The Witcher trilogy experience

[CriticalGaming]

Quest design is incredibly copy paste, the entire monster hunt side activity is 90% the exact same quest (check board, talk to NPC, go to area 1, active red vision trail, follow trail, loot quest item, go back to NPC, go to area 2, fight generic monster) and most other side quest are also very repetitive.

This statement is a little confusing to me. Because not every quest is given like this. Not only that but you can skip steps in the quest process if you happen to stumble across the monster or a future part of the object while other exploring.

Furthermore most games only have one or two ways of giving the player quests. Much less having only a small number of quest types within the game. Usually because that's just how that given game is designed.

You mention WoW, but all of wow's quests are given 1 of 2 ways. Either you talk to an NPC, or a monster drops an item that starts a quest. Then every quest falls into three types, go kill stuff, go gather stuff, go escort some asshole while he gathers stuff and you kill stuff. The reason for this is so that every quest feeds into the gameplay loop.

The Witcher is the same thing. Geralt is a Witcher so most quests are going to be Witchery things. Investigate a monster attack, hunt the monster, kill the monster, repeat.

 

[meiam]

This statement is a little confusing to me. Because not every quest is given like this. Not only that but you can skip steps in the quest process if you happen to stumble across the monster or a future part of the object while other exploring.

Furthermore most games only have one or two ways of giving the player quests. Much less having only a small number of quest types within the game. Usually because that's just how that given game is designed.

You mention WoW, but all of wow's quests are given 1 of 2 ways. Either you talk to an NPC, or a monster drops an item that starts a quest. Then every quest falls into three types, go kill stuff, go gather stuff, go escort some asshole while he gathers stuff and you kill stuff. The reason for this is so that every quest feeds into the gameplay loop.

The Witcher is the same thing. Geralt is a Witcher so most quests are going to be Witchery things. Investigate a monster attack, hunt the monster, kill the monster, repeat.

That's pretty much my point. If you play TW3 for 100 hours, 90 of those will be spent doing what you'd do in any other game except with a below average combat system and a pretty but repetitive world. Yet its a 10/10 game because the other 10 hours have good writing. Its just weird, I've never seen a game that was almost entirely made up of below average content yet was considered a masterpiece.

 

[FakeSympathy]

That's pretty much my point. If you play TW3 for 100 hours, 90 of those will be spent doing what you'd do in any other game except with a below average combat system and a pretty but repetitive world. Yet its a 10/10 game because the other 10 hours have good writing. Its just weird, I've never seen a game that was almost entirely made up of below average content yet was considered a masterpiece.

I sort of have to agree. But I also believe it's about how many of those repetitive things are there to do relevant to the map size. Take AC Odyssey for example; The game is HUGE, and it can be argued that the game does an excellent job to capture what Greece was like back then. But it's filled with the same repetitive content all over each zone.

BOTW also features a huge map size, and definitely its share of repetitive side activities and collectibles. But IMO what it does differently is that the game has them spread them apart around the map, far enough to make the player feel they're not doing the same thing over and over again in a short interval. There are other stuff to do between the map points.

I think TW3 falls in the second category here. In my playthrough, if the game simply had me do one contract quest after another, I would've stopped doing them. But as I traveled to the marker on the map, I naturally passed many undiscovered locations, making me stop and investigate. Granted, some of them were ignorable like spoils of war and hidden treasures, but other times there were stuff like monster nest, mini dungeon entrances, and places of power that made it worth the extra time spent.

If I'm being real, I think no open-world game can ever survive the repetitive nature. I don't think no game can. But it's about why you are doing them, and the context behind these quests. Rewards and incentives are nice, but they are also basic. I personally do them because there's always an interesting story or context behind them. As simple as TW3 contract quests are, there's always reason why people want these monsters gone. And there are times when I chose to spare the monsters because clearly humans did something to provoke them.

 

[Dalisclock]

If I'm being real, I think no open-world game can ever survive the repetitive nature. I don't think no game can. But it's about why you are doing them, and the context behind these quests. Rewards and incentives are nice, but they are also basic. I personally do them because there's always an interesting story or context behind them. As simple as TW3 contract quests are, there's always reason why people want these monsters gone. And there are times when I chose to spare the monsters because clearly humans did something to provoke them.

Really, to be fair, Dealing with Monsters IS Geralts actual job here. Yes, there's a long and rather invovled main quest and a lot of side quests but his day job is killing or otherwise dealing with monsters for coin.

Because otherwise who would toss a coin to their witcher? I'm not sorry, BtW.

 

[Gordon_4]

Really, to be fair, Dealing with Monsters IS Geralts actual job here. Yes, there's a long and rather invovled main quest and a lot of side quests but his day job is killing or otherwise dealing with monsters for coin.

Because otherwise who would toss a coin to their witcher? I'm not sorry, BtW.

Should have used the metal version

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

If I'm being real, I think no open-world game can ever survive the repetitive nature. I don't think no game can. But it's about why you are doing them, and the context behind these quests. Rewards and incentives are nice, but they are also basic. I personally do them because there's always an interesting story or context behind them

This, and also this is where I'm going to throw in the phrase "primary gameplay loop."

For me personally, the mechanical and experiential process of doing the questing in W3 (and, yes, Assassins Creed Odyssey) is fun. The reward for killing a monster is that I like to kill monsters. All this other stuff you guys are talking about is important but it's not as important as this.
That's why also for me BotW is so freaking boring- yeah, maybe the way the objectives are spread out or whatever is good but I don't find the process of finding or doing any of those objectives fun at all.

@meiam feels that W3 combat is below average and in that case, there's no quest structure or map layout that will make the game good because in all these games combat is still primary. One reason I never was a huge Skyrim fan is that combat to me is so weak.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

This, and also this is where I'm going to throw in the phrase "primary gameplay loop."

For me personally, the mechanical and experiential process of doing the questing in W3 (and, yes, Assassins Creed Odyssey) is fun. The reward for killing a monster is that I like to kill monsters. All this other stuff you guys are talking about is important but it's not as important as this.
That's why also for me BotW is so freaking boring- yeah, maybe the way the objectives are spread out or whatever is good but I don't find the process of finding or doing any of those objectives fun at all.

@meiam feels that W3 combat is below average and in that case, there's no quest structure or map layout that will make the game good because in all these games combat is still primary. One reason I never was a huge Skyrim fan is that combat to me is so weak.

Yup I do like me some of the majestic sounding tones and “Quest Completed!” stuff that happens in TW3. Kinda like what happens in Souls games after beating a boss, but ironically absent from actual quests. In fact the only marker there would be getting some loot afterwards.

Either way it goes to show what the primary draw is for each of these game types.