Although, we here in the EME writing room do love each other very much—and, more importantly, we love TERA. Very much. We collaborate almost daily and, together, we assemble the various bits that give a quest life. As the quest progresses, each of us makes sure it gets what it needs—be it correct item or NPC names, a proper racial voice, or simply a good edit. It takes a village to raise a quest, as it were.
Long before we begin the actual writing of a new quest, we first ask ourselves: what type of quest will it be—or, more specifically, what type of task will this particular leg of the quest be? What’s my goal as the writer? Do I want the player to walk away with a sense of what the refugees are going through? Then I might start the quest by having the player hunt critters for food, then gather plants for medicine, and finally visit the leader of the refugee camp to see if she has any other jobs. In this example, I’ve used three separate “task types”—hunt, gather, and visit—for the three separate legs of the quest. When we’re designing quests, we choose from a bank of potential task options according to what we think will best help us convey the part of the story we’re telling. A handful of our others include escort, protect, infiltrate, and item delivery. We have many options, and you can be sure that we’re incorporating as many different kinds as we can–for both your enjoyment and ours.
Once the specific plot for an area is approved, we divide up the quest batches among the writers and get into the specifics. Often, we’re rewriting a Korean translation, but in either case, we pull out the “main characters” of a zone and make them prominent, assigning them specific traits and features, and giving the player more of a focal point for the story we’re telling. Many quests and non-quest dialogs focus around these main characters, which helps the player to feel invested in the story and, by extension, the world.
“Emotional rewards through storytelling” is a phrase you’ll hear a lot in our office, and with good reason. We’re not out to provide a clever reason for you, the player, to go out and collect ten whatevers–our goal is to pull you into our world and make you feel what our characters feel. If certain sub-plots or story twists induce worry, fear, sympathy, or joy–or any number of other emotional responses–then we’ve done what we come in every morning aiming to do.
We each put our all into this project, with the goal of developing a rich world that our players can explore and engage in. The quests are a big part of that, and we’re proud to work on making them exciting for you.
Now, if only we could get them to go to bed on time.