Games - Quest

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	Games - Quest

A quest in a gaming context, especially in MMORPGs, is generally a task or series of tasks, which a player or group of players may complete in order to gain a reward. Rewards may include experience points, loot, spells, in-game currency, faction hits, or any combination of the above.

Overview of quests

Typical quests involve killing a set number of creatures or collecting a list of specific items. Some quests may take only a few minutes or hours to complete, while others may take several days or weeks. Often, the larger the reward, the longer the quests takes to finish, and it is common for a quest to require a player's character to be a certain level before they are allowed to begin.

Some games, like EverQuest, have certain quests that can only be completed by player characters of a specific class or race. In turn, the rewards for those quests are often only useable by them. Other quests are doable by anyone and their rewards useable by anyone.

Furthermore, some quests may only be completed once per character for as long as they play the game. Other quests may be done several times, and still others can be completed as many times as a player likes. A common type of quest that is allowed to be done over and over is one that yields a reward of faction with a particular group of NPCs. In EverQuest and other games, "building up" or "raising" faction with certain NPCs opens up the door or, makes available, new quests and safe passage through the lands they inhabit.

Another type of quest found in MMORPGs such as EverQuest, EverQuest II or World of Warcraft involve the use of trade skills. Generally, in these types of quests the player is required to obtain raw materials (e.g. chopping or gathering wood for carpentry or fletching, mining ore for smithing, etc.) for their specific trade skill(s) and combine them together with other (sometimes "storebought") items to produce useable items to wear (clothes), equip (weapons) or to sell to other players or NPC merchants for game currency.

Questing to obtain rewards or loot is one of the main attractions to MMORPGs because it gives players a feeling or sense of accomplishment. Items awarded to a player through a quest may also be tradeable, providing a secondary financial reward when the item is sold. Some quests however restrict their rewards to the player completing the quest (no-drop or soulbound).

Side-quest

A side-quest is an optional section of a video game, usually a RPG. It is a smaller mission within a larger storyline. As a general rule, the completion of side-quests are not essential for the game to be finished, but bring various benefits to the player characters. Side-quests often give high amounts of experience points, additional or superior equipment (for example, the Ultima Weapon in various Final Fantasy
games), treasures, background information, or new playable characters. Examples includes non-player characters encountered outside a town, who might ask the player to escort them to a location, retrieve a lost object or so forth.

Sometimes side-quests even unlock new characters within the game, enhancing the game experience. Some games, such as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, include side quests that exist only for the purpose of character development, so that the player may learn more about the NPCs who have joined his party, or otherwise give the player a better understanding of the game's storyline or setting. Planescape: Torment particularly relied on such quests, with much of the back-story exposed in heart to hearts with party members. A drawback of this approach when used extensively is that the story is obscured if too much is hidden in character dialogues the player must remember to access or even arrange to "unlock". Notable criticism of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords was levelled at what were seen as plot holes, when they could be filled in with conscious (but unobvious) player effort.

While some mini-quests are often little more than annoyances, game-designers will often use them to inject some humour, as in the case of the scroll of Icarian Flight from The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Game series such as The Elder Scrolls
, Baldur's Gate
, Fallout and Legend of Mana are primarily or almost entirely based on side-quests, creating many possibilities of development to the game.

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Games - Quest

Overview of quests

Side-quest

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