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Hah! You fell for the click-bait title! I actually really like this new Distraction and Diversion! And now that I said that, you are wondering "what the heck is wrong with this guy?", and hence are hooked on my article! Pro-writer moves! #NoBig.
OK. For real, though. New Distraction and Diversion. It gives you a ton of experience for a select few skills, and it rewards you with Effigies, which are basically overclocked urns. You start off by setting up the incubator, then you set yourself a 5-minute timer when you're ready, and then you run around the lab collecting materials as fast as possible, assembling the effigies, and dunking them into a large machine for a bit. This entire process nets you experience in either Smithing, Invention, Runecrafting, or Crafting; depending what you wanna go for, and you get experience in the thousands, so it's pretty darn big for higher levels.
... yeah, that's pretty much it. Had some hype up for a week there. So why do I like it?
Because it comes with a QUEST!
A miniquest, mind. You talk with Mordaut, then some guys, then you wander around, and then you meet our mystery figure who we actually never really interacted with before until now. "Familiar" is a fun word, if you've read the Runescape News. Spoiler alert; it's Kerapec's son, whom we've seen in Desperate Times as a memory. Nice to see he's alive and kicking; he seems like a cool guy and a dragonkin who doesn't want to immediately bite our heads off. And dude, he wants to actually help one of my favorite races in Runescape: the Ilujanka! Heck yes I'm in!
So what going to happen is that this minigame doesn't just get us effigies. The process of us getting the effigies will also get HIM an effigy and fill it with knowledge of Kerapec's experiments and secrets. Then he will use that to figure out Kerapec's findings on helping the Ilujanka and continue his project. Pretty sweet, huh?
However, it's not that easy. The machine can only do so much at once, and we have to wait a while for the next charge. But with each run, we end up getting a bit more, meaning that after several iterations, we will be able to progress towards our end goal. It's a miniquest that spans over time, updating with each iteration and calling forth players to follow along with it as it progresses.
And that's AWESOME!
Why's that awesome? Because it's a quest, and quests are great because it's a quest. Quests have story. Excitement. Sometimes even challenge. You don't just play Runescape to grind for absolutely no reason, you play it for the story too.
But why, you may ask, is this a good format of a quest? You can't even do the whole thing; you have to wait until the next part is ready!
Because it's a promise. On hearing the "check back every so often" part, we are given a promise that the quest will progress over time, and in a very predictable manner as well. There's no "it'll come later in the year"; you can actually set a calendar event for the next part and jump into it the moment it's released. Like the release date of a favorite video game, just that anticipation alone builds up valuable hype that makes the player get more and more excited for it. Think about it; remember one of your favorite games, and think about how excited you were to hear it coming out "next summer" compared to "August 17th". "Next summer" makes it feel so far away because of how vague it is, but "August 17" is a lot more tangible due to its relativity in the spectrum of time. Of course, many game companies can't immediately put out a release date due to so many unpredictable events in the creation of said game, so these static due dates are a real blessing the earlier they come out.
Now, the only downside to this particular quest is... and this really hurt me:
This is a monthly D&D.
In other words, to progress in the quest, we all have to wait for an entire MONTH.
... NOOOOOO!
JAGEX FOLKS, THIS SHOULD BE A WEEKLY THING! If we have to wait a month, we might end up forgetting stuff! Like the fact that the D&D even exists! I could miss vital progression and... horrors above, have the quest SPOILED! How can we possibly wait an entire MONTH to progress a quest line?
... unless... unless you guys are actually working on the next real quest, and you foresee it taking several months because of all the CRAZY AWESOMENESS that's being pooled into it, and this is meant to build monthly hype towards it...
OK! That's fine then! I can wait if that's the exact, perfectly guessed situation!
Until next time,
Cheers, cannoneers!
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