Well this has certainly been a headliner week. From gay planets to presidential violence studies, there’s been a lot of video games in the news the past few days. It’s rather depressing how sensationalized the media has become, that facts and information take a seat far, far behind glitz and outrage mongering. It’s weeks like this that make me even happier to be here at LoreHound, the LoreHound crew is just a fantastic bunch. I may not always agree with what everyone has to say, but the stuff everyone writes here is never uninteresting, never so blown up into such fanfare that the actual information is lost or distorted, there’s never any pressure to slant articles and opinions, and, well, I just can’t say enough how great everyone here is.

I started writing for Mike at MMOcrunch before it merged with LoreHound, and have always found him great to work with. iTKooPA’s enthusiasm and passion for gaming is particularly inspiring.  Thanks guys, for making this so fun! It’s a little late for New Year hopes, but I was too busy dealing with a move and being sick to celebrate the new year when it was actually here. So here’s to a great new year! May there be lots of fun and lots of gaming!

And now I’ll actually give the news. Click the little button below for this week’s happenings.

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When I started playing MMORPGs, there was no such thing as a daily quest, but as theme-park MMOs developed and became the standard, and leveling times shrunk, developers needed a way to keep players playing. So the Daily Quest was born.

Here we have a system that is so boring and monotonous, I find it hard to believe that it still even exists. Basically, developers decided to create a quest system where the player would farm for some sort of token to obtain the items or rewards they were seeking.

This system, of course, adds nothing to the game itself, and just creates an atmosphere where players are logging in and repeating the same content they did the day before, just for the sake of collecting points.

I can remember the first time I ran into a daily(repeatable) quest and I just stood there wondering, “WTF is the quest marker still up? I just finished it.” Being in that mindset, I have very rarely ever repeated a daily quest in any game because I quite franking don’t want to do the same thing I just did the day before. This sometimes becomes difficult as I don’t always remember if I’ve completed the quest before or not, so sometimes I’ll just skip repeatable quests even if I didn’t do them.

SWTOR was the only game where I actually did do dailies daily, but only the space missions, because they only lasted about 5 mins and gave out huge amounts of XP. I hated doing them, but the rewards were just too great not to.

Dailies are whats wrong with today’s MMORPGs; where instead of dynamic, engaging content, developers shovel out horrifically boring quests, and tell you to repeat them every day if you want to progress. Let me also make the counter-point as to what the difference between sandbox and theme-park games is in terms of repetitive content:

With theme-parks, the dailies don’t change. You already know exactly what you need to do, how long it will take, and what the results will be. There’s really no mystery, and all you need to do is go through the motions of actually doing it.

With a sandbox, it’s not always the same, even when it is. You can decide to claim the same tower every time you log in, but who’s defending won’t always be the same, or perhaps you’ll need to defend it. Sometimes you’ll succeed, other times you won’t. Even gathering resources is not always the same. Sure the actual gathering part is, but you never know who you’ll run into and if you’ll make it back with all your loot. There’s a sense of the unknown with sandbox MMOGs where even if you think you know what will happen, you can never be entirely sure it’ll play out that way.

The same is true for games like League of Legends and any online FPS like Call of Duty. Sure the maps are the same, but the events that take place never are. It’s that human element added to daily quests that theme-park MMOGs do not have, and what makes them a terrible gaming mechanic used too readily and openly as is.

What do you guys think? Do you enjoy dailies? And if so, for the love of god, why?

Over at Bio Break, Syp wrote today about how he’s never been a fan of end-game content, finding it repetitive and entirely different from the journey to the level-cap.  He goes on to say that after finally hitting the level-cap with his Agent in SWTOR, he’s ready to re-roll with a new character and start over, stating, “The alt itch is so strong that it’s almost irresistible, and I’m giddy at the prospect of trying a different class, storyline, and faction”

I, however, am the exact opposite; having never re-rolled an alt, and the very prospect of having to do so, sends shivers down my spine. To me, the end-game is the game. Although, I will admit that it is repetitive, and needs an update in the biggest way.

The way I look at it is everyone starts off as a child. As you level and grow-up, you learn new things, then one day you hit the level cap and are finally able to do everything you have itched to do such as: drive a car, vote, pay taxes, work, and buy a drink.

Think of games like League of Legends or Modern Warfare. They both have a leveling system and repetitive gameplay; but millions of people absolutely love it and play for years. So what’s the secret to their success? It’s the competitiveness of playing against other players. Today’s MMORPG, even on the PvP servers, are really co-op oriented games.  SWTOR just took this to the next level, and basically turned it into a single-player experience. You group with friends and fight NPCs all day. How fun would either MW or LoL possibly be, if you played against bots all day? Zero. Neither of those games would be around today if that was the case.

It’s the people who make games fun, and over the last decade MMORPGs have been slowly separating players from each other in-turn for more NPC interaction in the form of collecting points and badges through group quests, raids, and PvP zones.

I do agree with Syp on one point: that end-game content should’t be different from the content that comes before it. End-game content should be a continuation of the game where skill becomes the dominant means to victory.

iTZKooPA traversed what was likely the largest booth at PAX Prime 2011 to chat with Travis George about League of Legends‘ new game mode, Dominion. The Shelled One and the Lead Producer discuss character builds, professional gaming’s possible adaptation of the new mode, five capping and environmental effects.