The Glade 4.0

I'm always torn when it comes to side quests in RPGs. On the one hand, I'm a borderline OCD completionist for this sort of thing, so I feel a nagging sense of anxiety about having missed something if I don't do every dippy little side quest along the way during my first playthrough of a game. On the other hand, it does feel a little stupid and unrealistic that I'm putting my mission to save the world from imminent doom on hold in order to help a random innkeeper deal with a local gang of hooligans or to search for some widow's lost memento of her husband. Also, after spending hours...days...weeks on all that secondary stuff, I often find that I'm totally burned out on the game long before I get to the end of the main quest. At the moment, for example, I'm only about 40% of the way through Fallout 3's main quest, but I've already explored almost every map location, hit the level cap and done more than half of the side-quests (other than the DLC expansions), and the prospect of slogging through the rest of the game almost feels like a chore at this point.

Anyway, just curious how y'all tend to approach side quests - do you do most of them? on the first playthrough or on subsequent playthroughs? - and whether anyone else has the same completionist vs burn out issues I do.

Very rarely do I play through RPGs a second time so I try to get them all on one playthrough.

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They're a double-edged sword. If you include them in your game, then yes it can feel like your high-priority imminent-danger mission is less important and totally not as threatening as it should feel. But if you don't include them, then the game feels very much like it's on rails and that the world isn't as "alive" as it otherwise would be.

I prefer the non railroad-track feel, if I have to choose.

Typically, if the game is large enough and the character creation options are broad enough, then I am fine with not seeing all the content on one character. Because that will give me more enjoyment and surprises on subsequent playthroughs on different characters.

That, and games have gotten big enough and plentiful enough that my OCD isn't what it used to be and I am fine with leaving things forever in the ether if need be.

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

In a finite world like Final Fantasy, I complete all of the side quests and move on to the end of the game happily. They don't bother me because they usually have good rewards and I know there will be an end to them.

In an open world, like Fallout or ES, I start the side quests but quickly become bored by the lack of direction, never to finish the game at all.

It's a symptom of current trends in gaming.

Developers have been making games so **** long that I'll never play them a second time. As a result, I feel a near-OCD impetus to complete all the side quests and do all the things. This has unfortunate implications for much shorter games which I might conceivably play a second time. Many of those games are only so long because of all the side quests. Since those side quests make the game so long, I slap it into the "too goddamn long to replay" camp and make sure I complete all the side quests.

Another problem is that character advancement is always tied to the completion of side quests. If you want to play with the cool high-level abilities, you have to do enough side quests to get your characters advanced to the point where that stuff is unlocked. When I'm playing a game, I want to see all the stuff and play with all the toys. Unfortunately, most games are designed so that there is effectively an experience penalty for not doing all of the side quests, or not doing the side quests "correctly." (For example, in Mass Effect games, if you don't select the Paragon or Renegade options, you have actually done the quest "wrong" and you are penalized for it).

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

Depends on the game. In games with highly linear plots like Neverwinter Nights 2, I try to do most or all the first time, since replay value is limited. In games like Fallout 3 or its TES relatives it depends a lot on how I'm roleplaying my character. I tend to view the main plot in those games as important, but not urgent; i.e. the bad guys are occupied with all kinds of legwork putting their plot into motion, and so I have all kinds of time to catch up with it.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

I have that OCD need to complete them all. I feel like i've failed in some way if don't complete every quest.

As such, I've never even come close to finishing a game like Skyrim, because the side-quest content overwhelms me.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

I usually start out with serious completionist OCD..

But by the halfway point, I am usually cured and ready to get it over with (unless it's a game I am really enjoying, which has been rare these days).

This.

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

Unfortunately I can never truly feel 'immersed' anymore in a modern open-world RPG like Skyrim or Fallout 3 because I'm immediately hit with the meta-gaming realization that it's perfectly okay to go do as many side quests as I wish since the "very pressing" save-the-world main quest doesn't have a time limit. Don't get me wrong, I usually abhor time limits in games but they are realistic, especially when the very premise of the main quest implies a time limit.

Also, as someone earlier stated, there are usually so many side quests in games like Skyrim that by the time I've completed most of them I'm burnt out on playing the game and don't care about completing the main quest. There's a very difficult balance to be struck between wanting to get the most enjoyment out of a game by completing every side quest, experiencing every little bit of the game (and of course you want to do the side quests before the main quest because if you complete the main quest first you won't really give a damn about going back to find some widow's lost doll), and just getting burnt out by doing so much that you don't even care anymore about saving the world because you've already logged 80 hours into the game.

EDIT:! wrong thread posts are for losers!

I am absolutely mystified as to how that relates at all to RPG side quests.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Wrong thread ftw

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lol /fail

Depends on the game. Dragon Age 1&2 I tried to do everything possible. Skyrim, once I finished the main quest, I felt...no need to continue.

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Raell Kromwell

I love side quests and tend to do as many as I can. Even though you aren't saving the world from impending doom in Fallout 3 or New Vegas, those games allow you to explore without feeling the need to push through the main story(well, at least not until the end of Fallout 3 when the Enclave takes over Project Purity, then you feel a bit rushed...but the beginning of "Find Dad" isn't really rushed as all because he could literally be anywhere so all of the exploring makes sense. Besides, you aren't in dire need to find him, so exploring and doing good deeds out in the wastes makes sense). Mass Effect 1 and 2 don't have this super pressing need to do the main quest RIGHT NOW, nor does 3 really, as you pretty much end up fighting the Reapers everywhere you go, even on the side quests so it all fits in.

Dragon Age: Origins, on the other hand...well, most of the side quests are in the areas you are in anyway and are on the way to the main quest objective. And Dragon Age 2 doesn't have the "World will end if you don't do this quest" thing going on and side quests really make sense to do(especially in the beginning) because it is basically "The random and awesome adventures of Hawke and friends!"

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Los Angeles Kings 2014 Stanley Cup Champions

"I love this **** team right here."
-Jonathan Quick

Also, in DA if you skip any of the side quest, you can miss out on companions.

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Raell Kromwell

Depends on the game. Too many games don't make it worth the effort of doing them. I start out doing a few, and depending on the rewards keep going.

Games like Skyrim I just enjoy so much that doing the side quests is more about exploring the world rather than the material reward at the end.

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The Dude abides.