilla, to the linear questing style we all know from Cataclysm. I thought that it would be interesting to see what the player base would do if they had the opportunity to create their own quest.
     I'll start off with my own quest. One of the things about WoW that gets to me is the non-linear timeline of your questing. Now admittedly this quest would have worked better before the Cataclysm but up until Wrath the way I looked at questing was that you started out as a no name hero helping all of the citizens of Azeroth until you were renowned enough to be sent to help in Outland and finally Northrend. Now a days all you have to tell you to go to these new area's is the Heroes Call Board, I thought that it would be cool if an actual in game event was what sent you to these new places.
      Now back in vanilla there was an item Corrupted Ashbringer and when you wielded the Ashbringer your reputation with the Argent Dawn plummeted to hated and your reputation with the Scarlet Crusade went to friendly. With this newfound reputation level you can venture to the Scarlet Monastery and enter the Cathedral. Upon approaching Whitemane and Morgraine you were privy to a conversation between the two that hinted at the existence of Outland. Thats just the backstory that influenced my quest.
     My quest would be what if when questing through a 55-60 zone like say Winterspring or Blasted Lands you came across an NPC or a mob that had a piece of the Corrupted Ashbringer. And that piece would set you on a quest to take the piece to the Argent Dawn, but upon arriving at Light's Hope Chapel you find out your hated with them and there is a Scarlet Crusade rogue waiting for you. This rogue tells you that he has been tracking you and he needs you to take the blade to High Inquisitor Whitemane. When you arrive at the Monastery you realize that all the mobs are friendly with you and when you zone into the Cathedral all of the NPC's remark on your presence all of them sensing the item of power you have on you. As you finally approach Whitemane you are able to turn in a quest that forces you to give her the piece and lets you witness that old conversation. But it doesn't stop there a new quest is immediately put into your quest log which tells you to go warn your respective faction leader (Varian or Garrosh) about the existence of Outland and that they need to commit forces there asap. That way you feel like your character had a real impact on why your in Outland and you have more of a reason to go there than just "The call board told me to".
    There are some problems with my quest like the fact that the Cathedral has been trashed by horde forces and both Whitemane and Morgraine are killed. But that kind of time line issue has never been a problem for Blizzard before you can always treat it like a Caverns Of Time like thing. If anyone if allowed to mess with all that wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff its the people who make the game. Now what are your thoughts? What quest would you create if you had the chance?


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