Yeah, why should I care? What’s it to me that Foozle is up to his usual dirty tricks? For that matter, the old lady who wants her dog back can go ask someone else. Why should I care about her at all?
In most RPGs, we play the “hero”, the good person. The Great Problem Solver to the world. Anyone at all can ask for our help, however trivial the task.
But c’mon, how much do we really care about these people and their little miseries? The one motivation we have is the reward: experience, gold, maybe a Neat Item.
How many of us would go around “helping out”, if we all received was a “thank you so much”? Side quests would go unaccepted if they didn’t have a payoff.
That’s what makes them so mechanical. We do them and move on. There’s little emotional involvement in most of those “jobs” (I refuse to call them “quests”).
And when you add in the usually-large number of these tasks, it’s hard to find a reason to care about any of them. Even the “main quest”, defeating the usual Foozle, becomes drab after awhile.
Sometimes designers try to make you feel involved with a backstory: maybe your family was wiped out by Foozle & Co. That’s not going to work too well. It’s fictional history, something that happened in the past, before the game starts.
So why get all upset over mom and dad being wasted so far back you can’t recall it? That’s terribly artificial. It’s hard to care about make-believe people you didn’t ever know.
I don’t feel a lot of involvement with RPGs these days. There are too many make-work tasks, for a bunch of forgettable NPCs, whose only purpose is to help you advance in the game.
Perhaps what we need is an RPG with one good story, where everything is related to the main line, with no little jobs on the side. Then maybe we’d get to know the NPCs better, and have a real reason for going after Foozle besides “save the world (yet again).
In the meantime, you with the missing butterknife, tell me: why should I care?
I was about to leave a comment but got apathetic instead.
The design is stale. But not all sidequests are like that. Some games have things like a book mentioning a cave in a certain general area… you go look for it, and find a beastie and rewards/loot. Maybe that’s not what we now think of as a sidequest, but it’s the same effect. I don’t think everything has to be tied to the main story. But if not, then your sidequests have to be “skippable”. Unfortunately, in most modern games the player is kind of expected to do them to reach the finale at a peak power level.
If you strip these out, there’s a danger that games will become more linear. I know that doesn’t have to be the case, but I’d be willing to bet that’s the route developers would take. Heck, the Japanese already have a long history of game development in that vein. It would be nice for sidequest to more quest than busywork.
As to whether you should care, regardless of the implementation, that’s a factor of good storytelling. Sadly, I don’t think the success of any recent RPG has hinged on whether players cared about the sidequests. They want ways to power up/level up/advance/etc that can be done in some sort of free fashion. Action RPGers (as a general rule) don’t care at all, but they still want sidequests to be there so they can get their payout.
In essence, if you do care, or find a game that does a better job of making you care, you and the game are both in a minority.
Hmmm, maybe that’s a bit cynical… I should probably go home now. :)
Ummm….
Amen?
Okay, I am grossly generalizing here. I really enjoyed some elements of the story in Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. Though the adventure really did run too long, to the point where I was wondering, “What am I supposed to be doing here again?” But it had interesting characters, to say the least.
I think the key element first of all is to make the player identify with the hero. Whatever THAT takes. If it’s a player-generated character, its easier in some ways (the player has already invested some interest into the character to make them), but harder in others (how do you suck a “generic everyman” into the world?)
Once the player has identified with the character, THEN they become interested in the setting and other characters of the story – by identifying what these characters mean to the player (and their alter-ego).
Bad guy killing off your parents in a backstory before you start playing? Ho hum. Bad guy killing off an ally you’ve developed in game, and worked to gain their trust? Okay, NOW we’re pissed!
If you are asked to role play a hero, you should want your hero to do heroic things. (Even if it is to save Lil’ Brudder, from Trogdor the Burninator *grin*) But I agree – if the game doesn’t draw you into it’s world, it can be tough to care. Good games find ways to ‘hook’ you. Cut-scenes, history, and NPCs with their own agendas are three that come to mind, I’m sure there are others.
Cut-scenes are effective; even if it is only a minor one. Showing the water level drop in Fallout, reminds you ‘why’ you are poking around the post apocalyptic world in the first place.
A world with a rich history is another way – The World of Ultima is one such world. It revolves around the 3 principles and the 8 virtues. These virtues and principles are cleverly intertwined in both land (shrines, cities, dungeons) and lore (mantras, colors, codex symbol).
