Is anyone surprised? Wow rushes you to end game to shoehorn you into the 3 pillars of content. Levelling isn't seen as an experience anymore, but as a chore/barrier to said content this is reinforced by level boosts and fast levelling that undermines the levelling experience. Not to mention the story is so fragmentary when levelling. You level in BFA to get thrown into SL for a few levels to go to the Dragon Isles to hit the latest MSQ. If Blizz doesnt care about the levelling experience/narrative why should the players? I personally had the best time I've ever had in Classic Cata reading through the quest text, a self imposed restriction - I felt more connected to the world and invested in the overall narrative. But that doesnt mean that it's the norm, that Blizz are incentivising that behaviour or that players would actively chose to play that way.
I read the text because I like to know what I'm supposed to do. And I've learned that some of the quest givers have some really spicy text so you can really miss out if you don't read. I understand that people can have a hard time reading but for me personally I absorb better when reading. I do not get any joy out of listening to an audiobook.
Some of my favorite NPC text comes from the Scarlet Crusade vendor in Darkmoon Fair when you're a Forsaken with the tabard drop that allows you to buy from them. They sass at you and you sass them back gloriously. My all time favorite quest text is from Welcome to the Machine.
Shocking? lol iirc during original VANILLA before quest addons existed, you had to read quest text to figure out what to do. And people STILL didnt read quest text then so idk how SHOCKING this is lmao!
I read every quest the first time I do it because they may have Lore which I do enjoy but I will never read them while playing alt's if I have already done the quest.
There are a lot on non-readers in gaming now, even in single-player games (source: I frequent modding discords for BGS games and a lot of people can't communicate their "issue" let alone comprehend the answers). This got worse when gaming went super mainstream during Covid.
People not reading text in games is not directly linked to illiteracy. I personally don't read text in most games as ai already read a large volume of texts completing my masters and currently have several novels on the go. I game to game, not read inferior fiction.
@@dracotoy wheel of time, song of ice and fire, lord of the rings, stormlight archive, mistborn, the witcher, do I need to go on? Wows story is bog average comparative to what novels are out there
The AI voiced quests in vanilla are actually pretty good and I had never level'd horde before in classic so it was amazing to listen to the lore that way.
If quest text was fully voiced it would solve everything. I know it’s a huge undertaking but just saying. You can listen to the quest/lore on the way to objective
WOW's storytelling is at its peak for the average user when its told via set pieces. Quest Text was never really enjoyed except by lore nerds, and quest text should still be there for people who want to delve into the lore more. But the reality is that blizzard, and the majority of players sadly only want you to rush to end game to engage with systems, not with story. This is also the problem with having too much forced exposition in quests because if you miss a minor detail then the story starts to become nonsense to you, especially when blizzard starts putting foundational lore into third party materials. But the truth is, set pieces sell lore more than forcing people to read or listen to NPCs larp, when you see giant gears sticking out of the mountains of stormpeaks, it makes you start asking questions and delve into the lore yourself naturally. If you have an NPC sit there and tell you the deep lore of how the storm peaks are actually a titan construct their brains simply turn off, no one wants to listen to a school lecture on lore when they're playing a video game.
Can confirm reactly I been trying read quests usually l bang quickly my main sometimes redo quest on alt read stuff go at my own pace but lot got curios about. Don't remember what I saw but started look into sh found like lore just NPC chat chat chat just shut up. Level yes let talk but also need let decided want into it think haven't hit balance recently.
For me Development time spent writing quest text is wasted potential. Outside of vanilla/tbc, I haven’t read quests as I haven’t had to read quests to proceed.
Daily/Weeky locked progression + a community that prioritizes people based on ilvl + not unlimited time to play = skip the part that doesnt give you ilvl = skip quest text Its that easy
I still remember years ago when I played first. The game taught me within an hour of playing that I shouldn't bother reading the texts for the quests. Kill 20 boars? Collect 50 spider silk? Sure. If they're going to wast my time on boring quests, then at least they won't waste even more time on reading pointless texts.
The problem with quests in wow is that they are just a vehicle for gameplay. So while you can have good quest text occasionally, most of the time it is just made up mambo jambo to give you an excuse to kill 10 boars.
The Chatty addon mostly just adds tts to quests, but with the option to play the audio after accepting the quest and leaving is great. I can get the quest text while i move. Even if I end up just doing dragonflying circles while it plays out im more likely to actually get it all
I read the quests if it’s my first through or maybe 2nd or 3rd. Also if I forget about something in the quest. But that’s usually older quests, that don’t work well with new quest ui stuff. But working in retail or a detail oriented job, you tend to notice that people don’t read, even if it’s a big sign.
I gotta go to work so imma be quick here and not edit/punctuate myself (...much) so forgive me if it's not perfect. Maybe I'll edit it / reply to it later today or tomorrow. I get where Matt is coming from with quest text and people not reading them, but I think his arguments are flawed and his attitude a bit smug. I think if I am really honest with myself I would have voted "if I am not rushing" I would read quest text more. I am looking forward to warbands because I'll probably play my toons way way more and will very likely take my time with quest text in those play sessions. I used to have that quest text addon (storymode?) and that would 100% help me with immersion, etc... but also clearly demonstrates that the current way quest text is presented is crap. On top of that, a lot of quests now have VAs and basically explain what's going on as you play the god damn game; it's like if you read the quest text you're rewarded with a repeat of the quest text, but whilst actually playing the game (you know, the FUN part). Now Matt says something along the lines of "not reading the QT is like ordering steak and chip and only eating the steak"; basically you're missing out on an aspect of something that completes the whole experience. I could also argue not reading the QT is like microwaving yourself a meal and not reading the box instructions; sure you might fuck something up, but it's also likely it'll be fine and in both cases you still end up getting the main thing you're after: a meal (i.e. gameplay). Long story short I think WoW's QT has sucked for a long time and these new addons will help, but also saying shit like skipping the QT is missing out is a bit of a stretch imho (especially with the more modern VAs). ALSO, as a side note: I wanted to say that there are some quests/stories in the game that are awful, but if I just skip the QT in those instances and play the game it's fine. Sometimes those chips are actually covered in shit and it's best to not eat them. Sometimes there is a dick in your salad.
This is exactly why XIV took over from its niche: fostering to the casual playerbase that actually sticks around for storytelling. WoW players can whing about how the DF writing is a bunch of generic, friendship tropes, but that's genuinely the best they're going to get with their current community. WoW players need to accept that this is exactly why they segregate actual story content to books, and that they're never going to get a new Legion or Classic trilogy (Vanilla, TBC, Wrath) without showing to the devs that they want good storytelling, characters, and climaxes that feel rewarding to those who pay attention. You get what you pay for.
