May
11

FreeRealms: Lazy Quest Design

15 Comments

I brought this up in the latest SUWT, and I think I need to put this down in a blog as well. JUst FYI….Tobold has also noticed this as well in FR. The quest design for the combat jobs is lazy…actually, for a “kids game” it’s extremely frustrating. I’ve mentioned this is a previous article, but let’s go over this again because it’s actually starting to really discourage me from playing the game. When you get to about level 3-ish in any (…and every..) combat job you are given a quest that says “Get to level 5″….at which point you are then given “contract” quests in which you can grind the next 2-3 levels. You are given the exact same kind of quest at about level 7 saying, “Get to level 10″ and then again you are directed to grind with more contract quests. Sure, you can also participate in the many dungeons that are scattered around the world in order to help level up your combat job…but..this is a “kids game”, is it not? I mean, shouldn’t there be some kind of direction? I’m looking at this from the point of view of a 10 year old…and if I was 10, I would not find the combat jobs fun right now. Right now, SOE has the player saying “where do I go now”…and in a kids game, that is never good.

Funny thing though, I can tell that more care and thought was put into the non-combat jobs. They seem to at least give you plenty to do and have none of that lazy “get to level X and call me in the morning” BS that I see in a combat role. This is probably why I have a level 13-14 miner and blacksmith and I am currently struggling to get any of my combat jobs that high.

Don’t take away the wrong message here….FR is a great game and I recommend giving it a try. For now though, I think that it is a shame that someone in the quest design team phoned in the combat quest line to the point of it being, I would say, completely unplayable. Yeah…I’ll be sticking with mining and blacksmithing for now until they finish the other jobs.

D out.

Posted in FreeRealms
15 Comments Posted by Darren

15 Responses to "FreeRealms: Lazy Quest Design"

  • syncaine says:
    May 11, 2009 at 8:14 am

    And the cracks start to show :checks watch: x months to go :)

    Being serious though, I commented on Tobold’s site before reading this, but it does strike me as odd that a game intended for kids would give regular MMO players (clearly not the target audience) so much trouble, either in difficulty or just plain grind. Easy to fix with a content patch of course (like LotRO did for its 35+ game), but not good that they launched with just a flaw, and one so early in the leveling curve.

  • Karthis says:
    May 11, 2009 at 9:18 am

    I find the combat game relatively boring in FR (but then I’m a WoW end game raider)….. I use it as a break from messing around with the other professions. I think I have level 4 Brawler as my highest combat job =P Tho I got there without running into a “get level 5″ quest….. so perhaps there are paths you can take to avoid that pitfall?

    Now, I did run into “get level 10″ quests for both my Chef and Miner jobs, which was a bit annoying but not game-breaking…… I just went to other quest hubs, found other chef/miner quests, and got by that hurdle.

  • Bhagpuss says:
    May 11, 2009 at 10:03 am

    Combat jobs, by definition, rely on fighting. Now, it’s a long time since I was a boy, but as I recall we never really needed much of a reason for a scrap. If the fighting is fun, then the levelling is incidental. You fight because fighting is a fun thing to do and, as a by-product, your level goes up.

    I know this kind of activity in MMOs has acquired the pejorative name of “grinding”, but really, if the game is designed with sufficient care the levelling part becomes invisible because the doing part is so absorbing.

    Combat in Free Realms isn’t a problem because of a lack of quests – it’s a problem because there’s so very little to it. Having more quests might push you up through levels faster, but it wouldn’t make the process much more amusing.

    I would mention, though, that the premium melee combat job of Warrior is an awful lot more fun than the free equivalent of Brawler, and the Warrior levels much faster, due to being able to beat much tougher opponents. I could do a 2-dot (suitable for level 5) dungeon, including boss, at level 1 as a Warrior using the basic starter gear, whereas I couldn’t finish an easy, level 1 dungeon, including boss, as a brawler before i made level 2.

  • Tipa says:
    May 11, 2009 at 10:19 am

    The entire map is covered with hundreds of combats. Settle in with a couple of the longer dungeons and leveling comes fast. Sometimes I come across dungeons and try it with a couple of different jobs. The goal of Free Realms is not leveling as fast as possible to make it to the end game, and it’s a commentary on the way the MMO genre has been simplified that pro gamers, given a quest that says, “now go out and have fun, come back in a few levels” are at a loss for what to do.

    And it’s not really all that slow. I leveled a new archer to 7 in a few hours without much trouble, using monster-dropped bows (with a smithed bow waiting for me at level 11). The medic is also a lot of fun and surprisingly robust solo or in a group.

  • Anjin says:
    May 11, 2009 at 6:14 pm

    Damnit, Tipa! You stole my comment! :(

    Anyway…. I have a level 11 Archer, level 7 Brawler, and 3 other combat jobs around level 3. I don’t need the main quest chains to level up because of all the other quest directing me to the dungeons. Or heck, just the fun on dungeoneering does if for me. I hope to see more bosses that reward positioning in fights (i.e. Don’t Stand In The Fire!) but I’ve had a lot of fun with the instances I’ve fought in so far. And I haven’t looked up one strategy online yet!

