More Proof that Leveling is Archaic
I invited four new people into Revelry and Honor this past week. All three seem very laid back, eager to be part of things, and fun to play with. Thanks to things like writs and heritage quests in EQ2, they can all contribute towards leveling the guild, which brings nice perks to all members. But they are level 32, 21,21, and 15, so it will likely be months before they are directly able to group with the bulk of the guild on a regular basis. Sure, there is mentoring in EQ2, and many members in our guild also love to play alts, but those things fall far short from making the linear, railroad track of a leveling system acceptable.
Above: Killing sarnaks in Chardok.
I’ve said before that I think Warhammer made some nice inroads to making grouping easier. Public quests removed many of the typical hurdles – group limits, people being on different quest steps, the need for a balanced group that revolved around the holy trinity, etc. But they still didn’t address the biggest one, which is levels.
So now that Warhammer has been out for a few weeks, we’re already starting to see threads from people complaining about the low level areas and scenarios being deserted. Warhammer Alliance, Ten Ton Hammer, Gamespot, and The Greenskin, to name just a few, all contained threads discussing the topic. The queue system just compounds the problem, because it will prevent new players from being evenly distributed across the servers. Slow levelers are already finding things a bit sparse. It seems that PvP servers are arguably worse when it comes to the level chasm, since high levels get turned into chickens when they enter lower level areas. So on the odd chance that a low level player actually crosses paths with a higher level, it’ll be no different than running through Farmer McFarmer’s Farm and scurrying through the NPC livestock. While that is an unbelieveable thrill for my 4 year old daughter, it’s not so much for the average gamer.
Above: No, I don’t look like a mushroom, why would you say that?
WoW and EQ2 both have repeatedly streamlined the leveling process, and the path from 1 to the level cap is now much faster than it used to be. EQ2 is about to speed things up even more with their next Game Update, and WoW created a leveling superhighway with their recent Recruit-A-Friend promotion. The message is that leveling isn’t a journey anymore, at least for these games. It’s a barrier that keeps new players and slow levelers from interacting with the bulk of the population. It’s a good move to speed things up, but ultimately it’s a band-aid solution for the real problem.
What strikes me is that tons of time and resources go into creating and polishing all this lower level content, and it’s pushing daisies after only a week or two. I mentioned this on a recent Shut Up We’re Talking, but if I logged into Age of Conan today, I’ve already missed the opportunity to see robust populations in the lower level areas. Apparently, the same is now true for Warhammer.
It’s not glitzy or flashy, but the most innovative game feature is the ability for people to play together and both make progress, regardless of how much ass-time they’ve clocked on the old exp meter. Please, Tunare, make it happen!
Posted by jayernh under Archive | Comments (9)
It seems to me that speeding up the leveling process is just as much as a band-aid to fix the problem as it is a contributer to the problem. One one hand you get people to the level cap faster, which gives them someone to play with. But on the other hand it just makes it even harder for people who were left behind to find a group. If there wasn’t a rush to the cap than it would mean that there would be more people at lower levels.
In my mind a better fix would be to slow down the leveling and give people a reason to do things at the lower levels. Remove the thinking that the “real” game starts at 70. Raids, events, dungeons all the things are things that are done at the high levels can all be done at the low end.
Comment by Gathilas — October 3, 2008 @ 4:24 pm
I so agree, lvling needs to go. Im playing war and because of some real life stuff I didnt get to play much since launch. Now a majority of my guild is too far a head of me and there is a group of our hard core players ahead of even them.
Not to mention the meaninglessness of every lvl till the last few. So what if I get great armor? its going to be worthless in 5 lvls. etc
Comment by lumio — October 3, 2008 @ 5:01 pm
How about a suggestion to go with your complaint? Personally I think the best a game has gotten to non-level based content is Star Wars Galaxies when it first came out. Then SOE made those retarded changes and screwed it all up. It was skills… not levels and anyone could group with anyone. No negatives. No penalties. I miss that system.
Comment by Mike — October 3, 2008 @ 5:47 pm
I’ve actually written about my issues with the leveling system a lot, and have suggested a few times that more MMOs adopt the City of Heroes sidekick system (mentor up).
I’d also like to see more in game tools to help guilds and networked groups of friends, one of which could be the ability to grant xp bonuses to select members based on guild level/status/guild exp.