I dont read quest text, I'll skim sometimes but for the most part I learn what I want from exploring, seeing what NPCs say when you get close, going into all the nooks and crannys and soaking in the world and atmosphere. Maybe TWW will be better to get me to read quest text but I highly doubt it. I'm just excited to explore the new area because the concept of going deeper and deeper reminds me soooo much of Made in Abyss, and I loved that manga.
With MoP remix I started off soaking up the story, reading everything. But I got distracted, first by the insane power that instances give you (and instances in general which always pull me out of my cosy little storytime/exploration mode). The real thing that got me though is the 'need' to get the Tusks of Mannoroth before Remix ends. I started MoP late cos I've been sans computer for half a year. I tried to say "if I get the Tusks, I get them; if I don't, I don't". But it's just there.... staring at you... 20 bones... the ultimate Warrior shoulders... and the day counter keeps ticking down. I've got pandaren in one ear telling me "Slowww down! Life is to be savoured." Meanwhile, Blizzard are dangling this nigh-irresistible carrot in front of me and saying "Get it before it's gone!" [OK not literally gone but virtually so.]
I think my biggest problem is that they flood you with meaningless quests, I'd rather have fewer, more in depth meaningful quests. Then I would probably enjoy and be able to follow the plot.
My brother and myself both play the beta most exclusively to read quest text so when the game goes live we don't hear the "zomg lets go go go we got end game stuff to do!"
I’ve also never once watched a skipable cut scene. Ever. Never read quest text unless I got stuck. And reading quest text would come after a RUclips search.
Matt is forgetting the most important thing: Gaming is about having fun. So if you play a game in your own way and having fun; you're doing gaming the right way.
I read them, usually gloss over/speed-reed if it's an unimportant/boring side quest.. and I never read turn-in text, cuz it's usually just "good job, hero."
Your reference to Twitter being "mostly about words" and RUclips is "mostly not about words" had me in stitches... so accurate it's kind of astounding.
As a person with Dyslexi i would love for them to alow the AI voice addons that existed in classic to work in retail or even make they own AI voice reader. i had to stop reading quests a long time ago because my brain would melt ofter 10-15 quest and i just had to log out, i wanted to do more but i just feel sick and had to lay down. So i think they should add something like this in the game, just like there is a mode for colorblindness or now in TWW a mode for arachnofobia there should be something we can opt in to for people with reading disabilities.
The answer "Quest text?" looks like it's trying to turn the poll into a joke. It's a meme answer. If the last answer was just "No" or "I don't read quest texts", I asume the outcome could be pretty different.
Problem #1: most quests are pointless, worthless and doesn't add anything of value to the world building. Is a quantity over quality issue. Problem #2: removing quests entirely is a big part of the reason why the game is as it is nowadays, is an rpg game and these feed and live off the world building which haven't been done properly for a while already. Problem #3: Pandaria was the big turning point in how storytelling is done although this evolution stagnated because Blizzard has their heads too deep into their ass worrying about issues or features that doesn't add anything or just destroys even more the game. Big reason why a big part of the player base support garbage content like M+ or want demon hunter on every race. Edit. Problem #4: they should do those pools in-game and not out, that way they can filter what the current player base true wants and needs are.
I've spun up new characters just to read quests through a past expansion.. and end up skipping. The game really moves you towards being distracted and not stopping to read
Recently I’ve been getting high and playing Classic with no add-ons beside VoiceOver and Immersive. It’s a great experience, there should be more quests with voice acting
From Vanilla to SL I only skimmed to figure out what to do. Never used quest helpers. But in SWTOR and FFXIV I always read or watch. Omg! It's like if you give good engaging stories people might care. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go sit with Baine for an expansion.
Yeah if the story is actually good and you can follow along easily and you're invested you'll read the quest text. If you're trained to skip through it because it's mediocre or worse you're not going to bother.
So you didn't engage with the quest text, then complain that the quest text wasn't engaging you even though you didn't engage with the quest text to see if it was engaging. I think I've found the issue, and it's not with the quest text.
I’ve also never once watched a skipable cut scene. Ever. Never read quest text unless I got stuck. And reading quest text would come after a RUclips search. The goal is to have a unique experience. Nothing unique about doing the parts of the game every one else does.
That's the thing that I believe frustrates most players in modern WoW, is it doesn't matter if you like the story/lore or if you don't care about it; the modern 'Campaign' to get to endgame ruins the fun because everything is locked behind a mandatory route. That's why Legions 'Campaign' after launch was great for alts, you could choose a different zone and experience the story or just practically do whatever you wanted. Of course they had the story progression bottleneck with the Nightborne area, which I feel was acceptable; since it initially established a direction for future content. Having everything be locked into an official Campaign just feels stifling. Let the lore be in the background like it was in early expansions so enthusiasts can enjoy it and allow those who want to rush to max level also have their means to progress. That's not to say to not put the story in the expansions, but tie cutscenes to epic chain quests that are non mandatory. Add a unique trinket or something too, that way allows it to feel rewarding yet not mandatory at the same time. This also gives story and lore enthusiasts reason to adventure and 'stumble' upon it giving it that exploratory richness. Edit: this is NOT universal btw. For something like FF14, the Campaign absolutely works! That's because it heavily favors the type of Storytelling that both the devs and community have always been tailored made with the specific progression in mind. WoW in particular just has too of a broad playerbase.
Back when I started playing WOW, and even during The Burning Crusade, and Wrath of the Lich King, I would read the quest text, because often there was actually something there worth reading. The story of the game. Now ... not so much.
This is why voice over now days is much better than straight up text. Also reading makes you a nerd comment. Gaming makes you a nerd, but we do it anyways. Nerds rule the world, just people nerds about different things. Some people are Audio learners, so hearing things is how they learn. Where as if they read it they don't retain almost any of the information. Swtor was not hell sludge, but it is showing that you say that.
There’s some layers to this in greater society also. I have about 200 fantasy and sci-fi books across two bookcases. I’ve read them all and grew up reading epic fantasy series with 14+ volumes. I’ve found myself to transition to unabridged audible audiobooks as the years have gone by and get through books walking my dog or working or even doing mindless grinds in wow. It’s not that I can’t read or dont enjoy it’s just habits have changed. If we had AI voiceover for all quest text that played after accepted as you begin the quest it would be better design honestly. Look at baldurs gate 3 , voiceover dialogue options. Makes you follow the story more . I think quest text is just out of date and a largely older and non favoured way of dispensing storytelling.
I always read it the first time but generally speaking I'm never interested in reading things a second time. Wow remix was one of the first times I reread whole zones.
For me it depends if im interested in what is going on. If the initial area quests dont grab me, than I will find myself skipping them more. Bfa for example, had some truly memorable quests, and I pretty much read everything. I loved drustvar, the first time I played through it. But there have been some areas where it just felt so boring that I just wanted to get through it.
