I remember, quite fondly, the first time I ever encountered the idea of a public quest. I was playing the wonderful and long-forgotten Warhammer: Age of Reckoning. While questing in the starting area, I came upon some villagers who were under attack. When I got close enough, the game told me I had entered a public quest. And so I had. I’d encountered world events before, but this was a special kind of world event.
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Despite being a solo player, I was suddenly with a group of other players working toward a common goal. We didn’t really need to communicate or form a party. Instead, we tackled wave after wave of opponents until we faced a boss. The event was complete; it wasn’t perfect, and the division of loot wasn’t great, but the idea itself had so much potential. Fast-forward to March 2023, and it’s apparent thatDiablo 4is seeking to master that potential.
Diablo 4 had my attention from the moment I booted it up. I was taken in by the cutscenes andthe excellent character creation. I immediately wanted to explore the world of Sanctuary and see all that it had to offer. One of the first things that popped out for me on the map was a marker that looked like a large circle. I was excited by the idea thatsomethingwould be waiting for me in this circle. As I entered, the game told me I’d joined a quest. It showed me my objectives, and had a little timer in the corner. The main goal was simple: survive! The secondary goal demanded enemies be slain near blood siphons. Wave after wave of enemies sprinted toward my barbarian as each one of his fearsome hammer strikes claimed another life.
About halfway through the quest another player came charging into the fray. As this sorcerer slung spells that helped me accomplish my goals within the time limit, I wondered how their presence would impact my XP and loot. To the best of my knowledge, it didn’t! Loot and XP were fully instanced. My experience wasn’t hindered by the fact that I’d received a bit of help. From what I could tell, the other player received all of their rewards as well, and we even received an XP bonus for being near one another.
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That moment began my love affair with public quests in Diablo 4. I could no longer pass one up. Whether I was solo, with a friend, or joining randoms, Ineededto do every public quest I came across. I’m not going to tell you that I never came across the same quest twice, but I will say that I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of variety I saw. Some were as simple as surviving, while others demanded blood sacrifices, and one even had my barbarian protecting injured people trapped beneath wagons after their caravan had been attacked. When other players joined in, we would have a bit of fun after clearing the event. We would thank and cheer at one another with our emotes.
Diablo 4’s smartest move, however, was to create tiered rewards based on how fast you complete the quest, giving you incentive to play aggressively while allowing for some flexibility. When I was playing solo, I couldn’t always hit the timer limit, hard though I tried. It was a goal to chase, but missing the timer didn’t result in failure. In the early days of public quests in various MMOs, you oftenneededa group. But what if you’re on really late? Or you’re in a starting zone months after people have already reached the endgame? It often meant you could only look on at the content like a busted amusement park ride. Diablo 4 has completely solved that problem by being a kind of MMO/ARPG hybrid where teaming up with others is very much optional.
The more I play Diablo 4, the more I realize there’s some MMO magic in there. And why not, seeing as in World of Warcraft Blizzard has the most successful MMO in history in its resume? There’s no reason to leave the best ideas on the table when your company excels as bringing them to life.
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