Time as a Commodity
I’ve written before about how much I hate the system of leveling in MMOs. There are many barriers in these games that prevent people from getting together and having a meaningful, enjoyable gaming experience. Of them, the level ladder is probably the worst, because it requires many hours of lonely grinding. The older the game is, the longer you’ll have to play catch up, and the fewer people you will encounter along the way.
Leveling is tiring…
Any time someone new comes over to EQ2 and wants to join up with us in the guild, my first message is always something warm and welcoming. (No, really, it is!) But the second message is always a cautionary note letting them know that, while RnHrs love their twinklings, most of us are at the level cap, so the chances for grouping aren’t that great for a while. It was particularly awkward when I had to give that little speech to my friend Bearron, a 10 year MMO veteran, who played a terrific paladin in EQ, raided endgame, and is a true gamer. Actually, awkward wasn’t the right word – it was bizarre. I know he knows how to play an MMO, and I know he would need only about a day, maybe two, in order to understand the basics of his class and hold his own in a level-capped group or a guild raid. So why should he have to put in the grind time upfront, and largely alone, before being able to play with the rest of us? In the end, he left the game, and I know part of it was the frustration at having to climb hurdle after hurdle in order to catch up to us. I could rattle off at least a dozen others, all veteran gamers, all great people, who faded out because they had reached their limit with the level grind.
From a guild leader perspective, it’s frustrating. I want to fill out my roster, and I want to see members doing fun stuff together, and on any given night, there’s always a chunk of members who are left out. It’s like ground clutter on the radar – it bothers me to look at it, but there’s nothing I can do to remove it. To its credit, Everquest 2 actually does provide opportunities for high levels to group with lower levels through mentoring. But that still isn’t really enough, because the person mentoring isn’t getting a very meaningful experience, and the person being mentored ends up feeling like they’re being dragged around through the zone just like a mother pulling their kid through a crowded mall.
From a business perspective, the level grind makes no sense. Games lose subscriptions because the level system is so restricting. There are many who subscribe and leave in frustration. But how many more potential subscribers are there that end up avoiding a game completely because they don’t like playing catch up in empty zones?
And from a player perspective, it’s unfortunate to see communities become fractured because of level gaps. The best part of MMOs is the multiplayer experience, and it’s taken a back seat through the years. By next month, for example, Aion’s starter areas will be largely devoid of new players, and anyone starting off in the world will be faced with soloing in dead zones.
…and it leaves some funny after effects….
Bottom line, whether it’s leveling, skill ups, backflagging, or farming gear, it’s all based on time. If you start a game late, you better hope to have lots of it if you want to do things with your friends. Even if you all start the game at the same time, you better hope that you all have the same amount of time to play, or you’ll end up being spaced out like colors on a litmus strip. People actually are forced to not play the game so they don’t get too far ahead of their friends.
So, what if time became a tradeable commodity, or a banked commodity. What if players were able to choose whether they wanted to bank a level, or a skill up, or an AA, to be traded (or given) to someone later on? What if guilds could collectively bank them, so that a new member could jump into the fray and contribute without having to grind for months and play catch up? Maybe games that are long in the tooth, and have a steep level ladder, can offer levels/skills for a price, as an RMT? Some, like EQ2, already offer exp potions, so the idea isn’t that far fetched. Everquest 2 also has mentoring, which gives a little experience increase to the person being mentored, and originally took away from the experience of the person mentoring. Vanguard has a brotherhood system, that allows you to share experience with a network of friends, but that has to be set up in advance – you can’t retroactively pass along your experience to someone.
It’s a way to bring new players into the larger population sooner. It’s also another way for games to seize back some revenue from the 3rd party sites that offer the risky practice of powerleveling. It’s a shot in the arm to gaming economies, by opening up a completely new commodity for people to trade. And it’s a way of making games more inclusive as they age and as the level spread increases.
I know, I know. This is powerleveling! It’s taboo! Why should someone be able to skip over levels when the rest of us had to do it, uphill, backwards, in the snow.
Both ways.
But MMOs themselves already let newer players shortcut through chunks of experience, so it’s already in game, albeit in a more subtle form. It takes far less time to reach the level cap in, say WoW, than it did originally. Heck, if you really think about it, the main benefit of twinking low level players is to make the rat and snake slaughter go by much faster.
Furthermore, there already are in-game mechanics that allow one person to “share” their experience with someone else. Wow had it with the recruit a friend campaign. EQ2 has it with mentoring. Vanguard has the brotherhood. Giving players the power to bank, and trade, experience, really isn’t that much different. It’s like twinking, only with time instead of gear.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting this is an ideal game mechanic. But it’s a decent band-aid to fix a glaring problem with MMO gameplay right now. And it would save me the heartbreak of having to tell another new player that they’ll be too little to come play with us for quite some time.
Posted by jayernh under Uncategorized | Comments (7)
While once again we’re on opposite sides of the coin, I completely agree with you. The current options to allow friends to play together across level boundaries are inadequate. I’d like to point out that Guild Wars launched with the idea that you could start with a level capped character to participate in the endgame content. That was PvP in the case of Guild Wars, but the idea is applicable. Current MMOs are too tied to the fallback RPG mechanics to see your point. But if developers want their games to be all things to all people, they need to step up and embrace their group and guild players.
As long as there are still games for me to level up in, that is.
Comment by Anjin — September 24, 2009 @ 10:27 pm
This is one of the reasons that I’ve grown to really appreciate skill-based games. The leveling mechanic is clumsy and divisive.
I do have to say though: anyone who does a bit of research first can probably max out a WoW toon in a month or less. Blizzard has really made the leveling grind much less than it used to be. Perhaps EQ2 has to move in that direction?