This video goes pretty mask off. Most quests in wow are filler. Even in FFXIV you have quests in the MSQ that are basically "Hey, I think that these statues are important.." And then they never come up again. Despising someone for not reading a quest that is "Hey, Can you go collect some leaves for me? They will help my upset tummy" seems a bit wild. There isn't really any missing context here. If the argument is that "sometimes" there is good content in there (such as the hildibrand quest) then emphasize it and reduce the others. At the end of the day, the time spent on reading all the quest text and engaging with it needs to be met with a similar payoff from either an interesting story perspective, or quest reward. People do Hildibrand cause its funny, people do wow quests for exp.. one doesn't require reading, and so they dont invest their time into it
Here's the thing: Yes, collecting the leaves is worth reading. You just gave an example of how your brain rot is winning. You don't think things like worldbuilding are important - you are incapable of perceiving how knowledge of a local herb could be worldbuilding. And when the quests did require reading, people just downloaded addons/looked up guides to avoid having to read it. So let's not pretend it's a design issue- We needed to gatekeep out those types of people, and we didn't. And now here you are in the comments, acting foolish.
Woah, touchy subject I guess. If you are advocating gatekeeping people from the game simply cause they dont play the way you want them to.. then i dont think we can have a reasonable conversation. Is there value in world building? Yes. Is there value in telling me about an herb that is never referenced again and exists only in that single quest.. no.
Generally memorised quests after too many alts. I know them so well that I nitpick the quests to do while I do the thing that gets you to max level easiest. Explore INSTEAD of using the map toys and perhaps about 250-300 quests can easily get you to level 60 or higher... Stares at the game and smirks at the relatively brand new toon that's at level 66 with the above way of leveling (okay she's also a herbalist and miner and done a bit of that)... It leaves the quests (done outside Chromie time) to earn me ten gold a quest that I do from this point on... Perfect for altoholics to replicate. 😉😊🤣
When the expansions and or patches launch I always take it slow and read every main and side quest and watch every cutscene. After that I skip through everything until the next update.
Theres really no incentive to when there's a built I'm quest tracker to tell us where it is. It used to be that you'd have to read between the lines to find where the quest is. And what to do. Just look at old class quests like the whirlwind axe or the 20 paladin weapons quest.
I used to read quest, random books or items, but. They now today have removed the good writing in most cases aswell as the need for reading a quest or other things. Where a random item drop could lead u in the direction of a hidden cave with loot, easter egg, mystery or a funny gag... its now replaced by a map marker or it does not exsist. Blizz lost its touch in so many ways
7:47 worst take ever, you can't 'play a game wrong' as long as you are enjoying the experience. Reading might not be enjoyable for you, or you might not care about the story, and that's fine. 16:10 This is your free time, and you don't need to be focused at all. If you want to mindlessly rush to the endgame, just do it. The time to be focused is from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
As someone who still reads the text the first time through, I do think it's a poor way to communicate a story in the modern game. It was fine back in the older expansions when the quest structure was entirely different; when you didn't have an MSQ and quests were more open with regards to order of completion and were more about communicating general lore and vibe of a zone. Now, though, the quest text is inconguent with their desire to have the player experience a specific long-form storyline in each zone. The quest text should be minimal, and there should be more voice acting, environmental, and gameplay elements to communicate the story now. It sounds like TWW is trying to alleviate this some, though.
On single player games i always read all the e.g. notes etc... i can find. But on WOW I rarely do it. I don't play WOW for the lore. Of course i care a bit about it but the overall feel of the game is much more important for me.
Ive played the game for 14 years. I have absolutely no idea whats happening in ANY of the quest zones. Edit: I have read most of the WoW books. I just do not care whats happening when im playing the game. Im just here to press buttons
this doesn’t surprise me. People have such short attention spans are in such a hurry to get from point a to point z, of course they’re not going to read quest text in a video game… gotta go fast all the time 24 /7.
I never understood this kind of line of thought. Because i think for most people the reason to play a game matters immensly. So i belive a lot of people if not even most are playing the game to play, aka. participate in gameplay related activieties. So whenever the game is designed in a way where u have to pause this gameplay experience which u enjoy so much to learn about lore then u end up with people who have no idea what anything in this universe of world of warcraft means and u could argue thats totally fine. The problem we run into is whenever u argue that the lore is a fundamental element of the game. Because if that is how u look at it then its a game designers responsebility to provide that experience in a way which doesnt interfere with a persons gameplay and thats hard to do but there are games who do a great job with that. WoW is definitly not one of those games. Also if u believe that the players experience gets highly improved by learning more about the world but the gamedesign of the game makes this knowledge entirely seperate and optional from the flow of gameplay then most people will typically not engage with that type of content. Indie games with huge amounts of side content proof that type of statistic.
@@lukestardoinstuff1237 The reason people playing blizzard games want to get to the end is because that is the only part of the game they design anything around. It is no longer the journey, it is now just what can be done at end game.
If they wanted players to read the quest text, then they wouldn't put the "TLDR" summary of the quest at the bottom. Why would I read 4 paragraphs of text when all I need to know is "Kill 10 of X"?
You know... don't they do this to themselves a bit? You search for the blue blob on the map, you follow the cursor that tells you how many yards away the quest is... there are several things that are not even addons... they are in game... and you don't need to read a word... maybe if WOW made you do more than kill 80,000 of something, and you had to do some puzzle solving or did some actual role play of some sort... but the players today really just want to be mindless... except those who went into Classic, but now that's gone too... so... and now with dragon riding, you can get to those blue blobs so much faster... let's kill all immersion tactics, just drop in and kill whatever and sail out before anything respawns and before another player shows up to steal your kills... oh wait, that's not a thing either any more... we can all kill the same target now... lovely.
I read quest text up until Shadowlands. That expansion (ironically) killed WoW's lore for me and made me not give a shit about any story they were trying to tell. Unfortunately, Dragonflight didn't really help cause it was a "never meet your heroes" scenario. I had a rose tinted glasses view of dragons being bad ass protectors of the planet with metal music and fire. But then I had to help Alexstrasza negotiate with a union of draconids by telling her she needs to give them more vacation days. It's not necessarily a bad story to tell, it just ruined the immersion for me. The whole expansion I was more inclined to root for the elemental protodragons faction cause they were at least living up to the dragon mythos. I really hope they're able to recapture the WARCRAFT feeling again in the War Within.
This is the most nerd debate in the history of nerdism. Note that I am saying NERD not a GEEK because I consider word GEEK to label something actually inteligent.
Do you read all the lore text when you play Valorant or Counter Strike? Just because it's a different style of game does not really matter at all considering an entire gameplay loop exists to keep you engaged in the same way with M+ and PvP
I'd be more inclined to read WoW quest text if the characters did individual emotes for very specific lines of dialogue. And if there were cinematic camera angles. Oh wait, I'm describing FFXIV.
