Really interesting idea, I like that a lot... Perhaps something like (very vague handwaving) cloth becomes Bind on Pickup, and only the NPC can turn those BoP items into the bolts of cloth tailors need; like you say, the NPC can then turn requests for bolts into quests. It's not so radically different from a "gatherer" character selling raw materials directly, or via the auction house, to a "crafter" character, but (to me at least) much more involving as part of the world, rather than almost being a meta-game.
 

The idea of player created quests is intriguing but fraught with what insurance companies call "moral hazard". If you allow players to reward each other with XP then it will be very hard to stop "I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine" collusion. I could see this leading to an ever increasing spiral of articifial restrictions as game developers try to stamp out every collusion scam that comes up.

The only long term solution I see is to make it a zero sum game. A player can only reward another player if they lose some thing of equal value themselves. Sadly this probably precludes the giving of XP as a player quest reward because few players would be prepared to hand over their own hard earned XP. That brings us to back to cash rewards. As you rightly point out the auction house is a mini-version of this already. This could be extended. For example there might be a notice board where players could pin up commissions. "I will pay 100G if you deliver unto me four gilded dragon tongues before tomorrow" sort of thing. Those offering a commission might set pre-requisites: "This commission may only be accepted by a group of at least 4 level 60 players". There would always have to be a time limit of course perhaps with some small penalty for taking a commission and not completing it within the time limit.

Ultimately I think it would be great to be able to sub contract out normal "in game" quests. This would add a whole new layer of richness to the game and allow people to play in very different ways. For example: A squishy merchant class might have no hope of defeating an Uber Dragon but he can hire four warriors to do it for him. The warriors get cash and the merchant gets the XP reward. You could imagine that a whole set of emergent behaviours might evolve: Mercenaries for hire, dungeon specialists, goods transporters and so on.

In order for this to work well some in game restrictions would need to be lifted. Bind on pickup restrictions might be abolished for example. I know that the BOP mechanism is used to prevent mudflation, to discourage farming and to preserve the value of hard to get items. Perhaps this could be achieved in other ways. The mudflation and value issues could be tackled by introducing mechanisms for extracting high end items from the game - perhaps through non-repairable degredation, perhaps through having to trade them in for higher rewards.

Of the MMORPgs I have experienced Eve online comes close to the model described above but the hard-scifi setting and the general complexity of the game limits its appeal. One interesting mmorpg example of an "emergent" profession is the runner in Guild Wars. Guild wars players can fast travel to a location only after they have made the journey once on foot. some of the more important locations are difficult to get to and require long journeys through dangerous territories so a whole profession has grown up of "runners" who charge a fee to help players get to a new location for the first time. Running is an art form in itself with strategies and skills being tailored for the particular journey involved.
 

Shortly after I first started playing SWG, I joined a guild. I got in conversation with one of the long term members of that guild who was a well known and extremely proficient armour crafter on the server.

I ended up doing business with him because he needed resources and I offered to use my "building" lots to place harvesters for him. We agreed a rate and off I went, exploring planets for resources, setting up my harvesters and strip mining the whole damn lot. And that was my game for a couple of months.

In addition to that, I was also a dancer (one of the available professions for those who don't know SWG) and part of an entertainers guild. We regularly got hired to go and perform at RP events and get paid for it. Lots of fun and because you got XP by having people watch you dance, got both cash and XP for it.

A year later, the Devs introduced some player content tools in the form of some extras you could purchase and place - things like a crashed X-Wing or a shuttle, some NPCs (including one who could talk but that was removed because of abuse) and also chests to put things in, lottery droids to give out prizes and so on and so forth. They were quite effective for setting up treasure hunts and little player run quest scenarios although they were obviously limited in capability.

Of course, these were before the dark times - before the NGE...
 

Another thought is to use a "Quest builder" based on your example of getting tradeskill components from mobs. If you set up a bulletin board type system that allowed you to select what you want gathered (Runecloth, Heavy Leather, whatever) and it would automatically generate an XP value for the quest depending on a) the item - which is given an item level already and could be cross referenced with the loot tables and b) the number of items required (in multiples of 5 or 10) That way, XP determination (and possibly even cash reward although that reduces the appeal of the system) is taken out of the hands of the player but still available for player generated quests.
 

I think the Auction House is a very nice way to implement tons of playercreated quests. It's just a bit like Jeopardy: you have to guess the questobjectives and the amount of money awarded;)

On the other side it's a perfect way to gather questitems for a known expense (and a very little time investment).

I love the Auction House minigame, and it gives me the oppurtunity to raid 1 or 2 times a week, come fully prepared and buffed without having to grind and skip to much IRL.

<3 AH

Thorsten
 

Very clever idea. Very clever, Mr. Tobold. I especially like that you'd basically be using the already developed and smooth quest UI to create emergent gameplay that's immediately understandable to players.

As much as I like Blizzard's WoW UI, the genre has miles to go before we see a reasonably "universally understandable" UI that casual types can jump into without many problems.
 

Maybe you just need a whole new system for quests =)

http://hexedian.blogspot.com/2006/12/on-questing.html
 

Interesting idea, Tobold. If the process is transparent enough to be the virtually the same as buying and selling on the AH, I think you'd see more people using the quest creator. It would also be interesting to apply this idea to crafted items as well as looted items. Allowing people to gain XP via crafting (or just crafting xp) could even make crafting viable as a playstyle for those who choose to do that. I think it would also take some of the suck out of forced tradeskill interdependence.