Why are we all doing the same things?

Thus far we have been testing game systems; providing feedback on gameplay mechanics and balance. In the future one would hope that a more interactive and dynamic world comes into play. I'm surprised they haven't introduced or tested game events, like the undead marching on a town, with a call to arms to defend... Perhaps some method of spawning mobs based on the collective presence and power level of outlanders. We have a sort of place holder with solace bridge showing the aftermath of such an event. I would imaging events like that being temporary... where the refugees in soltown would disappear, and the garrison at solace bridge is replaced and repaired. Perhaps for that event to happen to another town.

I want to see a town or towns hit by a shard fall. To temporarily have no trainer for some advanced skill... with items littering the ground near where the bank used to be, and have NPC soldiers guard against looting. To see vendors collecting wood and stone for rebuilding, where structures are only replaced when players sell them enough mats, and buildings become inhabitable by NPCs as vendors outside the structures have requests filled for tables, chairs, cabinets etc. Perhaps some towns recover better than ever and actually grow, and some where players neglect the rebuilding become small hamlets or villages instead.

I want to see a dragon attack a town. See it progress toward the center of town slowly destroying buildings and killing NPCs. If outlanders don't stop it across any instances, it moves to another town. Otherwise the story comes about that such and such a group defeated it. They might even get a special title, or other recognition.

The power is there to create a truly dynamic world. I hope they use it!

 

Well, ultimately quests can only grant you experience but you still need to use the individual skills a lot to advance them. So unless the quests were like "kill 1,000" obsidian wolves it wouldn't help you advance your skills Anway.

 

It's not that each player would be doing a unique quest (a very unreasonable expectation), it's that each quest would offer multiple outcomes based on the player's actions... instead of merely relying on combat to either succeed or fail a quest. And like @Dirk Hammerstrike mentions, stuff that affect the world for everyone which could then enable quests to take over portion of the world that got conquered.

They've done something similar to this in Tabula Rasa.

Think about Oblivion's "http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:The_Killing_Field" quest for a second. Yes, it's a single-player game but we hardly ever get quests like this in online-environments. Heck, even in games like the Elder Scrolls series, this kind of quests are RARE. Normally, quests are just "do this" or "reload saved game" (because you died).
What's so special about this quest? Well for one, it's a side quest that allows for different outcomes and you get varying rewards based on those outcomes. On top of that, some of the characters involved may die.

Haven't seen anything like that in SotA just yet, but I remain hopeful.