Quest-ion: what makes a (RuneScape) quest?

The very concept of a quest implies that embarking on one entails a great deal of difficulty, and the word itself conjures up images of everything from magic spells to slaying dragons.  Furthermore, quests lie safely in the realm of fantasy, enabling them to hold a prominent place in a fantasy game like RuneScape.  They also enjoy a tremendous degree of popularity among players-or at least that would be the conclusion from the expansion from the very short initial list of quests to the long list of quests one can easily see today.

However, the idea of quests is a bit tangent to reality, as is perhaps necessary.  Consider the slaying of the dragon Elvarg in the free-to-play quest with the highest requirements, including the completion of most previous quests to attain 30 quest points to start it.  Yet every player to do the quest accomplishes the same goal: to kill the same dragon.  No effort is made to camouflage or circumvent the problem of the seemingly immortal dragon that has been "killed" and its head severed by so many new players.  In general the same pattern holds true for seasonal events.

Could there be a quest which breaks this pattern?  It would be difficult, not only to involve so many players, but also trivialize the role of each player in the quest.  For example, players could be forced to team against a monster of a difficulty so hard that even all of world 1's players would be insufficient to topple it easily.  But even then, once the monster had been dispatched, one would return to square one-no new players could fight it without "reintroducing" it.  And so it seems that we are stuck with the idea of a repeatable monster for each player.

Another manifestation of the modified element of quests in RuneScape over the traditional definition of a quest is the lack of a real challenge.  Simply obtaining high enough skills almost assures success, and attempting a quest with low enough skills, genuinely for the first time, almost guarantees failure.  And furthermore, before one interjects about how there are elements that require finding an NPC in a certain location, or doing something in a certain way, consider the amount of literature under the heading of "Quest guides."

I myself, and many other players who will freely admit it, am guilty of using a guide instead of attempting to navigate Jagex's Quest Help system, or figure out a quest on my own.  And even though I did so completely under my own free will, I regret not enjoying quests for the true "questing" nature for which they were intended.  And due to the soup of guides available, many other players also choose to take that route, and surely many more will follow.

With the nature of quests as they are now, requiring high skills and seeming a tad unrealistic due to the repetitive nature for each individual player, now more than ever I wonder aloud: what makes a quest in RuneScape?  Due to both the demand and supply of guides, is it even possible to make a task that matches the true spirit of a quest?  In my opinion, the answer is in the affirmative, but does not require action from Jagex.  The true criterion for the definition of what qualifies as a quest is given by the judge: the player makes the quest.