Even when you read what the NPCs tell you, however, I'm often lead to ponder how the HELL the very first people to do certain missions/quests figured out what to do.
Take ZM3, for example. Where ... just WHERE ... did any NPC tell me to kill Tonberry Cutters until I get an uggalepih key, use the key to get into a room where I'll get a paintbrush, use the paintbrush in some obscure, drawn-out way to make it to another area ...
Oh yeah, kill various Tonberry mages until you get an unlit lantern ... take said unlit lantern to an area with 201 twists and turns (if you're the first doing the mission, you probably don't have a map). Trade the lantern to an obscure altar, run around a bit more, find some lamps outside of a door, yadda yadda yadda...
Nothing prepares you for that. It's look it up, or nothing. Did people just flail about randomly for a few months after Zilart came out, until someone hit the lottery with the right combination of random crap to do?
I can agree that far too many people are interested only in becoming flagged for this or that ... a new rank, item, or area. For me, I'm very much about wanting to know WHY my character is supposed to be doing something. The doing of it is not enough. I read every bit of storyline I can, and try to digest it. Sometimes, however, the obscurity about what you're supposed to do next is a bit obscene.
