The surprising ease with which we are persuaded to act as errand boys is somewhat worrying, and considering the amount of thought and effort that must go into designing a convincing game world, you'd think there might be more interesting things to do in that world than complete a series of slightly elaborate deliveries. Still, it's a mission-type that runs rampant through RPGs and adventure games, where as if to lengthen the time it takes to complete the game collecting various items and delivering others can make up an embarrassing amount of the campaign's length. Sure, if they're done well fetch quests can provide crucial exposition of either a character's or the plot's background. The issue is that as gameplay mechanics go, going from one place to another can only take so many forms before it becomes tedious and repetitive. The problem is truly exacerbated by repeat playthroughs, where the fetch quest is essentially stripped of any narrative gratification it might reward the player with, leaving gamers with a bland and ultimately pointless mission to complete. So while few might vehemently hate the fetch quest, it's still always met by a collective sigh by the rest of the community too.