Comment by Andrew — September 24, 2009 @ 10:42 pm
[...] Jaye from Journeys With is pushing back against the grind. Having to essentially solo for weeks or months upon joining an established game to catch up with max level guildmates has killed many friends’ interest in playing EQ2. With ten more levels coming in February, who could possibly be dedicated enough to go through 89 levels of mostly soloing? It’s an issue for any established game, and I wonder what SOE is planning to help new players bridge the largest level gap of any subscription game. I’m guessing nothing, because there’s one thing that SOE loves more than anything in all its games, and that’s the GRIND. It’s a holy mandate with them. [...]
Pingback by West Karana » Daily Blogroll 9/25 – Apocalypse edition — September 25, 2009 @ 8:09 am
[...] The journey is half the fun? Maybe? Well, in spite of my intentions, I didn’t get logged on last night. I had every intention of doing so and desperately wanted to, but it didn’t happen. I left work later than I had planned which threw my initial timing off. I ended up getting to the gym about 30 minutes later than I had planned and then ended up having a really good workout where I simply lost track of time. I didn’t get home until after 9 PM and I still hadn’t had anything to eat yet. I made a quick sandwich to get my stomach to quit gnawing on my spine and then went to bed. I am anxious to get online, but I was feeling overly anxious yesterday afternoon and made the mistake to visit the official forums to get my “fix.” I hate visiting the official forums for any game because they tend to be such a cesspool of whining. I am honestly always floored by the things people find to gripe about. I understand her point and where she is coming from, but I have always disagreed with my guild leader when it comes to her stance on the level grind in MMO’s. She can’t stand it and makes no bones about it. Me, I think it is an invaluable part of the MMO experience. Then again, I don’t look at it as a grind so much as a journey. I see the leveling process as the period of time where you learn the game, learn your class, and learn how to maximize your abilities. That isn’t her only gripe though. She hates the fact that a game that is a little bit older shows a fairly strong disadvantage to players new to the game. This I understand. I never played City of Heroes so if I am totally off base here, someone please correct me, but didn’t that game have a reverse mentoring system in place? If you wanted a lower level toon to group with higher level players, you could Sidekick them so that they could join the group? I don’t know why more games don’t do that. Have them start at level 1… not because I did and I think that everyone should have to do it too. I will always be a firm believer that leveling through the game is still the best way to learn your class. Did anyone ever group in EQ with someone who leveled a toon strictly via Monster Missions? I remember doing a 69.1 with a cleric who didn’t realize clerics were healing classes. Anyway, they have the leveling in front of them, but if a group or raid is forming, why not have a reverse mentor system where they can temporarily boost their level to whatever level is required? They get for the duration of the reverse mentor the equivalent spells and abilities but will take an exp penalty like higher level toons take when mentoring down. As for what they would do about armor, well, be creative. Anyone remember “pet kits” from EQ? Give one of the caster classes the ability to summon temporary armor kits for players that are level appropriate and have middle-of-the-road stats. They might not be able to tank a VP raid as a reverse-mentored guardian, but they could at least participate. Then, once the group/raid is over, they can return to their level and go back to questing or whatever they are doing to level up. There isn’t any perfect solution. For every Jaye out there who thinks the level grind is an archaic system that needs to go away, there is someone like me who still enjoys it and views it as a valuable part of the gaming process. Surely there must be some mechanic out there somewhere that could accommodate both schools of thought without isolating or eliminating one or the other. [...]
Pingback by The journey is half the fun? Maybe? « Gestalt Mind — September 25, 2009 @ 11:26 am
I am still surprised that many MMOs seem to prioritize that players should experience the content in the “proper order”, even if that causes problems from a social perspective.
In my mind encourage people to play with each other (not force) should be a top priority.
A few games do a fairly good job here though; Guild Wars has a short leveling experience – gettting to max level is pretty much just the newbie experience. It does not take many hours to get there. However there are some other restrictions in that you do not have fast travel to a location unless you have been there before.
Both City of Heroes/Villains and Champions Online have their excellent sidekick systems where the whole team can be level-adjusted to one of the players in the team. All will still get XP etc scaled for their real level.
Being a veteran in City of Heroes/Villains the type of issue you mention does not occur; only if people want to play in some areas which are gated have there been problems.
Comment by Sente — September 25, 2009 @ 12:08 pm
[...] Over at Journey’s with Jaye (its great to see you posting again, BTW), Jaye has yet again gotten on her soapbox about how the grind affects MMO games. She basically says that a constantly rising level cap in games only serves your shrinking end-game base, and creates a growing schism between the newcomer and the games veterans. I know I have played a fair amount of Everquest 2, raising a handful of characters up to around the level 35 mark before losing it. In Everquest 1, my highest level character in the original game ( up to Luclin) was only level 30ish as well. I tried to join the Nostalgia gulid folks for their tear through the games content, but I just couldn’t keep up and eventually my interest in soloing petered out. Once this happens, you start to play less and less and the chasm between you and your friends keeps on growing until you just give up. In FFXI I started with gusto at the launch, reaching level 15 within a few days. Then forced grouping happened, and being an adult with a full time job while going to school full time decimated my ability to advance. My brother and friends skyrocketed ahead and I never moved past my 30s. Same thing happened with Vanguard and the R&H guild. [...]
Pingback by Lost an eighth » Can RMT save the MMO market? — September 25, 2009 @ 1:16 pm
[...] But it was inspired by a few recent experiences. There seems to be a renewed hardcore/casual/who-gets-to-access-content discussion floating around on several blogs. With WoW’s Cataclysm expansion and its likely gear reset looming in the distance, the discussion inevitably turns toward progression and content gates (i.e. in WoW’s case, iLevel of gear at the level cap). [...]
Pingback by Blizzard announces WoW Premium « pΘtshΘt — December 2, 2009 @ 1:23 am