Do you think Guild Wars should leave behind the old ideology of "no quests," and add regional quests into the game, why or why not?

In this interpretation Quests would be a regional story featuring side characters and NPC's aside from the main storyline.

I don't know why this is such a hot topic today..... but I want to point out that "The Problem isn't the problem. Its the attitude about the problem thats the problem. Savvy?"

The way things are presented is just the format.... and in a lot of this conversation seems to be driven about a dislike, or at least lacking preference, toward the format GW2 presents activities. Before we can even have this discussion, we need to first address the question of motivation, and how the current side stories fit into this. Because as far as see it, the side stories fill that purpose adequately, yet I've seen arguments to the contrary. What makes a !-NPC quest different from what we're getting now in terms of function? And what about Map wide metas?

I have had the joy of experiencing both systems as I currently play both games and have done so for many a year. I adore the Renown Hearts & Dynamic Events system! It is something I enjoy a LOT more than reading walls of text. I prefer to get my lore fixes from the Wikis and the novels instead of massive quest log texts.

I like the Events system and I think for a lot of 'quests' it makes sense. Anet were absolutely right when they said it didn't make sense that you're told a town is under attack but either the attack doesn't start until you get there (even if that's weeks of in-game time later) or you arrive and it's actually just some enemies wandering around not doing much and waiting for you to kill them. It has it's downsides too of course (for example events have to repeat, which means it's difficult to make permanent changes) but overall I like it.

The problem is it can limit the storyline options. There are chains of events with dialogue in between which tell an overall story, but they have to occur in the same area, or at least the same map. You couldn't have events that involve visiting multiple different maps, finding an object in one map and using it in another or are otherwise spaced out. I used to think that meant GW2 can't have those types of stories, but then I discovered they are included, they're just not signposted because there's no quest journal and no NPC with a marker over their head to start them. It's gotten more common since they started doing the Side Stories and Current Events stuff.

I would like to see more side stories like that added, and maybe more dialogue and information added to the ones we get. It could be optional - like the way a lot of dialogue works already - you get the minimum of info and a 'progress to the next step' dialogue option or a 'ask for more info' option which fills in the lore a bit.

But I don't miss quests when I'm playing GW2. I feel like we've already got all the key elements of them, they're just sign posted in a different way.

I think it is pretty clear we already have them. They are just not very numerous, and lack a 'quest log'.

Something like a "Side stories" section in the Story Journal to list all extra quests and side stories that are character based should be enough. Then as that is done, any new ones would be included there. Or account-wide ones could be made repeatable per character for lesser rewards since the main rewards are already tied to achievements.

No need to forcibly create more. I'd rather have one side story like reforging Caladbolg once a year than 365 "kill 10 boars" quests.

Quests are already everywhere in GW2. Just about everything you do is a quest.

I would much prefer quests instead of hearts. I find the hearts to be boring.

For open world i like the Hearts+ Events system that GW2 has.Personal Story works very well as an overarching story beat, and some of the Current Events Achievements tell a great story.The problem is, when they tell them as achievements/collections we can't replay that, and that's a major loss.So i'd like to see more small quests like "Knight of the Thorn", "Transfer Chaser", and especially "Burden of Choice", but have them handled in a way that allows for us to replay them, if nothing else once per character, instead of once per account.

hearts are quests. gw2 should leave behind the ideology of repeatable hearts, annoying af.

LS episodes are good, focus on that rather than quests.

I want more content like Knight of the Thorn where its outside of LW/expansion and just in Core game.

@"Eloc Freidon.5692" said:I want more content like Knight of the Thorn where its outside of LW/expansion and just in Core game.

You may have forgotten this part of that 'quest': https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Shards_of_a_Thorn

hearts are area tasks, not questsDE's are simply events happening throughout the world, not quests.PS is the main story, same with LW and expansion stories, not quests.

and yes, i want quests.

@sorudo.9054 said:hearts are area tasks, not questsDE's are simply events happening throughout the world, not quests.PS is the main story, same with LW and expansion stories, not quests.

and yes, i want quests.You seem to have a narrower definition of quest than I do. Just out of curiousity, what is your definition?

@Elspereth.1280 said:

@"sorudo.9054" said:hearts are area tasks, not questsDE's are simply events happening throughout the world, not quests.PS is the main story, same with LW and expansion stories, not quests.

and yes, i want quests.You seem to have a narrower definition of quest than I do. Just out of curiousity, what is your definition?

I'm pretty sure from the other recent discussion - which I'm assuming precipitated this "poll as a way to show the lurkers support me" approach - their definition is going to encompass something more like the world boss pre-event chains than the stand-alone dynamic events.

From which you might infer that, in fact, GW2 has what they want, they just don't recognize it as such.

@Samnang.1879 said:hearts are quests. gw2 should leave behind the ideology of repeatable hearts, annoying af.

LS episodes are good, focus on that rather than quests.

LS sucks, the game is constantly bleeding players because of that

Don't involve more story into the quests. Don't waste the resources on this. Minor story elements maybe. MINOR! Quests could become an optional personal solo thing. (but anet is anti-solo gaming experience so say goodbye to quests). Like Archeology from WoW, gw2 could adopt a similar idea lore based questing. Don't need fancy voice actors and lots of cineamatics. Just retool some current npc's to hold more info & then we have to find them :D Simple text works fine for the majority.Plus skritt treasure hunters, getting past the boundary seekers & void jumpers / explorers should all love this!

