Game Design How To Do Profession Quests Correctly

This update, a very controversial feature was added. Profession quests. Quests that you have to grind professions to play. As you could expect, people aren't very happy about this change. This is for a number of reasons

• Some of the profession parts feel forced as they are just tacked on for the extra grind requirement
• It prevents good quest reworks from being enjoyed by casual players
• It messes up the quest book for non-proffers
• Lore has become hidden behind a large grind.

While the integration thusfar requires minimal grind, it sets a prerequisite for higher grinds for quests in the future and that's not good.

Wynn has done a terrible job so far at marketing professions, making them seem like they are a necessary feature to the gameplay. This only adds to that. I can't describe how many newbies I've seen grinding professions because they think it's something you HAVE to do. But let's not focus on that issue for now, maybe I'll cover that in another thread. Let's solve the issue of profession quests

I think, for one, that profession quests are actually a great idea in concept. However, their execution has not been great. I like to have my quest book completed at all times on my Mage class, and if brand new quests with professions were added that require say, level 80 fishing, were added, I could either spend days of my time grinding to do them or just give up. So that inspires one thing I want to have changed

1: Profession quests should have their OWN quest book section.
This prevents people from feeling forced to do these quests. A good change.

Meanwhile, quests like Rise of the Quartron with special lore about this world are locked behind profession walls. Sure, Order of the Grook tells of the properties of Quartz, but that's an optional segment of the quest. So..

2: All lore in profession quests should be limited to implications that are also shown in combat quests
That way, lore isn't being blocked off by professions.

A problem with Rise of the Quartron and Crop Failure is that their professions feel.. forced. Crop failure didn't need professions, because you could just have a level 1 peaceful mob that serves the same purpose. As for ROTQ, the profession part is needlessly tacked on to the end of the quest just so it opens a grind area. This didn't stop the old Worm Holes quest from opening a profession-based grind area though... This should change for sure. This is how:

3: Profession segments in these quests should frequently appear throughout the quest and not be one-timers for the profession requirement. Grind in these segments should be minimalized.
This, I feel, would be a good standard for profession quests to have.

Next, I want to cover travel routes. In the Dark Forest, there is a lumber yard that you cannot enter unless you do Shadow of the Beast. This prevents a slight shortcut through the forest and now you have to go around. Because of this, I think this standard should be put in place.

4: Profession quests should NOT be able to open up any fast travels or unlock any regions to the player
That way, you don't have to grind for a shortcut.

Another issue I have is that old quests are reworked into profession quests. The problem with this is that these old quests were designed around combat+ exploration and not professions. Plus, some of these quests present a little lore that could be intefered with by the profession integration. My standard here is:

5: All profession quests should be brand new content and not reworks of old quests
This would encourage original content from GMs and would stop combat quests that are important to progressing from being locked away.

And one final thing..

6: Profession quests should not give a large amount of combat XP because then some combat XP would be locked behind a grind wall. It should be about half as much as a combat quest
This means the player isn't encouraged to grind professions for a bit of extra combat XP

So that's everything I have to say. I feel that, with these changes, profession quests can be good.

 

I agree with everything you said.

Also it might be good to note that professions in quests like Aldorei's Secret Part I are good, because they do not force you to grind and actually help the immersion.

 

And to add to this, of course, I think that profession quests should give large profession related rewards. Gathering XP, gathering XP buff areas, high-tier materials and so on. It would make levelling professions far less tedious and much more varied through these quests.

 

I agree with most of this here

well... that 1 or 2 hours you're going to spend at most getting those prof lvls don't really look like a large grind to me,
I could even say that the combat lvl is the large grind to unlock lore of the two.

I don't really mind this happening but as it is now its not really implemented in a good way.