The obvious counter to the level system is skill based, but I’m not necessarily a fan of that either.
My solutions still are largely band-aid though. There are plenty of brilliant developers who could probably envision something groundbreaking. I’m just a silly blogger.
Comment by jayernh — October 3, 2008 @ 7:27 pm
Another approach is what Guild Wars did – they have levels, but you reach that max level fairly early in your characters life and most of the content is at max level.
But levels in themselves are not a problem, it is what is associated with them. E.g. all sorts of attribute or power upgrades. It is the scaling of these upgrades and their significance in the reward system that causes the problems.
E.g. if gaining a level only meant that you got some extra cash and perhaps some faction/status gain for example; all powers/skills and attributes were the same. Then pretty much everyone would be able together regardless of level as long as there were no monetary and/or faction-based restrictions.
Comment by Sente — October 3, 2008 @ 8:02 pm
My opinion has always been that leveling isn’t necessarily the problem… it is the approach that many games take to leveling that has become the actual problem. The games present leveling as a grind so players view it as a grind. The companies spend all this time making interesting content for high levels to dangle a carrot and then deliver bland and uninspired content for the low levels.
Having come late to the EQ2 game, I can see that the original game attempted to present an entertaining leveling process. The developers included places like Stormhold and Third Gate… places that I personally see as very entertaining. They included raid mobs for various levels so that you could begin raiding at an early age.
Recently, however, they have reverse their position and given us things like Timorous Deep, Darklight Woods and Greater Faydark… zones where they make linear quest lines and you play a game of “connect the dots.” You might as well be leveling in a single-player game like Final Fantasy where you just have 1 story to tell and 1 path to follow.
I still believe that EQ had it right in the early days. There was no questing treadmill to blast through the levels as quickly as possible but they also included interesting and fun dungeons for every step of the way. Some of the best times I have had in MMO gaming have been the hours spent in Crushbone, Befallen, Unrest, Mistmoore and other places. For years, you could enter any of those zones and find literally hundreds of people because everyone enjoyed doing them and that enjoyment made leveling feel like an adventure and not some necessary evil.
The thinking today has shifted and the whole focus has turned to end game and raiding. Unless the population of developers shifts their thinking again and begins to evaluate the entire game as the journey and not just the end game, then I have to agree… leveling has out-lived its time.
Comment by rao — October 4, 2008 @ 12:18 am
I’d love to see a leveling-free MMORPG pop up among the new batch of games on the horizon. I’m not quite sure why so many major game developers are married to the leveling process, considering it’s rooted in a pen-and-paper system created over 30 years ago. For all the “polish” and innovations we’ve seen in graphics and game play in just one decade, you’d think someone would introduce a system that lends itself a little more to cooperative gameplay among players regardless of if you’re two weeks or two years into playing a game.
This said, I don’t hate leveling by any means, I’d just like to see developers begin to think outside the box again. Also, the leveling system feeds into that “I need to rush to max level” so I can actually DO stuff when there’s often plenty to do, just not many people to DO it with. Sure, there’s something gratifying about going back to a zone at level 40 and oneshot those trolls that were the bane of your existence at 10, a little more balance would certainly add to the “reality” of the game.
Comment by tenfoldhate — October 6, 2008 @ 10:04 am
I really think I must be the only person who dreads end game. Nothing kills my gaming enjoyment than to hit max level and just have the same zones to grind with nothing to look forward to except better gear? Trying to find 27 more people to go through a 4 hour zone? Unfortunately, I don’t get any enjoyment out of that and that’s when I move to the next game.
With the changes and ease of leveling MMO’s are becoming, I fore see myself just game hopping a lot more :-\
Comment by Crookshankz — October 8, 2008 @ 10:50 pm
Just wanted to say that at least on my server Volkmar I have no issues getting into groups or scenarios with my tier one alt in Warhammer. I guess I could see some servers having issues, but at least for me scenario’s pop pretty much as soon as I queue and I’ve had less issues with pq groups than my t3 main runs into.
I do agree however that leveling almost feels archaic, as much as I love Warhammer the only reason I’ve made it to 26 on my main is through RVR xp or PQ progress. After 3 years of WOW I am just sick of quests.
Comment by Mark — October 9, 2008 @ 12:16 pm