Of course a long grind here could be a new game mode to acquire unique armors & weapons or even precursors. Or even a new crafting professions tied to this game mode. brainstorm please!

@battledrone.8315 said:

@Samnang.1879 said:hearts are quests. gw2 should leave behind the ideology of repeatable hearts, annoying af.

LS episodes are good, focus on that rather than quests.

have to agree living story is a huge waste of time. The story aspect. not the maps.I mean sure you get back a bunch of people for like 3 days then they run from your game faster then the flash.So you have to figure out a strat to hold their attention. MAKE the game 100% story or recruit new types of players with quests. :DPersonally i just want to explore endlessly. So a new map every month would make me happy!or 1 map that takes you 5 hours to cross on a mount, now that would be an awesome huge map! and you can make it like 2 inches wide on the world map & totally surprise players!

@Pimpology.6234 said:

@battledrone.8315 said:

@Samnang.1879 said:hearts are quests. gw2 should leave behind the ideology of repeatable hearts, annoying af.

LS episodes are good, focus on that rather than quests.

A map every month? You do realise they take time to make right?

And 5 hours long to cross....can you even imagine the lag that would exist in such a map???

I think gw2 is doing fine without quests, but would certainly benefit from having the .Many hearts are disconnected from the workd and feel like random/pointless tasks.Events are more like quests, but since you rely on RNG you miss out on a lot of events simply because they’re not occuring when you pass by.You might miss an event that has critical information about lore, or is generally exciting/fun.I’ll bet you there’s a thousand of people who don’t know there’s an event where you escort charr cubs through haunted ruins.Quests generally are good becauseA} you won’t miss them, andB} you can start them when you, and not server, has time

@Elspereth.1280 said:

@sorudo.9054 said:hearts are area tasks, not questsDE's are simply events happening throughout the world, not quests.PS is the main story, same with LW and expansion stories, not quests.

and yes, i want quests.You seem to have a narrower definition of quest than I do. Just out of curiousity, what is your definition?

a quest is an adventure, a story beside the main quest to go and chase which can be a story as long as 5 hours.that's not really narrow, that's specific.

Side Stories and select other achievements (Open Skies, The Wayfarer Hedge stuff, Flowers for Jimoh, etc. - most recently, we had Branded Research in Daybreak and both IG-6417 and Lasting Bonds in A Bug in the System) already function as proper quests (read: quests that tell stories) should.

I want more of these things. I think Anet was foolish to try and get rid of the quest concept - events just aren't as good, and hearts as a compromise merely brought back the "kill 10 rats" stuff rather than the stuff GW1 had which was stories told through quests.

These are good achievements. Better than running over a cabbage field... And ideally, they'd all be character based like Mawdrey (though this wasn't a quest), Knight of the Thorn, and Peacemaker Ninn, even if the achievements are one time.

I wouldn't mind quests in a more traditional form, but I feel such is unneeded and would detract from the feel that GW2 has always tried to give.

Hearts are not quests. Hearts is just another playground station where you spend all your time doing the same thing, then go to the next.

Quest should be structured as a side stories, uninstanced, and the player communicates with NPC, without any quest markers. But Im hoping side stories gets its own tab, and replace the story journal (Forming the Pact) when you have no story active.

@"ReaverKane.7598" said:For open world i like the Hearts+ Events system that GW2 has.Personal Story works very well as an overarching story beat, and some of the Current Events Achievements tell a great story.The problem is, when they tell them as achievements/collections we can't replay that, and that's a major loss.So i'd like to see more small quests like "Knight of the Thorn", "Transfer Chaser", and especially "Burden of Choice", but have them handled in a way that allows for us to replay them, if nothing else once per character, instead of once per account.

Basically any achievement-lead story or exploration bit that sometimes are accountbound suffer from this one time unlock forever done thing. Even parts of the mastery learning, especially for mounts, can be felt a bit lackluster because you can only do it once.

Ofcourse, where it makes sense character bound is great. Accountbound usually isnt great.. imo.

@"Samnang.1879" said:hearts are quests. gw2 should leave behind the ideology of repeatable hearts, annoying af.

LS episodes are good, focus on that rather than quests.

Hearts, or their more official term, "renown tasks" are your typical "kill 10 rats" quests, which are not what anyone really wants with quests.

@FrizzFreston.5290 said:

@"ReaverKane.7598" said:For open world i like the Hearts+ Events system that GW2 has.Personal Story works very well as an overarching story beat, and some of the Current Events Achievements tell a great story.The problem is, when they tell them as achievements/collections we can't replay that, and that's a major loss.So i'd like to see more small quests like "Knight of the Thorn", "Transfer Chaser", and especially "Burden of Choice", but have them handled in a way that allows for us to replay them, if nothing else once per character, instead of once per account.

I don't mind utility Masteries like mounts being account bound, since they are quite useful for new characters as well as old ones.In a way i understand your point as in the sense of exploration is very different with and without masteries, and sometimes it's hard to resist the reflex of using them consciously.It would be interesting for challenges and just for the sake of a renewed experience if we could toggle masteries per character. But i wouldn't change masteries or mounts aside from that.

But when it's achievements that tell stories (which, lets face it, masteries don't, not even mount ones), its very frustrating and reductive to tie those to account bound achievements.