I always read quest text the first time around. I understand why people don't - the game has conditioned players for nearly it's whole existance that the story doesn't matter (because it's either inconsequential, garbage, or both) and the only thing that does matter is end game go go go. So of course that type of player will be the majority.
I'm kind of the opposite: I'll read quest text but would prefer if I could skip the "game play" part of the quest. Okay, I need to go gather 15 bear spleens to feed the starving wolvar pups, can I just get a "skip gathering" button and go right to the end quest text?
I play FFXIV, have read all the quest text, love the story, super engaged. I play WoW, I don't read anything and probably never will because I don't particularly care about the story and don't think I ever will. I play WoW to play with my friends at end game, the game doesn't even want me to actually experience the story. The first character I leveled in this game was in BfA and I wanted to do it by questing, I got something like 10 levels in every expansion before it told me to move onto the next one. To understand the story I had to go to youtube and look up lore videos. The first expansion I played at launch was Shadowlands, and that story was butt cheeks imo. I think WoW is a fun game, but I don't like the story and think that me engaging with the story lowers my enjoyment of the game. To use your analogy of only eating the part of the meal that you enjoy, I am asking the burger chef to leave off the pickles because I won't be able to enjoy the cheese burger if they are on it. I read FFXIV quests because the game wants me to experience its story and understand, I skip WoW quests because it doesn't care if I understand and wants me to be at end game grinding item level.
I almost never did before, but they have gotten a bit better, so I read them sometimes, or at least speed read them. Only if they're from main campaign or the quest/s are funny.
i guess im playing the game wrong too then, i dont read any quest texts or watch cinematics in game. But i will listen to someone like nobble explaining the lore. since i dont quest unless nessecary, i would miss a lot anyways. and i enjoy connecting the things ive notices in game later.
Never read them. Yet read all the text in Ffxiv. Its formatting. They design it to grab and go. Ff designs it to experience. Both have drawbacks, and I’m sure plenty of people don’t read all ff stuff. it’s about design and preference.
I use immersion blanket zza d have put some of the craziest funniest kooky scripts I have ever read..immersion adds the extra dialogue and makes the quest and the world more alive with full voice activated
People don’t read quest text because it’s a terrible way to tell a story or give information to the player. I should be told it in a natural quick to understand way that gets to the point. Even the most of the time it’s unnecessary because the NPC just gave us some dialogue explaining it previously.
FF14 didn't burn its entire story to the ground in one expansion. I used to always read all the quests until shadowlands told me not to bother. And dragonflight confirmed that there's nothing interesting to bother with.
this reminds me of when I tried to do wrath timewalking with a friend and he straight up left and went to do WoD because the quest helper didnt tell us EXACTLY where to go and you had to read the quests for context
@@Trippin34 that’s why I tell all my friends that try the game “reading the quest tells you what you need to do. Don’t rely on the marker it puts on your map”
So, I played wow for many years, but this was many years ago during the so called "classic" era, and in Burning Crusade, Wrath and Cata. At that time, I read EVERYTHING, because I loved the stories, it was a MAJOR part of my interest in the game, maybe my primary interest in the game. Cata kinda ended that... the writing just wasn't as good. I still read most of it but I was pretty disappointed, the storylines were not of the same quality. Then we got to MOP and wow... my interest just dropped off a cliff. The storylines in MOP just are Warcraft to me anymore. This is when I quit wow and I've never been back... I am someone who played WoW for the stories. I loved exploring outlands, following Rexar and learning the origins of the Maghar and the first Horde, exploring the Arrakoa and their history... So many good stories, then Cata and I was really into the Twilight hammer, finally we were going to see Medivh return to Warcraft... and Thrall is leaving the Horde... and Garrosh is becoming a Villain... and Tirion is just gone... WTF happened. The writing in Cata was dogshit, it's like everyone who had been writing for wow was just gone and the new cadre of writers was people who hated everything that had come before, and they just decided to burn it all to the ground... I found a good guild in Cata and became the MT I hadn't been since Kharazan way back when... and it was great, but the story just went to hell. When they announced Pandaland that was it for me, I never logged back in. I think a lot of the "Quest text?" has to do with the quality of the writing, or lack of same and not the deterioration of the player base in mindless morons with the attention span of a goldfish. What I am saying is people no longer read the quest text because the quest text is no longer worth reading, the quality of the writing in WoW went to hell in Cata and its never recovered.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if a game has voice acting then I will assume anything not voice acted isn’t worth reading because the developers have deemed that it wasn’t worth having it voiced.
WoW players stopped reading quest text once Blizz stopped making them do so to complete the quest. Self-solving quest creep over the years has rendered quest text pretty much irrelevant in modern WoW. That said as someone who's been playing since Vanilla, I do still read the text. Though entirely out of that original reflex and because I speed read by natural reflex and typically have to force myself to slow down when reading for entertainment.
One of the reasons why i dont like grouping for quests is because i never get time to read them lol
Saaaaame, also pressure to skip cutscenes 😫
Is anyone surprised?
Wow rushes you to end game to shoehorn you into the 3 pillars of content.
Levelling isn't seen as an experience anymore, but as a chore/barrier to said content this is reinforced by level boosts and fast levelling that undermines the levelling experience.
Not to mention the story is so fragmentary when levelling. You level in BFA to get thrown into SL for a few levels to go to the Dragon Isles to hit the latest MSQ.
If Blizz doesnt care about the levelling experience/narrative why should the players?
I personally had the best time I've ever had in Classic Cata reading through the quest text, a self imposed restriction - I felt more connected to the world and invested in the overall narrative.
But that doesnt mean that it's the norm, that Blizz are incentivising that behaviour or that players would actively chose to play that way.
I read the text because I like to know what I'm supposed to do. And I've learned that some of the quest givers have some really spicy text so you can really miss out if you don't read. I understand that people can have a hard time reading but for me personally I absorb better when reading. I do not get any joy out of listening to an audiobook.
Some of my favorite NPC text comes from the Scarlet Crusade vendor in Darkmoon Fair when you're a Forsaken with the tabard drop that allows you to buy from them. They sass at you and you sass them back gloriously. My all time favorite quest text is from Welcome to the Machine.
SWTOR had fully voice acted quests, frankly I expect that from WoW now as well.
What are subscriptions on top of outright purchases actually paying for
@@Elearen bobby needs another yacht
Shocking? lol iirc during original VANILLA before quest addons existed, you had to read quest text to figure out what to do. And people STILL didnt read quest text then so idk how SHOCKING this is lmao!
I read every quest the first time I do it because they may have Lore which I do enjoy but I will never read them while playing alt's if I have already done the quest.
i love that the arc of this show always leads back to "most people are not sentient and barely deserving of life, but thats okay! Be who you want!"
