I’ve mentioned before how my first MMORPG was Final Fantasy XI, and that had some definite impacts on how I regarded the genre. It’d be easy to point to the ways that the game pioneered a story-heavy format but the fact is that during my first run of the game, there were a lot of later story beats that I didn’t get to see. And a lot of the early quests in the game are pretty rote or repeatable things you don’t really think about beyond turning in items en masse for reputation. What I do remember vividly, however, is the first time I did the fourth national mission that really took a look at the history of Vana’diel and what happened to the various beast tribes across the continent.

Of course, as MMORPGs have gotten more quest-focused, a lot of those quests are pretty disposable… but not all of them. There are some that manage to be sad, or poignant, or funny, or inspiring just the same. So today I want to ask what MMO quest you remember having an emotional reaction to. It doesn’t have to be the first one you remember, but just one that stuck out in your memory. (And preferably because of the text, not because you were very angry at spending seven hours looking for an NPC.)

Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!