Vanilla Questing: Was it Good?

[kamuimac]

The thing about questing is that its just a mask of the "grinding" mechanic of this game and an excuse to make the player kill stuff.

still was better then other games of that time - i still rememebr in silkroad online literaly geting quest around level 30 to kill 600 or 800 tigers -_- wow was at least pretending.

[sosleapy]

If they truly return it to is glory(LOL) it will take you 20-21 days played to level up to 60. I liked it only because it was all new content/game at the time. So it was exciting. But i hated it because took so much damn time to level up. I hate leveling in ANY game not just wow. I wont be playing on the vanilla servers. Yes i loved Vanilla but i will not go back to the leveling in it. Done it on so many toons i am done with it.

[Teri]

It was new, the first time, and felt connected to Warcraft 3 lore on a lot of places too. So at the time, yes, it was good.

[Aphrel]

So recently I made a video about Vanilla WoW’s quest design and the possibly unintended brilliance behind it.

To summarize the video, Vanilla WoW’s non-linear quest philosophy exposed players to unpredictable adventures that were tackled differently through each playthrough. Additionally, I think the incorporation of professions into ‘regular’ quests brought life and an organic feel to the world.

What do you think? Do you think vanilla questing was good, or terrible compared to today’s modern quest design?

Video reference in signature.

I agree completely with the Non-linearity being a big part of the success. It makes for a better adventure if everything seems more random and chaotic rather than the "on-rails" experience that is questing today.
The pace also helped i think, it lets the environment and the zones sink in into your memory in a pleasant way. Compared with legion questing where zones and quests barely had time to register be4 you had blitzed throu them and moved on.

[Master Guns]

As with all things nostalgia, it isn't the same as it is now.

Time periods are like contained bubbles that can't be compared to the "now" because "now" we're in yet another time bubble. Vanilla WoW questing was hard at times, but vastly rewarding and the exploration and not knowing where everything was, because there wasn't a nav point pointing to it, made you go out and explore. That was awesome and felt really neat back then.

[deniter]

Questing in vanilla was awesome, it tied all features together. You needed to use auction house or craft stuff, or group up with other players to complete a quest. Some quests led you to dungeons and raids and gave nice rewards. Quests also made you to explore your surroundings and find other quest hubs in natural and immersive way instead of a bulletin board with a name of the zone you need to travel next.

[callipygoustp]

I enjoyed questing in Vanilla for one reason: I enjoyed the various stories that were told.

[Afrospinach]

What do you think? Do you think vanilla questing was good, or terrible compared to today’s modern quest design?

Hit and miss, way less structured than today. Frankly that made it both more interesting and less efficient. I think that is all there is really to say.

I HATE vehicle quests way more than anything vanilla ever did.

[Moralgy]

Let's put it in perspective.

Imagine how bad the quests were vanilla that in TBC they introduced this bombing quest (yes old hat by today's standards), and everyone questing on release in TBC was like 'holy shit a bombing quest' like it was the second coming of Jesus. Blizzard were so proud that they made this one bombing quest repeatable in Hellfire. You look back on this now and think to yourself "Man, we must have been some ghetto WoW players if we found that entertaining" How dull must vanilla questing have been for a dull slow bombing quest run to be that entertaining.

But I do give vanilla credit, I liked the non liner aspect of questing, A zone never had a start and end back then, sure you could do all the quests in one zone and move on. But you didn't have to, you were basically hopping all over the place and I do kind of miss that aspect at least. Hell some zones were two in one, like Wetlands or Badlands where half the zone was an appropriate level and if you strayed too far you would hit high level mobs.

It's just the quests substance I was never fond of in vanilla. :P

Yea pretty much, that quest was like a "holy shit this xpac is great" moment when you get to it. While most of the xpac was normal kill x or collect y quests, that was a great moment because vanilla was entirely "kill, talk, collect, travel" quests and nothing else. The thing I remember about vanilla the most was it was better to grind mobs in some level ranges than quest. Between pvp server, long travel times, terrible exp for quests, and so on, I ended up grinding 30-40 and 50-60 entirely.

Vanilla was a different time that is for sure.

[JerseyGhoul]

I have always felt like the world felt more connected from classic leveling. It wasn't just complete all the quests in one hub town and move on, but you would travel from one continent to the other, only to go back on a follow up when you were done.

Tried a vanilla server recently and was reminded of this. I think I would actually like this style of questing a lot more if the rewards were more in line with the effort required to complete the quest. "Buy an item off the vendor five feet from me and then hand it to me" quests should not award the same xp as "go to five different zones on three different continents and collect this semi-rare drop" quests.

[chrisnumbers]

Depends what you think is fun. In some ways it was in some ways it was painful

That quest for Aged Gorilla sinew in STV was never something I like to call fun, it haunts me to this day lol :P

As of now, todays questing system in current WoW is far better in presentation. But thats my opinion :P

I would argue that those types of quests that we dread are necessary for a balanced experience. If every quest was just a breeze, they'd all be the same. With the annoying brickwalls to compare to, the funner quests are more appreciated.

[deniter]

I HATE vehicle quests way more than anything vanilla ever did.

+1.

This is the reason i'm gonna skip WotLK servers if Blizzard ever release them.

[Regalbeast]

No, it was terrible

[Tyze]

It wasn't good, It was disjointed, convoluted and poorly written.

Also stop posting for Views.

^
Also, horrible questing

[chrisnumbers]

you felt accomplished when you made it through.

This is most important.

[Littleraven]

There was very little that was good about it. It wasn't fun having a quest take you clear across the world with no easy way to get there. I get wanting people to learn the lay of the land but when you are literally going from one continent to the other and then back for a handful of quests there is something wrong. I could understand if you were doing quests along the way but there was no point in that because you would end up out leveling them eventually anyway.

There were standout moments but I think a lot of that has to do with nostalgia.

[Airlick]

Yes, it was a nightmarish pit of bugs, terrible drop rates and odd respawn rates making you either cut yourself while waiting for that single zebra in the area to respawn or cut yourself while corpse-running after the raptor you've killed a minute earlier respawned before you dealt with 3 more of them.

At the same time, it was also such an incredible adventure that wasn't just about trying to find one wolf in 10 with a paw, it encompassed every aspect of character development. It was a pure RPG, you didn't just follow the path the devs made for you, you created your own. Even making enough gold to buy skills, which wasn't actually a given, was a part of that. And that is what made it so good and why so many people have fond memories of vanilla. I know I myself am most excited for levelling, since I definitely won't have enough time to raid.

[Tjaeden]

No.

/10char

[Tom Anderson]

No quest markers, good.
Poor writing/overall lack of story, bad.
Having to explore the world to find quests, good.
Poor drop rate for certain quest items, bad.
It had its pros and cons. Overall it's not bad or good compared to what we have now, just different.
Something I do miss is "red" quests.
Managing to do a quest before the level it was made for yields greater rewards which is something we haven't had in ages.

[Kaibhan]

Of course it was good, for it's time. I still find it fun when I get the chance however to saw it hasn't been improved would be a lie.