I like immersion because it makes reading the quests more enjoyable
And the extra dialogue..it crazy..I love it.
There are a lot on non-readers in gaming now, even in single-player games (source: I frequent modding discords for BGS games and a lot of people can't communicate their "issue" let alone comprehend the answers). This got worse when gaming went super mainstream during Covid.
People not reading text in games is not directly linked to illiteracy. I personally don't read text in most games as ai already read a large volume of texts completing my masters and currently have several novels on the go. I game to game, not read inferior fiction.
@@Macdaddyman You can *write*, obviously, so my comment doesn't apply to you. Good luck on your masters.
@@Macdaddymaninferior fiction?? Lol, and what is so superior?
@@dracotoy wheel of time, song of ice and fire, lord of the rings, stormlight archive, mistborn, the witcher, do I need to go on? Wows story is bog average comparative to what novels are out there
@@Macdaddyman true, fucking phenomenal series. Stormlight archives and lotr are personal favs
Matt is my spirit animal.
The AI voiced quests in vanilla are actually pretty good and I had never level'd horde before in classic so it was amazing to listen to the lore that way.
If quest text was fully voiced it would solve everything. I know it’s a huge undertaking but just saying. You can listen to the quest/lore on the way to objective
WOW's storytelling is at its peak for the average user when its told via set pieces.
Quest Text was never really enjoyed except by lore nerds, and quest text should still be there for people who want to delve into the lore more.
But the reality is that blizzard, and the majority of players sadly only want you to rush to end game to engage with systems, not with story.
This is also the problem with having too much forced exposition in quests because if you miss a minor detail then the story starts to become nonsense to you, especially when blizzard starts putting foundational lore into third party materials.
But the truth is, set pieces sell lore more than forcing people to read or listen to NPCs larp, when you see giant gears sticking out of the mountains of stormpeaks, it makes you start asking questions and delve into the lore yourself naturally. If you have an NPC sit there and tell you the deep lore of how the storm peaks are actually a titan construct their brains simply turn off, no one wants to listen to a school lecture on lore when they're playing a video game.
Can confirm reactly I been trying read quests usually l bang quickly my main sometimes redo quest on alt read stuff go at my own pace but lot got curios about. Don't remember what I saw but started look into sh found like lore just NPC chat chat chat just shut up. Level yes let talk but also need let decided want into it think haven't hit balance recently.
they need to have voiced dialog that continues to play when you're out grinding, that you don't need to sit there and wait for it to finish
For me
Development time spent writing quest text is wasted potential.
Outside of vanilla/tbc, I haven’t read quests as I haven’t had to read quests to proceed.
Daily/Weeky locked progression + a community that prioritizes people based on ilvl + not unlimited time to play = skip the part that doesnt give you ilvl = skip quest text
Its that easy
I still remember years ago when I played first. The game taught me within an hour of playing that I shouldn't bother reading the texts for the quests.
Kill 20 boars? Collect 50 spider silk? Sure. If they're going to wast my time on boring quests, then at least they won't waste even more time on reading pointless texts.
It doesn't help, the end game FOMO you get while leveling
That's a personal mental health issue, not a game design issue.
@@DarkScreamGames No, that's a game design issue if they create systems to prey upon that.
What is the benefit you get from speed leveling at the beginning?
I thought raids/M+ didn't come out for a few weeks after launch these days.
The problem with quests in wow is that they are just a vehicle for gameplay. So while you can have good quest text occasionally, most of the time it is just made up mambo jambo to give you an excuse to kill 10 boars.
The Chatty addon mostly just adds tts to quests, but with the option to play the audio after accepting the quest and leaving is great. I can get the quest text while i move. Even if I end up just doing dragonflying circles while it plays out im more likely to actually get it all
I'd just like to reassure Matt that I watched this whole video at 2x speed, just like all my anime.
Gamers: Video games are art and should be preserved.
Also gamers: I don't read.
Nothing about those 2 is contradictory
@@omarcomming722 they are inherently contradictory
I read the quests if it’s my first through or maybe 2nd or 3rd. Also if I forget about something in the quest.
But that’s usually older quests, that don’t work well with new quest ui stuff.
But working in retail or a detail oriented job, you tend to notice that people don’t read, even if it’s a big sign.
I gotta go to work so imma be quick here and not edit/punctuate myself (...much) so forgive me if it's not perfect. Maybe I'll edit it / reply to it later today or tomorrow.
I get where Matt is coming from with quest text and people not reading them, but I think his arguments are flawed and his attitude a bit smug.
I think if I am really honest with myself I would have voted "if I am not rushing" I would read quest text more. I am looking forward to warbands because I'll probably play my toons way way more and will very likely take my time with quest text in those play sessions. I used to have that quest text addon (storymode?) and that would 100% help me with immersion, etc... but also clearly demonstrates that the current way quest text is presented is crap. On top of that, a lot of quests now have VAs and basically explain what's going on as you play the god damn game; it's like if you read the quest text you're rewarded with a repeat of the quest text, but whilst actually playing the game (you know, the FUN part).
Now Matt says something along the lines of "not reading the QT is like ordering steak and chip and only eating the steak"; basically you're missing out on an aspect of something that completes the whole experience. I could also argue not reading the QT is like microwaving yourself a meal and not reading the box instructions; sure you might fuck something up, but it's also likely it'll be fine and in both cases you still end up getting the main thing you're after: a meal (i.e. gameplay).
Long story short I think WoW's QT has sucked for a long time and these new addons will help, but also saying shit like skipping the QT is missing out is a bit of a stretch imho (especially with the more modern VAs).
ALSO, as a side note: I wanted to say that there are some quests/stories in the game that are awful, but if I just skip the QT in those instances and play the game it's fine. Sometimes those chips are actually covered in shit and it's best to not eat them. Sometimes there is a dick in your salad.
This is exactly why XIV took over from its niche: fostering to the casual playerbase that actually sticks around for storytelling. WoW players can whing about how the DF writing is a bunch of generic, friendship tropes, but that's genuinely the best they're going to get with their current community. WoW players need to accept that this is exactly why they segregate actual story content to books, and that they're never going to get a new Legion or Classic trilogy (Vanilla, TBC, Wrath) without showing to the devs that they want good storytelling, characters, and climaxes that feel rewarding to those who pay attention. You get what you pay for.
I dont read quest text, I'll skim sometimes but for the most part I learn what I want from exploring, seeing what NPCs say when you get close, going into all the nooks and crannys and soaking in the world and atmosphere. Maybe TWW will be better to get me to read quest text but I highly doubt it. I'm just excited to explore the new area because the concept of going deeper and deeper reminds me soooo much of Made in Abyss, and I loved that manga.
I don't read books very much, but I read quest text cause I'm interested in the world and lore and it's interactive like Matt said
With MoP remix I started off soaking up the story, reading everything. But I got distracted, first by the insane power that instances give you (and instances in general which always pull me out of my cosy little storytime/exploration mode).
