Re: Quest Design
That doesn't bother me too much - I just make sure the quests aren't things you can walk through by mindlessly following a guide. Sure, players still give each other advice and suggestions, but that alone won't ensure success...they still have to think and pay attention.
The biggest issue I have with one-shot quests is that they only keep players entertained for a very short amount of time relative to the amount of effort required to create them. So you spend a few days designing a cool quest, then within an hour or two of releasing it the players have finished it and then they're bored again. Unless you've got a lot of staff (or the quests are player generated content) there's just no way you can produce the content fast enough to keep the players entertained.
I do have a number of one-shot quests, but generally I find my time is better spent working on things that provide long-term entertainment - repeatable activities, or tools for the players to create their own activities.
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