I’m so glad I’m not using a questing addon in World of Warcraft: Forever

World of Warcraft: Forever‘s quests are kind of a pain in the ass—they are this way because of the archaic, pre-solved quest design of the early 2000s (which is still very much more convenient than the MMOs that came before it). But it’s also somewhat deliberate.

Back then, forcing you to run halfway across the map to talk to some dude halfway up a mountain (or in the example I’ll talk about later on, a fight pit on an island somewhere) was a way to get you out in the world, exploring it, originally unfolding new questing hubs or putting new flight routes and settlements in front of you.

Over time, that design fell by the wayside in favor of convenience. The prospect of having to go out of your way for something that wasn’t a strictly superior source of XP became a ‘waste of time’. And to some degree, I get it. If you’re worried about efficiency, having to jog for five minutes might feel like a chore.

Besides, WoW’s always been a game that people are rushing to solve, and I think that’s just grand—solving puzzles is fun. I am the kind of person to cheer on speedrunners, to be fascinated by optimisation. People are clever and determined and they will find unique and novel ways to push the envelope.

But boy, am I glad I’m not listening to them.

Quest helping addons have been a point of contention since Forever’s launch—partially because some of them are paid services—and while I’m not going to comment on the meta-drama, I will say that, from an experiential point of view, avoiding them was the right choice for me.

That’s not to say I’ve simply been bumbling about. I’ve been looking at the quests that land in my log and trying to figure out the most efficient way to get through them; and I’m at what I think is a respectable level 32 after around 52 hours /played (a number I’ve only hit because I am playing this game as part of my job).

I’m also not a complete vegan. I’m using the modernised in-game quest map marker, like some kind of oldschool pescatarian—though I will say that we did have these back in vanilla. They’re just part of the UI, now.

But I’ve also not been sweating the small stuff. Did I do a quest chain in an order that means I’ve gotta hoof it back across Darkshire? Sure. Did I miss a dungeon quest? Cool, whatever. I’ll either come back to it later or just not do the quest. I have free will and an “abandon quest” button.

And, more to the point, I’ve occasionally been taking holidays from that efficiency to go and do stuff that’s way out there. For instance, the “Fire Hardened Mail” warrior questline, which sent my alliance character all the way to goddamn Razorfen Kraul in the Southern Barrens.

While there, I met an incredibly chill group of fellow allies who informed me there was a quest a little ways into Thousand Needles and, together, we hopped down the lift, grabbed a book, nattered a touch, ran away from centaurs, and then—like, 40 minutes later—finally got into the dungeon, where I tanked the whole thing as Fury because pickings were slim and nobody in their right mind would’ve made this trek.

Another warrior questline—this one mandatory—asks you to take the hike from Theramore all the way up to an island off the coast of Ratchet. And it’s here that the Forever of it all kicked in, and those hand-crafted, zone-specific weather effects and lighting tricks instilled such a deep feeling of zen in me.

It was pouring it down with rain as I jogged up the beach from Theramore. I had to dodge a bunch of murlocs on their islands, snagged a few ore deposits on the way, and swam through stormy, turbulent seas to the Barrens’ coastline. When I got there, it was sunset and considerably less rainy, so I jogged through the shallow waters to Fray Island just as the sun kissed the ocean.

And hey, it turns out that this time, I did actually more-or-less take the most efficient route—but this questline, a mandatory class quest to get all your stances, has a lot of experiences like it mirrored in other quests that are actually off the beaten path.

The actual Fray questline isn’t anything special. On paper, it’s just a “stand in a spot and beat a few mooks to get your stance”. But the fact I had to do all of that nonsense made it memorable. Similarly, while my Fire Hardened Hauberk is a pretty nice blue, it was objectively not worth my time to do the long, arduous quest to get it. And yet, I had a great adventure anyway.

And it got me thinking: When was the last time I had an adventure in WoW? Not a quest, not a delve, not a seasonal track, but an actual honest-to-god adventure? One I chose to engage with, one that required me to think about how best to get to some far-flung place, one that required me to talk with other players (the horror), and one that—more importantly—took a lot of time I could’ve used elsewhere?

For some players, that whole journey is replaced with an arrow, or a ‘do this next’ prompt. And I’m not saying you can’t enjoy the game in that way. For some, efficiency is a sport, and they should get to play ball. But boy did I make the right move for my own personal enjoyment, and I’d recommend that if you’re feeling a little pale around the gills about questing to unplug and do the same.