The real thing that got me though is the 'need' to get the Tusks of Mannoroth before Remix ends. I started MoP late cos I've been sans computer for half a year. I tried to say "if I get the Tusks, I get them; if I don't, I don't". But it's just there.... staring at you... 20 bones... the ultimate Warrior shoulders... and the day counter keeps ticking down.
I've got pandaren in one ear telling me "Slowww down! Life is to be savoured." Meanwhile, Blizzard are dangling this nigh-irresistible carrot in front of me and saying "Get it before it's gone!"
[OK not literally gone but virtually so.]
I think my biggest problem is that they flood you with meaningless quests, I'd rather have fewer, more in depth meaningful quests. Then I would probably enjoy and be able to follow the plot.
Go collect this poop for me champion!
Go collect some poop for me champion!
Eso mostly have done that well and its all voiced.
I fall under "Measure Twice, Cut Once".
Speed run the raid toon, chilax with the questing toon
My brother and myself both play the beta most exclusively to read quest text so when the game goes live we don't hear the "zomg lets go go go we got end game stuff to do!"
I’ve also never once watched a skipable cut scene. Ever.
Never read quest text unless I got stuck. And reading quest text would come after a RUclips search.
Hot, salty french fries dipped in malt vinegar used to be reserved for royalty...
Matt is forgetting the most important thing: Gaming is about having fun. So if you play a game in your own way and having fun; you're doing gaming the right way.
I read them, usually gloss over/speed-reed if it's an unimportant/boring side quest.. and I never read turn-in text, cuz it's usually just "good job, hero."
Your reference to Twitter being "mostly about words" and RUclips is "mostly not about words" had me in stitches... so accurate it's kind of astounding.
As a person with Dyslexi i would love for them to alow the AI voice addons that existed in classic to work in retail or even make they own AI voice reader. i had to stop reading quests a long time ago because my brain would melt ofter 10-15 quest and i just had to log out, i wanted to do more but i just feel sick and had to lay down. So i think they should add something like this in the game, just like there is a mode for colorblindness or now in TWW a mode for arachnofobia there should be something we can opt in to for people with reading disabilities.
The answer "Quest text?" looks like it's trying to turn the poll into a joke. It's a meme answer.
If the last answer was just "No" or "I don't read quest texts", I asume the outcome could be pretty different.
Problem #1: most quests are pointless, worthless and doesn't add anything of value to the world building. Is a quantity over quality issue.
Problem #2: removing quests entirely is a big part of the reason why the game is as it is nowadays, is an rpg game and these feed and live off the world building which haven't been done properly for a while already.
Problem #3: Pandaria was the big turning point in how storytelling is done although this evolution stagnated because Blizzard has their heads too deep into their ass worrying about issues or features that doesn't add anything or just destroys even more the game. Big reason why a big part of the player base support garbage content like M+ or want demon hunter on every race.
Edit.
Problem #4: they should do those pools in-game and not out, that way they can filter what the current player base true wants and needs are.
I use a fast auto-accept addon, the text doesn't even pop up...
I've spun up new characters just to read quests through a past expansion.. and end up skipping. The game really moves you towards being distracted and not stopping to read
Recently I’ve been getting high and playing Classic with no add-ons beside VoiceOver and Immersive. It’s a great experience, there should be more quests with voice acting
If you think a game's lore is stupid but you like the game play you absolutely shouldn’t interact with story.
From Vanilla to SL I only skimmed to figure out what to do. Never used quest helpers.
But in SWTOR and FFXIV I always read or watch.
Omg! It's like if you give good engaging stories people might care.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go sit with Baine for an expansion.
Yeah if the story is actually good and you can follow along easily and you're invested you'll read the quest text. If you're trained to skip through it because it's mediocre or worse you're not going to bother.
So you didn't engage with the quest text, then complain that the quest text wasn't engaging you even though you didn't engage with the quest text to see if it was engaging. I think I've found the issue, and it's not with the quest text.
I’ve also never once watched a skipable cut scene. Ever.
Never read quest text unless I got stuck. And reading quest text would come after a RUclips search.
The goal is to have a unique experience.
Nothing unique about doing the parts of the game every one else does.
That's the thing that I believe frustrates most players in modern WoW, is it doesn't matter if you like the story/lore or if you don't care about it; the modern 'Campaign' to get to endgame ruins the fun because everything is locked behind a mandatory route.
That's why Legions 'Campaign' after launch was great for alts, you could choose a different zone and experience the story or just practically do whatever you wanted. Of course they had the story progression bottleneck with the Nightborne area, which I feel was acceptable; since it initially established a direction for future content.
Having everything be locked into an official Campaign just feels stifling. Let the lore be in the background like it was in early expansions so enthusiasts can enjoy it and allow those who want to rush to max level also have their means to progress. That's not to say to not put the story in the expansions, but tie cutscenes to epic chain quests that are non mandatory. Add a unique trinket or something too, that way allows it to feel rewarding yet not mandatory at the same time. This also gives story and lore enthusiasts reason to adventure and 'stumble' upon it giving it that exploratory richness.
Edit: this is NOT universal btw. For something like FF14, the Campaign absolutely works! That's because it heavily favors the type of Storytelling that both the devs and community have always been tailored made with the specific progression in mind. WoW in particular just has too of a broad playerbase.
Not quite reading, but it blows my mind that people watch videos or listen to audio books at increased speeds. Enjoy the experience!!!
Make quest worth reading about. Idc about get 10 zebra hoof, gay centaurs, or day care dragons. Where's my WAR in warcraft
Back when I started playing WOW, and even during The Burning Crusade, and Wrath of the Lich King, I would read the quest text, because often there was actually something there worth reading. The story of the game.
Now ... not so much.
This is why voice over now days is much better than straight up text. Also reading makes you a nerd comment. Gaming makes you a nerd, but we do it anyways. Nerds rule the world, just people nerds about different things.
Some people are Audio learners, so hearing things is how they learn. Where as if they read it they don't retain almost any of the information.
Swtor was not hell sludge, but it is showing that you say that.
I have addons that auto accept quests didn't even realize there was quest text. I just play the game for pvp and try to get end game as fast as I can.
There’s some layers to this in greater society also. I have about 200 fantasy and sci-fi books across two bookcases. I’ve read them all and grew up reading epic fantasy series with 14+ volumes. I’ve found myself to transition to unabridged audible audiobooks as the years have gone by and get through books walking my dog or working or even doing mindless grinds in wow.
It’s not that I can’t read or dont enjoy it’s just habits have changed. If we had AI voiceover for all quest text that played after accepted as you begin the quest it would be better design honestly.
Look at baldurs gate 3 , voiceover dialogue options. Makes you follow the story more .
