Side Quests

I was reading an article about Skyrim, a video game which allows the player to go anywhere they can reach in an open environment. The story of the game involves a main line of quests, where the player goes to different places and fetches items or kills bad guys. But along the way, you can talk to strangers, listen in on conversations, or just explore random caves or ruins and discover the journal of a long-dead explorer or bandit, any of which might start a quest aside from the main questline (a sidequest, if you will).

The article in full:
You know what I found odd while playing Skyrim? (Hold on) While playing, I would find myself starting a quest and ending with having more than what I began with. This excites me as I become more and more busy within the world of Tamirel. Now I thought to myself, "Heck, I have the main mission, brb peoplez," and went off to beat the game. Then I beat the game. Then I felt as if I did not feel like playing anymore. It's like the feeling of doing stuff before beating the game felt better than say...beating them after completing the main mission.


Nobody has that feeling too?


I've been thinking about this article the last several days, mostly because it's true. I am playing Skyrim and really do want to see the main story play through, but I keep putting it off, and I know that this is why. If I beat the main story, I am certain I'm going to end up being the big badass savior of the world for it. And once you reach that title, why am I going to go through the ranks of all the organizations, getting pushed around like some punk who doesn't know jack? Don't they know who I am?! (Of course not; they're just lines of computer code.)

But there's more to it, and I figured it out tonight. It goes along with what I said up above. And it actually comes down to storytelling. Games like this involve a certain amount of role-playing (hence being classified as an RPG, or role-playing game). You have to get into the story not just of the events around you, but of your character, too.

Prose stories involve sidequests of a sort. Something holds up the main characters from doing the main thing they have set out to do. But this is not done to be a waste of time or to fill blank pages. Side quests show the audience who these characters are. We learn what they might do and how they think. The characters themselves also grow by gaining experience and earning trust (or infamy) of the others.

I know that, when I am playing Skyrim, I will get around to saving he world after I have become the leader of all the groups, bought all the houses, helped all the citizens, and plundered all the gold and trinkets.

I will save the world when I care about the world. Or maybe, when I own a significant chunk of it. That's why we have side quests and not post quests.