World of Warcraft Questing Q&A
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Q: What role will quests play in revealing the story of the world?
A: Quests define the player experience on many levels. For instance, in Durotar, there is a quest called 'Vanquish the Betrayers',
which is directly tied into the over-arcing story of Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne and leads into World of Warcraft. At the end of The Frozen Throne, in the Orc RPG campaign, Admiral Proudmoore invades Durotar. There is, once again, conflict between the Orcs and Humans and the Humans don't come out on top. 'Vanquish the Betrayers' is a follow-up where wave two of the Human forces are advancing on Durotar. The ongoing story of Warcraft is subtly woven into the quest system, and over time will coalesce more and more into a pattern that can be seen.
Another interesting way we are bringing a personal experience to players in World of Warcraft is life quests. We have not started to implement these yet. We're going to completely fill the world with the standard quests we have planned first, and then we'll create the life quests. Each of these special missions tells the story of its respective race and what their purpose in the world is. We set a lot of this up in the smaller quests. The Undead, for instance, are trying to develop a new plague, an important effort for their ultimate survival. Lady Sylvanus is seeking the formula to create a different version of the horrible disease from Warcraft III to combat Arthas, as well as destroy the humans. On the other hand, players get a taste during the Orc life quest of the demonic influence from their past - and must combat it.
Sure, there are random quests designed to build character levels, like the Drunken Dwarf in the Hills of Westfall. But the majority of quests that we put in will support an over-arcing theme. In the Human Alliance, right away, when you start the game, you are needed to help defend Northshire and defend Elwyn Forest because the Human armies are away fighting on distant battlegrounds. We have set up that theme right away - the world is at war, you play a role in it, and here is what's going on.
