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### Topic

#### Player-created quests

A friend of mine suggests an interesting idea: player-created quests. Players would specify the object of the quest: the object to be returned, for instance. ("Bring me the broomstick of the wicked witch.") And they specify the reward, whether it be money or objects. Players can sign up for the quest (or maybe they don't have to?). There could be an in-game escrow system in which the creator of the quest deposits the reward. A player would brings back the object of the quest and deposits it into the escrow system. The escrow system gives the object of the quest to the creator of the quest and gives the reward to the player would brought back the object. (Hence there could be no cheating.)
The originator of the quest could use the quest as a way of getting a rare or valuable object by paying for it instead of finding it himself.
The quest listings (and escrow system) would be analogous to the current auction system. They might even be extensions of it.
This might be expanded (later) to quests involving more than bringing back a specific object. A quest might, for instance, include a number of places to visit, skills to learn, or things to make.

Posted 24 months ago by Plurp | Permalink

### Replies

- +1
  I like the idea and would be interested in seeing where it could go.
  Posted 24 months ago by Shieldmaiden | Permalink
- i think "quests" might not be the best term because what you are suggesting isn't like regular quests.
  these are not global and only one player can accept a "user generated quest" at a time and it isn't related to teaching gameplay concepts. also not all dev generated quests are object collection related.
  "bounties" might be a more appropriate term. or "requests". quests vs. requests.
  i like the idea tho. a big problem with auctions right now is identifying demand, and i think bounties/requests solve that problem since they make demand and reward so explicit.
  people already ask the help channel if someone could auction them or make them specific items. this would make the process much more efficient for an activity that already goes on and there is a lot of demand for which chat is totally inadequate.
  +1000 since i think this could be REALLY popular given existing demand and because it could possibly spawn new modes of game play.
  Posted 24 months ago by striatic | Permalink
- These new quests (or whatever they are called) need not be limited to one player at a time trying to attain them. I could create a quest for gold bars, offering a pound of salt for each one, up to some limit, say 1000 gold bars. You could quest off for as many of those as you could handle. The first 1000 who bring their gold bars back get the reward. The laggards are out of luck.
  Posted 24 months ago by Plurp | Permalink
- I initially suggested that player-contributed quests be for in-game objects because I figured that was the easiest thing to do first. But it seems possible to me to have a quest language that describes objects, actions (sacrificing to a giant, petting 20 pigs, buying a transmogrifier), skills acquisition, going to particular locations and so on. The quest could even specify a particular order in which the tasks are to be done. A player is given credit for completing the quest either by doing all the specified tasks, or doing all the specified tasks and then returning to the quest escrow place.
  Quest rewards could be for stuff other than money as well, if the player creating the quest has the ability to give such stuff. (An object, a hug, a new skill, etc.)
  Something like that.
  Posted 24 months ago by Plurp | Permalink
- The quest originator could be viewed as a mentor (sort of) in that the quest, much like the you-just-learned-a-skill quests now, insists that the quester learn how to do new stuff. Since mentoring is beneficial in the game, perhaps quest originators could be rewarded each time a quest is completed by being given a number of XP (or some such) based on the difficulty/importance/whatever of each of the pieces of the quest. This would encourage the creation of quests that had a good balance between mentoring benefit and difficulty.
  Posted 24 months ago by Plurp | Permalink
- i think that's all too complicated compared to the original description of the idea.
  there aren't many players who are going to put up their own reward money for another player acquiring a certain skill. even if they did, it isn't very social or interactive to put a job up for everyone to do and then get nothing in return.
  players aren't devs, they just have don't the same resources or motivations.
  i could see it going beyond object trading .. like requesting that another play build a certain percentage of your house in return for money or donate to your favourite giant in return for a special item .. but i'm not sure the "play at dev" global quests for everyone forever aspect of this makes much sense.
  Posted 24 months ago by striatic | Permalink
