» Sun Dec 11, 2011 9:13 am I feel as if there's no actual exploration in the quests unfortunately (Besides those rare ones that make you feel awesome for actually accomplishing it with your own brain.) I think it's a problem with the attention span of people nowadays. Everyone wants to be hand-held through everything, and it takes away from the game and what quests actually should be, adventures.
I was hoping for a quest system much like that of Morrowind, where NPC's would give you actual directions to your quest, and they would be added to your Journal. I don't understand why over the past two games (Oblivion, Skyrim) they have skimped heavily on the Journal Entry dialogue.
Here is an example, keep in mind that this is a simple Miscellaneous Quest from Morrowind, and these are the Journal Entries.
Spoiler Below
Example:
Spoiler
-The trader Athanden Girith claims he has been attacked by two Ashlanders, who robbed him and left him for dead.
-Girith claims that the Ashlanders have stolen his shipment of guar hides, and he would like my help in getting them back. If I can retrieve the stolen hides, his friend Berwen in Tel Mora will reward me well.
-Girith has described the Ashlanders that attacked him: "They looked kind of like a normal dark elf, but wild. They wore animal skins and had tattoos. And they had odd hair." This may not narrow down my search as much as I had hoped.
-I have agreed to try and hunt down the missing guar hides for Athanden Girith. It will be best to check with the local Ashlanders first.
-I've spoken to Ashlanders about the missing guar hides. They tell me that the two I am searching for are named Emul-Ran and Ilabael. They are outcasts, belonging to no Ashlander tribe. They can apparently be found camped south of the Ahemmusa camp, along the shore.
-Girith claims that the Ashlanders have stolen his shipment of guar hides, and he would like my help in getting them back. If I can retrieve the stolen hides, his friend Berwen in Tel Mora will reward me well.
-Girith has described the Ashlanders that attacked him: "They looked kind of like a normal dark elf, but wild. They wore animal skins and had tattoos. And they had odd hair." This may not narrow down my search as much as I had hoped.
-I have agreed to try and hunt down the missing guar hides for Athanden Girith. It will be best to check with the local Ashlanders first.
-I've spoken to Ashlanders about the missing guar hides. They tell me that the two I am searching for are named Emul-Ran and Ilabael. They are outcasts, belonging to no Ashlander tribe. They can apparently be found camped south of the Ahemmusa camp, along the shore.
Now here is an example of a Daedric Quest (Usually the most difficult quest's requiring the most time and effort, as they should) from Morrowind
Boethiah's Quest
Spoiler
- I spoke to the khajiit M'aiq, and he gave me information on a sunken shrine to Boethiah off the coast near Hla Oad. It's difficult to know whether or not this is true. This khajiit seems to have a lot of ridiculous information.
- I have found the sunken shrine to Boethiah and spoken to the Daedra. He is understandably upset that his shrine has been allowed to remain in ruins, and wishes for a new one to be erected. If I can get the shrine rebuilt, he will reward me with the Goldbrand, a legendary sword. My first step should be to find a sculptor.
- Boethiah spoke in a riddle to me, to help me find the one who can recreate the shrine: Rough hands to smooth stone; Carving rock instead of bone; In Caldera an artist waits; His masterpiece to create
I have found a sculptor in Caldera. He is an orc named Duma gro-Lag.
- I have asked Duma gro-Lag about rebuilding the shrine to Boethiah. He has agreed that it would be a wonderful project to be a part of, but he will need 2000 septims for materials, and will need some idea of how the shrine should look. Duma suggests I seek out a book that describes the shrine as it once was. In the meantime, he will search the area for an appropriate place to build the shrine.
- I have returned to Duma gro-Lag with the items he required to recreate the Shrine to Boethiah. He seemed excited to begin, but warned me it would take some weeks to complete.
Duma gro-Lag tells me his work is complete, and that the shrine is rebuilt.
- I have returned to the completed Shrine to Boethiah. The Daedra seemed pleased with the work that has been done, and has rewarded me with Goldbrand, a truly spectacular weapon.
- I have found the sunken shrine to Boethiah and spoken to the Daedra. He is understandably upset that his shrine has been allowed to remain in ruins, and wishes for a new one to be erected. If I can get the shrine rebuilt, he will reward me with the Goldbrand, a legendary sword. My first step should be to find a sculptor.
- Boethiah spoke in a riddle to me, to help me find the one who can recreate the shrine: Rough hands to smooth stone; Carving rock instead of bone; In Caldera an artist waits; His masterpiece to create
I have found a sculptor in Caldera. He is an orc named Duma gro-Lag.
- I have asked Duma gro-Lag about rebuilding the shrine to Boethiah. He has agreed that it would be a wonderful project to be a part of, but he will need 2000 septims for materials, and will need some idea of how the shrine should look. Duma suggests I seek out a book that describes the shrine as it once was. In the meantime, he will search the area for an appropriate place to build the shrine.
- I have returned to Duma gro-Lag with the items he required to recreate the Shrine to Boethiah. He seemed excited to begin, but warned me it would take some weeks to complete.
Duma gro-Lag tells me his work is complete, and that the shrine is rebuilt.
- I have returned to the completed Shrine to Boethiah. The Daedra seemed pleased with the work that has been done, and has rewarded me with Goldbrand, a truly spectacular weapon.
Notice how much substance are in both of these quest's journal entries. In the Miscellaneous Quest, the act of actually using your brain to find the ones who stole this guys hide is very much rewarding because you feel as if you've accomplished something. If I only have a short amount of time to play this because of work or something else, I would very much rather be able to do 1 or 2 of these quests that actually involve your thinking mechanism, than do 10 or 15 "Go to point A, retrieve Sword/Item, Go to Point B", all the while a quest marker showing you the exact location of A, Sword/Item, and B. Obviously this is all just my opinion, but I believe I share these thoughts with some of the folks that have those great memories from Morrowind cemented into their memory for the rest of time. The sense of discovery is what makes these games so rewarding.
Add this detailed dialogue to a game like Skyrim, where the environment is x10 more immersive (obviously Morrowind's an old game and couldn't benefit from modern graphics), and it would give people some great moments and memories to look back on, and that's how TES will be defined for them.
Although, you are able to disable the Quest Marker's, the quest dialogue and journal entries are to vague and don't give you enough information to be able to play without it. A good middle ground would be to add the extra dialogue to the quests journal so folks can finish them on their own, and the option to turn on the Quest Marker to aide them through the quest if they don't have the time or patience.
Unfortunately, this is up to the game developer to take the time to add that extra dialogue to the quests, and it seems that cut corners is what the masses like in their games now so this will most likely be overlooked.
I apologize for the length, I just felt I needed to voice my opinion on one of my favorite franchises. Thanks Bethesda for creating these worlds for us to live in.