I think quest text is just out of date and a largely older and non favoured way of dispensing storytelling.
I always read it the first time but generally speaking I'm never interested in reading things a second time. Wow remix was one of the first times I reread whole zones.
I heard Trash Taste and immediately thought “what did Conner say?” lmao
For me it depends if im interested in what is going on. If the initial area quests dont grab me, than I will find myself skipping them more.
Bfa for example, had some truly memorable quests, and I pretty much read everything. I loved drustvar, the first time I played through it.
But there have been some areas where it just felt so boring that I just wanted to get through it.
This video goes pretty mask off. Most quests in wow are filler. Even in FFXIV you have quests in the MSQ that are basically "Hey, I think that these statues are important.." And then they never come up again. Despising someone for not reading a quest that is "Hey, Can you go collect some leaves for me? They will help my upset tummy" seems a bit wild. There isn't really any missing context here.
If the argument is that "sometimes" there is good content in there (such as the hildibrand quest) then emphasize it and reduce the others. At the end of the day, the time spent on reading all the quest text and engaging with it needs to be met with a similar payoff from either an interesting story perspective, or quest reward. People do Hildibrand cause its funny, people do wow quests for exp.. one doesn't require reading, and so they dont invest their time into it
Here's the thing: Yes, collecting the leaves is worth reading. You just gave an example of how your brain rot is winning. You don't think things like worldbuilding are important - you are incapable of perceiving how knowledge of a local herb could be worldbuilding. And when the quests did require reading, people just downloaded addons/looked up guides to avoid having to read it. So let's not pretend it's a design issue- We needed to gatekeep out those types of people, and we didn't. And now here you are in the comments, acting foolish.
Woah, touchy subject I guess. If you are advocating gatekeeping people from the game simply cause they dont play the way you want them to.. then i dont think we can have a reasonable conversation. Is there value in world building? Yes. Is there value in telling me about an herb that is never referenced again and exists only in that single quest.. no.
Generally memorised quests after too many alts. I know them so well that I nitpick the quests to do while I do the thing that gets you to max level easiest. Explore INSTEAD of using the map toys and perhaps about 250-300 quests can easily get you to level 60 or higher... Stares at the game and smirks at the relatively brand new toon that's at level 66 with the above way of leveling (okay she's also a herbalist and miner and done a bit of that)... It leaves the quests (done outside Chromie time) to earn me ten gold a quest that I do from this point on... Perfect for altoholics to replicate. 😉😊🤣
I read everything once , then I never read them again on any toon. But they do get read a oncethrough.
@@adamparker1504 this.
When the expansions and or patches launch I always take it slow and read every main and side quest and watch every cutscene. After that I skip through everything until the next update.
Theres really no incentive to when there's a built I'm quest tracker to tell us where it is. It used to be that you'd have to read between the lines to find where the quest is. And what to do. Just look at old class quests like the whirlwind axe or the 20 paladin weapons quest.
I used to read quest, random books or items, but. They now today have removed the good writing in most cases aswell as the need for reading a quest or other things. Where a random item drop could lead u in the direction of a hidden cave with loot, easter egg, mystery or a funny gag... its now replaced by a map marker or it does not exsist. Blizz lost its touch in so many ways
7:47 worst take ever, you can't 'play a game wrong' as long as you are enjoying the experience. Reading might not be enjoyable for you, or you might not care about the story, and that's fine.
16:10 This is your free time, and you don't need to be focused at all. If you want to mindlessly rush to the endgame, just do it. The time to be focused is from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Does it count if you use immersion and have the quest text read to you?
Played since vanilla and haven’t read one full quest text.
As someone who still reads the text the first time through, I do think it's a poor way to communicate a story in the modern game. It was fine back in the older expansions when the quest structure was entirely different; when you didn't have an MSQ and quests were more open with regards to order of completion and were more about communicating general lore and vibe of a zone.
Now, though, the quest text is inconguent with their desire to have the player experience a specific long-form storyline in each zone. The quest text should be minimal, and there should be more voice acting, environmental, and gameplay elements to communicate the story now. It sounds like TWW is trying to alleviate this some, though.
On single player games i always read all the e.g. notes etc... i can find.
But on WOW I rarely do it. I don't play WOW for the lore. Of course i care a bit about it but the overall feel of the game is much more important for me.
Brooo pickled gummy bears with sour krout made me verbally say what the fuck XD I'm dead fuck noooo 😂
Ive played the game for 14 years. I have absolutely no idea whats happening in ANY of the quest zones.
Edit: I have read most of the WoW books. I just do not care whats happening when im playing the game. Im just here to press buttons
I stopped reading quests in DF, and I won't touch that ever again. Feels like some disney movie stuff
this doesn’t surprise me. People have such short attention spans are in such a hurry to get from point a to point z, of course they’re not going to read quest text in a video game… gotta go fast all the time 24 /7.
I never understood this kind of line of thought. Because i think for most people the reason to play a game matters immensly. So i belive a lot of people if not even most are playing the game to play, aka. participate in gameplay related activieties. So whenever the game is designed in a way where u have to pause this gameplay experience which u enjoy so much to learn about lore then u end up with people who have no idea what anything in this universe of world of warcraft means and u could argue thats totally fine.
The problem we run into is whenever u argue that the lore is a fundamental element of the game. Because if that is how u look at it then its a game designers responsebility to provide that experience in a way which doesnt interfere with a persons gameplay and thats hard to do but there are games who do a great job with that. WoW is definitly not one of those games.
Also if u believe that the players experience gets highly improved by learning more about the world but the gamedesign of the game makes this knowledge entirely seperate and optional from the flow of gameplay then most people will typically not engage with that type of content. Indie games with huge amounts of side content proof that type of statistic.
@@lukestardoinstuff1237 The reason people playing blizzard games want to get to the end is because that is the only part of the game they design anything around.
It is no longer the journey, it is now just what can be done at end game.
If they wanted players to read the quest text, then they wouldn't put the "TLDR" summary of the quest at the bottom. Why would I read 4 paragraphs of text when all I need to know is "Kill 10 of X"?
You know... don't they do this to themselves a bit? You search for the blue blob on the map, you follow the cursor that tells you how many yards away the quest is... there are several things that are not even addons... they are in game... and you don't need to read a word... maybe if WOW made you do more than kill 80,000 of something, and you had to do some puzzle solving or did some actual role play of some sort... but the players today really just want to be mindless... except those who went into Classic, but now that's gone too... so... and now with dragon riding, you can get to those blue blobs so much faster... let's kill all immersion tactics, just drop in and kill whatever and sail out before anything respawns and before another player shows up to steal your kills... oh wait, that's not a thing either any more... we can all kill the same target now... lovely.
For me, I rush through on my main character. When I level my alt, I'll read the quests.
