Quest Design for Explorers and Socializers

The mindlessness of quests in many MMORPGs has become such a well-known problem that it has its own name: "kill ten rats." That suggests that gamers want something more. I suspect some do... but I'm also pretty sure that some don't.

Most quests are externals-focused Manipulator/Achiever quests because most people (and thus most gamers) are Manipulators and Achievers. (For more on this, please see my essays "Bartle's Player Types and Keirsey's Temperaments" and "Styles of Play -- The Full Chart".) They like their games, like their lives, to be about action and accumulation. So while these gamers may complain that "kill ten rats" is boring, they'd be even more upset if they logged into their favorite MMORPG and discovered those simple, action/accumulation-oriented quests had been replaced with puzzles to be solved or emotional relationships to be nurtured. For a lot of people, puzzle-solving and emotional expression are tedious at best and incredibly frustrating at worst... and those are not things you want people feeling when they're paying to be entertained.

So I believe the simple action/accumulation "kill ten rats" task that isn't connected to anything (like knowledge or relationships) has to stick around in MMORPGs. Too many people prefer that kind of content to eliminate it. The question is whether that kind of quest content is enough.

I don't believe it is. Certainly there are a lot of people who prefer Do and Have over Think and Feel -- but that still leaves a lot of gamers whose enjoyment comes from opportunities to express their Thinking and Feeling. Although not gaming (yet) in the same numbers as Manipulators and Achievers, I'm pretty sure (from looking at the general population) that the number of Explorers and Socializers who might be interested in playing online games is not negligible. So in addition to Doing/Having quests, I think MMORPGs would benefit from consciously offering quests that reward clever Thinking (e.g., puzzles) and connected Feeling (e.g., roleplaying).

The question is, how do you implement such quest content? What's the difference between a Having quest and a Feeling quest? Is it even possible to characterize quests as being primarily about Having or Thinking or Feeling?

Well, let's try it. Here's my shot at listing some of the most common quest types, and attempting to characterize each one.

Manipulator	Do	Kill	a mob (PC, NPC, creature)
Manipulator	Do	Destroy	an object (item or structure)
Manipulator	Do	Visit	a known location (as in a waypointed race)
Manipulator	Do	Escort	an NPC from one location to another
Manipulator	Do	Deliver	items to a specified player character or NPC
Manipulator	Do	Transport	items [or player characters] to a specified location
Achiever	Have	Obtain	a specified item
Achiever	Have	Exchange	items for items or items for money
Explorer	Think	Find	a mob, object or world feature whose location is unknown
Explorer	Think	Unlock	a sealed container
Socializer	Feel	Heal	an injured or sick character
Socializer	Feel	Buff	the stats or capabilities of a specified character

Bearing in mind that this is tentative, a 2-1 ratio in favor of Do/Have quests over Think/Feel content is pretty lopsided, doesn't it? And it's even worse if you think I'm being generous in suggesting that healing and buffing quests are primarily about Feeling, or that finding something is primarily a Thinking (puzzle) quest.

If these are the usual kinds of quests, and few of them satisfy Thinking and Feeling playstyles, then what would be other examples of Thinking and Feeling quests? Do Thinking quests just mean puzzles? If so, what kind of puzzles work best in a MMORPG? If not, then what other kinds of quests might a Thinker enjoy?

And what about Feeling quests? What kind of quests would be satisfying to those gamers who like MMORPGs for the emotional responses and personal relationships generated by game worlds? "They should tell a story" doesn't seem like a complete answer to me, since any of the quest types listed above could be used to help tell a story. Or are there other quest types I failed to list that are particularly effective at storytelling?