NPCs that have their own personality and agendas is a third. Baldur’s Gate had some of this; certain NPCs would complain (and eventually leave) if you didn’t take their concerns (or alignment) into consideration. And who can forget about Yoshimo’s betrayal.
The one thing that the above examples ALL do ~ is to flush out the game world, and make it a more interesting place to explore. Diablo’s Tristram is dull, and I can’t even remember the starting town in Dungeon Siege. But for me CRPGs are not about advancing character stats and skills, but instead about playing a role in a computer generated world.
Another factor to consider about your role in the game world was discussed here quite recently. Namely, How the game world views your character.
If your character’s classes and skills are ignored, you need some other identifying trait or title. Think of how some of the more successful story driven RPGs did this.
In Fallout, you are the hero who saves vault 13. Story wise ~ It matters not if you use stealth, brute force, or fast talking.
In Ultima, you were identified as the Avatar – a paragon of the virtues. You could be a mage, paladin, or even a shepherd, but that was irrelevant when talking to the townsfolk – to them, you are the Avatar.
In Baldur’s gate, you are Baalspawn! – The only time your character’s class took center stage was the class specific stronghold quests in BG2.
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My Conclusion: It’s the immersion into the game world makes me care, and since most games ask you to save the world, it helps if the world (and it’s populace) is a more interesting place TO save.
I would say allow more freedom and options to complete a side quest, not just a linear do this to accomplish that.
Sweet old lady NPC: “My cat is stuck in the tree”
One fireball later, amid a smell vaguely reminiscent of burnt moo goo gai pan, the mission is accomplished. (My apologies to cat lovers.) Not only did this let you accomplish the task in a non-expected manner, it allows other gameplay refinements, such as playing an evil character. Maybe the cat was really Foozle’s minion, keeping an eye on the village from the tree’s high vantage point, maybe the loss of her familiar reveals the true nature of the “sweet” old lady and she is unmasked as the witch who had been sickening the village children. A whole range of different possibilities opens both in gameplay and storyline instead of simply rescuing the cat and receiving an apple and 100 XP as a reward.
Good remarks here, folks. I agree, you have to be drawn into the world in order to really care about it (which is what I was getting at).
Xian, I see you got over your apathy ;) I love that example. Yes, things like that could provide better side quests. But we still have the “why should I care about your mangy feline up the tree” matter.
Coyote, true, having an NPC you’ve come to like be killed is one way to get the player aroused; revenge is a strong motivator. Of course, it’s only one method; there are others.
Halcazar, those are all good examples. I think the most important one is the NPCs. Without them, you just have a dungeon crawl.
Being good (the hero) isn’t enough. “Oh, I’m the hero; I should do good things” is the mechanical side.
DB, yeah, designers might make a game too linear without side quests. Then again, they can make one that way even with side quests. NWN2 is a case in point.
Certainly, side quests can be interesting. But once again, we’re at “make me care beyond the benefits to myself”.
Just chiming in to agree with the statement that it’s immersion in the world that makes you care about the people and their tasks.
Great example, Coyote! I’d forgotten about that incident. Ultima 7 was really really good as far as atmosphere and pulling you into the world. The game was creepy, scary, and left me feeling uneasy many nights after playing.
Halcazar,
In Dungeon Siege, you start out at your father’s farm anyway that had no name that I recalled.
How can I (the PC) care about NPCs and their problems when they don’t reciprocate? In most RPGs the NPCs only “see” and react to generic_adventurer_01 (default: male human fighter).
I noticed how the Obsidian folks, in order to get the player to care about Shandra, had her show awareness and interest in the PC. Not just the PC’s actions, but background, thoughts, and dreams. Unfortunately, the other companion NPCs suffered in comparison. None of them knew or cared about any of that. Even the romance NPCs merely switched gears to treating the PC as generic_compatible_adventurer_01. For the most part.
I was surprised and gratified when, in the Saerileth NPC mod for BG2, that NPC actually asked what god my cleric/paladin followed. A very important thing in Forgotten Realms and most certainly something a potential romance partner — herself a paladin of a particular god — would want to know about. Nice touch, and by showing interest in what the PC is, not just what he does, it made it easier to have interest in and care for the NPC. (Note: I made a minor contribution to Saerileth and I’m noted in the credits, so I’m not unbiased. ;))
It’s an awful lot of work to create that kind of stuff for NPCs. A little bit goes a long way, however, in my opinion. Worth the effort.
Excellent point, Dell. That’s one of the flaws in these games: everyone just wants to know what you can do for them. In some ways, you’re just as mechanical to them as they are to you. Just another reason not to care.