My rule (which I loosely follow, depending on mood) is that I try to read the text for new quests once, the first time I attempt that quest on any character. This has been especially true for the last 2 expansions where I was curious about the story and how it unfolds. It is doubly true for the phased starting areas such as Gilneas and Acherus.
I'm not a huge lore buff and I'm not one who likes to immerse himself deep into the story. I prefer to get right to the action (and that's one of the reasons why I prefer "mindless" action RPGs such as Diablo).
Sometimes the quest text is fun and worth reading. There's a particular chain of 2 quests in Mount Hyjal given by a dryad who asks you to save some "frightened rabbits and terrified squirrels" which is absolutely hilarious.
Most often, for me at least, the quest text is standard fare: "Kill 10 cockroaches" or "Bring me 10 rat tails".
Personally I can't wait to get the reading over with so I can go kill those damn rats.
What about you?
13 comments:
I'm a lore nut, so I follow along with the story. I intend to pay close attention to differences in the text between Horde and Alliance sides, because it gives a window into the reasoning behind each side's behavior.
Fair enough but do you read the text each time you do that same quest?
I try to read the quests when I'm first doing a new area, or a re-vamped zone, but I don't even bother the second time.
Yeah, I just went thru that quest line with the Dryad in Hyjal. She reminded me of Pamela Anderson for some reason, so I paid more attention to the screen and quest text. (grin)
I only read the quest text if I don't already know what to do from reading the objective and opening the zone map.
I'm like you, I only read it the first time I do the quest. There's some real gems sometimes, like the completion text of the "Our Boys on the Shore" quest in Twilight Highlands. I had to go get my wife and have her read that one (This is MY beach. The Horde WANTS my beach.....)
When Blizzard lets themselves get silly, they're good at it :)
Yeah. First time only, of course. And I only play horde, so not sure how much alli is different, but I always read quest text, you can miss some awesome writing otherwise.
Example - 'Fiasco Sizzlegrin', a goblin questgiver in vash'jir. Even the name is brilliant, and his quests are just, well, do them!
Now, I won't be going back there ever on any toon, but I thought I'd have to do it on at least once, just for variety.
I always read the quest text, but usually don't after the first time unless the story line really pulled me in. Garrosh was different in Burning Crusade. I remember being introduced to him with the quest The Impotent Leader. I loved the Darrowshire quest. I also enjoyed meeting Saurfang the Yonger (however briefly) while searching for The Missing War Party in Nagrand, based on what he said about "walking the earth" I was hoping to see him again in the next expansion.
Because of some of the amazing quest chains I started reading WoW lore. I love to read, it's also given me a better understanding of the characters involved.
@Darth--
Welll.... I don't have very many alts out there --only three toons total over L68, and only one at L80-- so yeah, I do. Maybe after alt #4 or #5 it'll start to get old, but right now I do read it.
I gloss over the quests first time and pay more attention second time. I still managed to read enough of the two quests in Hyjal you mentioned to see they were worth paying attention to. Also funny was a short quest chain in Vashj'ir with a bit of sexual innuendo and an amusing eel killing quest. I think Blizzard did pretty well creating quests in Cata.
I wish I was able to read all the quests and stuff. I would LOVE to get involved in lore... but at the end of the day as soon as I pick a new quest my first reaction is "ok, let's check the map to see where I have to go".
I skip reading and just focus on "pew pew" :|
@Bloodshrike yeah, Pamela Anderson with hooves!
@Cold good thing with the objectives on the map. I don't have to read everything carefully now and it certainly makes it easy when doing the same quest for the n-th time.
@Lugnut Daffodil Blizard's sense of humor never ceases to make me lol.
@xiani I'm Alliance only but yes, faction specific quests are usually different.
@Pouncealot but isn't WoW lore very complicated and convoluted? That's probably one of the reasons why I didn't get into it. I liken it to Tolkien's Silmarillion.
@Redbeard I have all character slots filled up on my main server so it would definitely drive me crazy to read through all that text all over again.
@Gyldenfeax yes, Cata quests do seem more polished and more varied but I reached 85 on my hunter with minimal questing, just a smattering in Hyjal, the starting quests in Vashj'ir until I got my mount and a few in Uldum. I think Blizzard should have gone up to level 90 in this expansion. Now that I'm 85 with this guy I don't see any reason to quest.
@Echo haha yeah I know the feeling. Still, maybe you should try to read or at least skim the quest the first time for those funny moments.
Darth,
Yeah Blizz has a way of changing things, but it still learned more about some of the characters by reading their history. WIth some of the characters you get only a tidbit from quests.
/shudders at Silmarillion...
I love Tolkien's work, I've read most of his writings including the extremely popular The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings but I disliked Silmarillion.
I tried to read Silmarillion, I really did, but I couldn't get past the first few pages.
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