I read quest text up until Shadowlands. That expansion (ironically) killed WoW's lore for me and made me not give a shit about any story they were trying to tell. Unfortunately, Dragonflight didn't really help cause it was a "never meet your heroes" scenario. I had a rose tinted glasses view of dragons being bad ass protectors of the planet with metal music and fire. But then I had to help Alexstrasza negotiate with a union of draconids by telling her she needs to give them more vacation days. It's not necessarily a bad story to tell, it just ruined the immersion for me. The whole expansion I was more inclined to root for the elemental protodragons faction cause they were at least living up to the dragon mythos. I really hope they're able to recapture the WARCRAFT feeling again in the War Within.
This is the most nerd debate in the history of nerdism. Note that I am saying NERD not a GEEK because I consider word GEEK to label something actually inteligent.
Do you read all the lore text when you play Valorant or Counter Strike? Just because it's a different style of game does not really matter at all considering an entire gameplay loop exists to keep you engaged in the same way with M+ and PvP
I'd be more inclined to read WoW quest text if the characters did individual emotes for very specific lines of dialogue. And if there were cinematic camera angles.
Oh wait, I'm describing FFXIV.
I always read quest text the first time around. I understand why people don't - the game has conditioned players for nearly it's whole existance that the story doesn't matter (because it's either inconsequential, garbage, or both) and the only thing that does matter is end game go go go. So of course that type of player will be the majority.
I'm kind of the opposite: I'll read quest text but would prefer if I could skip the "game play" part of the quest. Okay, I need to go gather 15 bear spleens to feed the starving wolvar pups, can I just get a "skip gathering" button and go right to the end quest text?
Pickled gummy bears! Jasus, hearing that just gave me heartburn.
maybe Blizz should catch up with other MMO games a voice act every quest giver(ESO has hooked me into it by voice acting EVERY NPC!!)
I play FFXIV, have read all the quest text, love the story, super engaged. I play WoW, I don't read anything and probably never will because I don't particularly care about the story and don't think I ever will. I play WoW to play with my friends at end game, the game doesn't even want me to actually experience the story. The first character I leveled in this game was in BfA and I wanted to do it by questing, I got something like 10 levels in every expansion before it told me to move onto the next one. To understand the story I had to go to youtube and look up lore videos. The first expansion I played at launch was Shadowlands, and that story was butt cheeks imo. I think WoW is a fun game, but I don't like the story and think that me engaging with the story lowers my enjoyment of the game. To use your analogy of only eating the part of the meal that you enjoy, I am asking the burger chef to leave off the pickles because I won't be able to enjoy the cheese burger if they are on it. I read FFXIV quests because the game wants me to experience its story and understand, I skip WoW quests because it doesn't care if I understand and wants me to be at end game grinding item level.
I almost never did before, but they have gotten a bit better, so I read them sometimes, or at least speed read them. Only if they're from main campaign or the quest/s are funny.
I read the quest text the first time I do it but on other characters it depends on if I want too again.
i guess im playing the game wrong too then, i dont read any quest texts or watch cinematics in game. But i will listen to someone like nobble explaining the lore. since i dont quest unless nessecary, i would miss a lot anyways. and i enjoy connecting the things ive notices in game later.
Matt's take is so based. I CANNOT understand why you would play any game and not read the story
i feel like most people just want to get to end game as soon as possible, so reading quest text would take up a lot more time
Never read them. Yet read all the text in Ffxiv. Its formatting.
They design it to grab and go. Ff designs it to experience. Both have drawbacks, and I’m sure plenty of people don’t read all ff stuff. it’s about design and preference.
Theres Quest Text? ive always had Auto Quest Complete and Accept.
I use immersion blanket zza d have put some of the craziest funniest kooky scripts I have ever read..immersion adds the extra dialogue and makes the quest and the world more alive with full voice activated
I treat Quest Text like the beach episode in Anime.
People don’t read quest text because it’s a terrible way to tell a story or give information to the player. I should be told it in a natural quick to understand way that gets to the point. Even the most of the time it’s unnecessary because the NPC just gave us some dialogue explaining it previously.
FF14 didn't burn its entire story to the ground in one expansion. I used to always read all the quests until shadowlands told me not to bother.
And dragonflight confirmed that there's nothing interesting to bother with.
Only the OGs who played before quest helper still read quests. Personally, I still do on the first play through as I like the stories
this reminds me of when I tried to do wrath timewalking with a friend and he straight up left and went to do WoD because the quest helper didnt tell us EXACTLY where to go and you had to read the quests for context
@@Trippin34 that’s why I tell all my friends that try the game “reading the quest tells you what you need to do. Don’t rely on the marker it puts on your map”
So, I played wow for many years, but this was many years ago during the so called "classic" era, and in Burning Crusade, Wrath and Cata. At that time, I read EVERYTHING, because I loved the stories, it was a MAJOR part of my interest in the game, maybe my primary interest in the game. Cata kinda ended that... the writing just wasn't as good. I still read most of it but I was pretty disappointed, the storylines were not of the same quality. Then we got to MOP and wow... my interest just dropped off a cliff. The storylines in MOP just are Warcraft to me anymore. This is when I quit wow and I've never been back... I am someone who played WoW for the stories. I loved exploring outlands, following Rexar and learning the origins of the Maghar and the first Horde, exploring the Arrakoa and their history... So many good stories, then Cata and I was really into the Twilight hammer, finally we were going to see Medivh return to Warcraft... and Thrall is leaving the Horde... and Garrosh is becoming a Villain... and Tirion is just gone... WTF happened. The writing in Cata was dogshit, it's like everyone who had been writing for wow was just gone and the new cadre of writers was people who hated everything that had come before, and they just decided to burn it all to the ground... I found a good guild in Cata and became the MT I hadn't been since Kharazan way back when... and it was great, but the story just went to hell. When they announced Pandaland that was it for me, I never logged back in. I think a lot of the "Quest text?" has to do with the quality of the writing, or lack of same and not the deterioration of the player base in mindless morons with the attention span of a goldfish. What I am saying is people no longer read the quest text because the quest text is no longer worth reading, the quality of the writing in WoW went to hell in Cata and its never recovered.
classic has the voiceover addon which got crowdfunded. Blizzard could easily get all old content fully AI voiced
I don't play with game sound and I don't read quest text.
I don't read quest text and I completely agree with Matt! :D
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if a game has voice acting then I will assume anything not voice acted isn’t worth reading because the developers have deemed that it wasn’t worth having it voiced.
WoW players stopped reading quest text once Blizz stopped making them do so to complete the quest.
Self-solving quest creep over the years has rendered quest text pretty much irrelevant in modern WoW.
That said as someone who's been playing since Vanilla, I do still read the text. Though entirely out of that original reflex and because I speed read by natural reflex and typically have to force myself to slow down when reading for entertainment.