The Definition-Context-Purpose Paradigm and Other Insights from Industry Professionals about the Definition of a Quest

Abstract

Among academic communities there is no single agreed upon definition of a quest. The industry perspective on this topic is also largely unknown. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to gain an understanding of the definition of a quest from industry professionals to better inform the academic community. We interviewed fifteen game developers with experience designing or implementing quests or narratives, and process the interviews using thematic analysis to identify trends. We identified a variety of personal developer definitions. However, we also discovered several themes that may inform future academic work. We introduce the definition-context-purpose paradigm as a synthesis of these trends: elements of a quest, purpose of a quest, and context of a quest. Finally, we discuss the developer’s reaction to a recently proposed quest definition as part of a push towards a general quest definition.