"After I killed the void monsters threatening mother and son, I ignored the woman and child I had just rescued (the boy was the original quest giver)--I abandoned them without a so much as "by your leave" and immediately ran into the smoking house--away from them--and started stealing stuff--went down a ladder and started stealing stuff--but when I came back up the ladder, mother and child were gone--they just vanished--and I got no XP for the quest! *BUG ALERT* This is a really, really bad *bug* and I don't feel like retracing my steps because I did not save the game before the fight--so I'm out of here! Call me in the year 2099 when Larian gets all the bugs fixed!"
In reality, there was no quest bug at all--except in the mind and Modus Operandi of that particular player.
Had he simply talked to mother and child after the fight to inquire as to their health, to see if there was a reward, or even just to talk to the child who gave the quest in the first place--he'd have been awarded his XP, known where mother and child were off to, and *then* he could have begun his next stage which apparently was to steal everything he could find in their home. He simply never completed the quest rationally or logically--so he got no XP. Just the same as with any other game quest that isn't completed. But he chalked it off to a *game bug*...! Too funny...;) All too familiar, sadly.
I don't want to get into any crazy discussion about things like this but I just wanted to point out how the above directions being given to the complaining player is pretty contradictory to the game's design.
"Had he done this, he would not have had such trouble" is a moot argument considering the game advertises itself as open and player choice driven. The game should've accounted for the player immediately getting into the house and stealing things and come back out. The game should've either forced the player into a conversation with the mother and/or child, or it should've simply updated the quest log with something like "the mother and child fled the scene and decided to go back to spot X".
The rationale or logic you speak of is really I think linearity which you expect the person to abide by so that the quest properly updates itself and gives him exp.
Ironically, such an expectation of the player in a game like Divinity: Original Sin 2 is really the one that's quite illogical and irrational.
