Words Worth Knowing: Escort Mission
Words Worth Knowing was a vertical I wrote weekly explaining key pieces of gaming jargon to parents, guardians and teachers, as part of the larger overall GameHub outreach effort. The column ran for nearly two years and resulted in around 60 WWK articles. GameHubHQ.com closed in late 2017. This piece originally appeared on Dec 19, 2016.
What is an escort mission, what do you need to know and why do you need to care?
What It Is: Escort Mission = Despite its alarming name, an escort mission is simply the generic name for a quest, challenge or mission in which the player must escort a player from point A to point B on the game map. Despite being a standard of game design in many genres, escort missions are almost universally unpopular!
Why You Care: Escort missions are the bane of many players lives! The accompanying character is often defenceless or slow-moving, making them vulnerable to attacks. Some escort characters require the player's character to carry or support them, making the player themselves vulnerable to attack. Some escort characters are invulnerable, causing a huge headache for the player who suddenly has many assailants to fight without assistance. Escort characters may be programmed to be more aggressive, inquisitive, exploratory or timid than the player's own preferred play style, causing a conflict which can drive even the most even-tempered player to absolute distraction. Some escort missions require the player to stay hidden, yet the escorting character attracts attention at every turn, or require the two to stay within close proximity, which is challenging when the escorted party insists on forging ahead into dangerous territory. In some story-heavy games, escort missions are a slightly awkward way of shoe-horning exposition into the game, and players will become bored and irritable as they are forced to tail a chatty character around the game listening to them waffle on! Whatever kind of escort mission the resident gamer in your house is currently enduring, expect a great deal of bad language and controller throwing. Proffer biscuits and retreat to a safe distance.
