// PC GAMER — GAMING
I'm so glad I'm not using a questing addon in World of Warcraft: Forever
I can't remember the last time I just went on an adventure in an MMO.
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World of Warcraft: Forever's quests are kind of a pain in the ass—they are this way because of the archaic, pre-solved quest design of the early 2000s (which is still very much more convenient than the MMOs that came before it). But it's also somewhat deliberate.
Back then, forcing you to run halfway across the map to talk to some dude halfway up a mountain (or in the example I'll talk about later on, a fight pit on an island somewhere) was a way to get you out in the world, exploring it, originally unfolding new questing hubs or putting new flight routes and settlements in front of you.
Over time, that design fell by the wayside in favor of convenience. The prospect of having to go out of your way for something that wasn't a strictly superior source of XP became a 'waste of time'. And to some degree, I get it. If you're worried about efficiency, having to jog for five minutes might feel like a chore.
Besides, WoW's always been a game that people are rushing to solve, and I think that's just grand—solving puzzles is fun. I am the kind of person to cheer on speedrunners, to be fascinated by optimisation. People are clever and determined and they will find unique and novel ways to push the envelope.
Quest helping addons have been a point of contention since Forever's launch—partially because some of them are paid services—and while I'm not going to comment on the meta-drama, I will say that, from an experiential point of view, avoiding them was the right choice for me.
That's not to say I've simply been bumbling about. I've been looking at the quests that land in my log and trying to figure out the most efficient way to get through them; and I'm at what I think is a respectable level 32 after around 52 hours /played (a number I've only hit because I am playing this game as part of my job).
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I'm also not a complete vegan. I'm using the modernised in-game quest map marker, like some kind of oldschool pescatarian—though I will say that we did have these back in vanilla. They're just part of the UI, now.