"Questing" vs "Grinding"

[Snowreap]

I'm sick of quests and even public quests are horribly static. Someone needs to make some more dynamic content.

Instead of some static mother fucker sitting there with a '!' how bout I see villagers running to me screaming and flapping their arms, with mobs running behind them. Theres the start of a real quest, and not this weak ass 'you must fulfill these conditions to complete quest' deal, I'm talkin roleplaying

I've seen a quest like this in Warhammer.

when you're leveling in Reikland, you might notice a bunch of brigands hiding behind a particular rock by the road. you might also notice a merchant travelling down that road. if you're paying enough attention to put two and two together, or if you're lucky enough to happen by the brigands just when the merchant is passing that big rock, and if you're inclined to stop what you're doing long enough to kill the brigands before they can kill the merchant, the merchant will reward you with a quest (you'll get nothing, of course, if the merchant dies).

but it's not much of a quest -- all you have to do is travel to her destination and meet her there to receive your reward. still, I got a kick out of it.

I kind of wonder if there are other similar quests in the game that I just never noticed.

which brings me to my point -- dynamic quests are great and all, but if your customers are too oblivious to recognize them, then you have effectively wasted your development resources adding easter eggs rather than real content.

-ken