Thought #1:

The other day I did a quest in Norsca that got me thinking.  It wasn't anything epic -- just a quest to go find a chest, at which point I was told to find another, and then the final one, and then return home.  What was interesting was that by having constant quest updates as I went along, I actually was cognizant of the quest's story and kind of dug it.

I think I might want to revise my original stance on quest givers -- perhaps the fault isn't in the quest text or how it's handed out, but how it progresses.  Just about every quest in WAR and other MMOs are bookended -- you get the quest text/lore/background at the beginning and end of the quest, but very rarely in the middle.  When I accept 10 quests at once, there's no way I can keep any of them straight in my head, story-wise -- so why don't developers do more updates (scripted events, NPCs talking to you or even just quest text boxes) as you go along.

For instance, you're assigned your standard "Kill 50 pigs" quest.  Yawn.  Okay, I go out and start slaughtering bacon, but after 15 kills I get a popup that says that the pigs are growing wary of me, and at that point I notice they either begin to charge me (increased aggro) or try to walk away when I approach.  After 40 kills I get another popup that informs me that the pigs, in their desperation to stop the apparent genocide of their species, have approached with a gift -- which I may take (and end the quest) or ignore (killing 10 more and turning the quest in elsewhere).  I'm not talking elaborate popups or scripting here -- but I'd promise you that that kill quest would stick in your mind as an actual story.

Thought #2:

I really love the Engineer's defensive capabilities.  I'm starting to "get" it -- we're not fully defensive when exposed on the open battlefield, but when I'm called to defend a keep, it's my time to shine.  I *love* keep defense, because unlike melee classes, I have tons to do from up on high: toss down napalm onto the ram, drop a turret near the attackers, spam AoE grenades like crazy.  I'll never get bored of seeing a Destruction guy go "oh crap!" when he realizes I've targeted him for death from above and try to run away.  Yes, yes, run toward your friends and carry with you that sticky bomb I planted... heh heh...