- "but i'm not sure the play at dev global quests for everyone forever aspect of this makes much sense."
  Hmm. I must not be explaining my thoughts clearly, ad I didn't intend to suggest such things.
  Posted 24 months ago by Plurp | Permalink
- if the idea is purely to formalize mentor relationships .. problem is that if there is a quest that a player sets up to teach a player that quest should probably already exist straight from the rock. shouldn't rely on players for the very basic teaching that quests can provide.
  if there is an XP reward, the quest making players aren't going to create quests that effectively teach so much as clone whatever quest generates the most XP for them.
  tho i think we are really talking about the same thing except you think there should be a project like system for multiple contributors to the "quest" [which i think would be fine .. but is still radically different from the existing quest system] and i don't think the quests will have much mentorship or teaching value.
  Posted 24 months ago by striatic | Permalink
- What about players simply "hiring" other players to do jobs for them? Just have a big "help wanted" board and like you said, hire random dude to build 1/2 your house. So when you come up with a quest that requires a HUGE amount of resources or just want to create something for whatever purpose (donate to shrines, collect hundreds of parts (or rare parts) to build a very complex item, whatever). Like I think Plurp was getting at: "Need 1000 Gold bars. Paying Xcurrants/bar. Will buy in any quantity. Only need 1000." And then people looking for work just IM you and say "I'm over here and I got 375" or whatever right? And you do business..
  Posted 23 months ago by Cap'n Bob | Permalink
- "What about players simply "hiring" other players to do jobs for them?"
  that's exactly what we are talking about.
  "And then people looking for work just IM you and say "I'm over here and I got 375" or whatever right?"
  that's not ideal. for example if you're not online it doesn't work. IM isn't really sufficient. even Direct Messaging/e-mail isn't really sufficient because then the player needs to hang on to all the bars until you respond, log in and collect.
  Posted 23 months ago by striatic | Permalink
- There's also an issue of payment. I issue a request for 100 gold bars, promising to pay a bag of salt for each gold bar. You give me 100 gold bars. "Thanks," I say, and wander off.
  Hence the escrow system.
  Posted 23 months ago by Plurp | Permalink
- Plurp, that isn't really a problem. There's an in-game trading interface that executes simultaneous trades.
  Posted 23 months ago by striatic | Permalink
- Bob's got a good idea here: classified ads. The auction board is one class of this: "I have an object to sell and I will take bids." Another is "I have an object I want to buy and I will give you X currants." Another is "I have actions I want you to perform and I will reward you with currants /objects/etc."
  If the devs need help in developing the general language for the above, let me know. It's pretty easy.
  Posted 23 months ago by Plurp | Permalink
- It would be useful if you needed a bunch of beauracracy forms done. You just hire someone else to do it.
  Posted 23 months ago by Ani Laurel | Permalink
- The current game trading interface (the one that does simultaneous trades) might not be ideal for time-consuming quests. I post a quest, promising to pay you 1,000 for completing it. You decide to go questing. Days later, you have completed the quest but I no longer have 1,000 to give you. Sorry!
  (That could be OK. Hey - at least you had fun. But, if it's not OK, an escrow system addresses the issue. I suppose it could be an option.)
  Posted 23 months ago by Plurp | Permalink
- Glitch is currently missing a "want to buy" feature. If we had that, perhaps as an adjunct to the auction board, we might be able to finesse some of this.
  Posted 23 months ago by Eleanor Rigby | Permalink
- To get back to the original concept, you could have quests in the form of scavenger hunts. You say you will award a player quest award and 100 currants to the first person that provides -
  5 sheets of paper from Scribe's Weald
  10 eggs from Blue Mountain Bore
  3 (bags of) peat from Harbinger Heath
  etc
  The award is purchased by the sponsor before setting the task and would be a relatively low-value item.
  Players indicate that they want to attempt the quest and Glitch keeps track of where they collect their items. On presentation of the items to the sponsor, the award is granted and all participants are informed the quest is complete and who won.
  Posted 23 months ago by bluto | Permalink
- When saying the quest award is low-value, I mean the re-sell value. Any sponsored award should cost the sponsor currants in the region of the sum of the scavenger items requested.
  The transfer of goods would be an all or nothing affair. The items only transfer to the sponsor on successful completion of the quest.
  Posted 23 months ago by bluto | Permalink