m19: As a preface, I'd like to note that I myself am a Daggerfall fan (although not Morrowind).
That aside, I'm not sure what you look for in quests if the very act of getting them seems to bother you.
When you mention those other games, you're making an implicit comparison... and out of the games you mentioned, I've played all but one (Wizardy; Final Fantasy doesn't count because it really doesn't fall into the same category as games like Morrowind or NWN).
None of them are, in my estimation, comparable to NWN. In most cases, this isn't because I think they're inferior, but because of the different approach various games have. I can type my fingers off about how they're different, but I don't think all of you lovely people want to hear about that.
NWN's quests aren't any more generic than any other game's. If you substitute "your 705th Daedric Whatsit worth 23k gp and/or alchemical ingredients" for "3gp," then you have a fair description of Morrowind's quests too, only minus the possibility of ever dying because it's so freaking easy. Quests based on hostile NPCs are an amusement; what NPC can remain hostile after being inundated with 5000 or so gold? Despite this glaring flaw, a number of quests are built around the idea of trying to win an NPC over.
Oversimplification aside, NWN's quests come in a variety that you rarely see, though they are often not as open ended as I'd like. I believe that this was a design decision; NWN is a bit more combat oriented than previous iterations of the series as a matter of style, but they didn't neglect a healthy variety of quests.
The Charwood and Uthgardt trial are two quests that readily come to mind as being unique in terms of what they have you do, while reflecting the fundamental premise of the game: kicking substantial portions of ass, D&D 3rd style.
The quest wherein you must go into the basement of the tavern in the docks district is another that expemplifies a lot of what I'm talking about. You can bribe the guy guarding the door; you can snag a key off someone; or you can go upstairs to the dwarf in the sauna and chat him up to find out the password.
Another gem is the dungeon race. I don't know about you, I'm always amused when the Infinity series of RPGs addresses the ramifications of adventuring being a part of the culture in Forgotten Realms.
By comparison, Morrowind succeeded in providing open-ended gameplay, but the quests themselves were sadly lacking in that regard, requiring a great deal of effort in the form of imagination and walking around for an hour, if nothing else. It was often the case that you'd solve a quest before you even got it, and since you don't get XP in Morrowind, it's more than a little disappointing when it does occur.
Judging from the speculative nature of your judgement of multiplayer, I'd wager you didn't try it. I found NWN to be just this side of easy in a satisfying kind of way in SP. Multiplayer is much more challenging, as the difficulty scales to suit your party. When my friends and I played, we all tried to play it like SP... and died within the first five minutes! We were a bit humbled, needless to say, and proceeded a bit more carefully from there on out.
You also shouldn't neglect the lessons learned from MP shooters; any game can be made instantly more fun by playing with good friends. It also helps if they're within earshot.
Oh, and as a side note... Ordinarily, I'd think you were crazy for sniping Bioware for adding additional content for a game that already has incredible replay value. Then again, you don't like the game, so I suppose you have your reasons.
That aside, I'm excited. NWN has great replay value as it stands, and three expansions (Witchwork, XP2, and SoU) in the works is nothing but good news to me. I only wish more RPGs continued to receive so much official content.
(Aside: I may try Tribunal, primarily because it attempts to address some of the issues I had with Morrowind, although I'm not really interested, really. It makes me sad.)
This comment was edited on Nov 30, 15:34.