  • West Karana » Free Realms: First Impressions says:
    May 12, 2009 at 7:16 am

    [...] gamers have noted that the game doesn’t have a single path to max level through quests alone. While this differs from World of Warcraft (and Wizard 101, for that matter), I actually enjoy this [...]

  • Free Realms hurts my eyes | NecroRogIcon says:
    May 12, 2009 at 8:04 am

    [...] combat is, in a word, lame. I think most people are enamoured with the minigames, but combat as the base activity shouldn’t [...]

  • Jason says:
    May 12, 2009 at 8:23 am

    I haven’t run into one of these yet since I spend almost all my time in game trying to find my friends… What is the exact phrasing of the “Get level 10″ quests? Does it really say “Go get level 10!” or does it say “Come back to me when you reach level 10!” To me at least, there is a subtle yet important difference. One is tasking me to get level 10, the other is saying he won’t have any quests for me until I reach level 10.

  • Anjin says:
    May 12, 2009 at 12:32 pm

    Jason, the quests are literaly “Get to Level 10.” You get a quest that the goal is to reach a specific level, usually with some fluff text about not having anything new to teach until you’ve experience more of the world.

  • Lori says:
    May 22, 2009 at 11:53 am

    What I’d like to know, is how you got any NON-combat classes (other than a pet trainer, which easily levels to 20 in a day) above level 8?? I have a level 8 miner and I can’t get more than 8 POINTS doing ANYthing with that character. It’s ridiculously SLOW to level. I don’t really want to play match 3 games for 2 weeks straight 24/7 just to go up a level. Ridiculous.

    So far I have one of every class (I’m a member…ninjas are a BLAST) and the MINER is the most annoying one to me. I simply can’t find ANYTHING to level that stupid character more than 8 lousy points at a time, and it takes so LONG to finish a match 3 game and GET those 8 lousy points.

    Seriously. Any suggestions on actually being able to level my miner to catch up to my level 11 blacksmith????

  • donnie99 says:
    June 12, 2009 at 6:01 pm

    Just read that Free Realms just hit the 3 million registered player mark as of today! This is quite an awesome accomplishment since the game launched less that 7 weeks ago… Really glad it’s going so well! I’ve been having a blast fighting robogobblins, and the racing your friends online is sweet too. If you haven’t signed up for a free account, you totally should ;)
    http://www.freerealms.com

  • KAC says:
    July 12, 2009 at 9:52 am

    I do the contract once then just go to normal questing and get my fighting levels by doing the intown take back my stolen goods and other quests to the like as you also complete other quests. It takes away from repitition and their chances to get other neat dohickeis

  • Zephire12 says:
    July 23, 2009 at 3:57 pm

    ok, i know what you are going through, but COME ON! just get some patience, and fight about 10 dungeons, WHAT DO YA KNOW? you made about 5000 coins, and you are 5 levels higher than you needed! I have a level 17 ninja, and a level 15 brawler, in a few “arachnid layer” battles, and my chef and duelist lvls are maxed, i am not a member, so i dont have archer or those other levels, but once i get a lot more MAXED, ima get a membership.

    just do this, MAX out a lot of your levels, THEN get a membership, so you can AT LEAST get the entire game in you and THEN you are a member, if you get a member, and never lvl up the non-member levels, and you dont have enough money to pay it off, YOU WAISTED about 15 or 20 dollars getting your levels, then you are USED to the high level jobs, and you go and COMPLAIN about the game sucking (although i like freerealms) ALL cuz you did not level up the UNIMPORTANT jobs to start with, then when you go broke, you can at least PLAY THE OTHER jobs and still have fun doing it.

    GROW SOME PATIENCE, AND TIME. HAVE FUN DOING IT look for me, i am zephire12 i am ALWAYS on world 10

  • mike says:
    December 31, 2009 at 1:49 pm

    i agree im a lvl 12 ninja on FR and on a quest to get lvl 15 IT TaKES FOREVER!!! i like the game its nice to group with peeps and fight along side BUT! its also time consuming zephire12 is right you need patience and when you reach you “target level” relax at seaside ofor awhile theres always people to chat with and they mostly are nice

    look for me mike raindruid i hang in every world and jump to ones friends are on

  • Rafael Flameclaw says:
    January 5, 2010 at 7:30 pm

    the annoying thing is, right now, that i play FR a really long time ago and i remembered i started a ninja job about leve 16-17. so i found FR again, when on my char and it would NOT work. i deleted my char, made a new one, lvl 4 ninja and it says membership required to advance to lvl 5. WHAT THE HELL? am i going to do nothing until i be a member? this is stupid! and im stuck with the “get to lvl 5″ quest >.<

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