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Leveling: Chore or Fun
Consuetudo
Member UncommonPosts: 191
The vast majority of an MMORPG is contained in the experience of leveling. In the process of going from level one to max, you experience a huge amount of content, lots of which you probably never even see. If a game caps at level 60, and each zone occupies your time for 5 or 10 levels, then you're going to see a large amount of diverse content for a very long time. This to me is what defines a game.
The process of leveling is where all the fun is in a game done correctly. It is in leveling that we feel a part of a living virtual world, not in end game. End game always focuses itself on end game mechanics. It is always an afterthought.
If I feel that leveling is a chore, the game is a chore. It is one and the same.
The purpose of the next expansion is not to present you a challenge so that you can reach the next stage of endgame, but to present you with a continuation of the living virtual world you experienced while leveling previously.
In WoW I am now repeating the same content over and over again no matter how you look at it, for I am at endgame. If I rolled an alt, I would only experience the same content I leveled in before. I have spoiled it for myself.
Leveling is the superior MMO experience and it to me is what should be focused on beyond all else. My best memories come from leveling, by worst memories come from end game.
The process of leveling is where all the fun is in a game done correctly. It is in leveling that we feel a part of a living virtual world, not in end game. End game always focuses itself on end game mechanics. It is always an afterthought.
If I feel that leveling is a chore, the game is a chore. It is one and the same.
The purpose of the next expansion is not to present you a challenge so that you can reach the next stage of endgame, but to present you with a continuation of the living virtual world you experienced while leveling previously.
In WoW I am now repeating the same content over and over again no matter how you look at it, for I am at endgame. If I rolled an alt, I would only experience the same content I leveled in before. I have spoiled it for myself.
Leveling is the superior MMO experience and it to me is what should be focused on beyond all else. My best memories come from leveling, by worst memories come from end game.
Comments
- Albert Einstein
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The whole idea behind leveling is to give the players a feeling of progression and prevent them to get too fast to the "endgame".
- Albert Einstein
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
Without going on another three page essay where I use twice as many words to say half as much, I think its better to look at designing "leveling" as a narrative instead of a focus. It shouldn't take the back seat, but it shouldn't be the primary reason for playing a game. The adventure should be the primary focus.
given a few mmo's utilize scaling to try and solve this problem but then some players claim that kills their sense of progression as well. which is simply hilarious when you think about the design choices of the thempark mmo. this is why i now play eve online and i dont even like pvp,but apparently only pvp games seem to get that mmo's are supposed to be about all the players interacting with each other in the same virtual world,a world that actually matters
To use WoW as example, I loved that it was viable to lvl via dungeons and bgs earlier, which was destroyed in WoD. Blizzard decided that people should quest to max lvl and do just that. It felt forced an uninspiring, still does. Blizzard demanded by design that we had to give their solitude questing all the focus, they feel it deserves.
But the absolutely most fun lvls to lvl in WoW now are the first 60 lvls in dungs, cause lowlvl dungs are great for nostalgia and still viable for xp. And you meet the funniest people in those dungs, Tanks entering in cloth gear and int staffs, healers that has not yet found out that it is possible to heal more players than just the tank and dps that asks for green loot, despite it cant be traded cross server. Lot of fun stuff and I really mean that, it cracks me up.
Love it even more when tanks have masspulled everything up to around Stratholme (lvl 50ish) and then completely ignores that certain mobs can silence healers and the tanks just goes on pulling even more, wiping the groups. Watching such a tank and how they wake up to reality or stubbornly continues their denial, I love love love those runs.
But then yeah Blizz decided that dungeons at a later lvl should not feel same way or be as xp rewarding and while Im sure they have elaborated so called reasonable reasons, I get the feeling they just make the lvling a hazzle so people will buy the lvl boost later in an Xpac these days. Manipulating business.
But when! dungs were viable and bgs were viable it was awesume to do a lot of group content and then just every now and then relax with questing.
The balance of these things was / is what makes questing fun.
Only questing and typically doing that alone, it is really boring. Has to be a balance of group play and questing.
I feel that when leveling up, I:
- Am in a static world, not a living one. The content is static, the NPCs are static. The gear I have and the builds I use are pretty much 100% controlled by the game, enforcing that static feeling.
- Experience generic content. Leveling up usually involves 1000s of quests, but the overwhelming majority of them are super generic. The storylines are dull and the quest objectives are samey.
- Am bored by trivial content. There is rarely any challenge during leveling up because player power fluxuates wildly so the devs cater to the lowest common denominator.
- Am mostly solo. Levels, quests and classes tend to enforce segregation by putting artificial barriers in the way. Running around by myself enforces that feeling of being in a static world.
But, when I reach endgame, that all changes. Endgame is where the majority of players are. We're all the same level and usually all fairly close in power to one another, and usually playing / hanging out in the same areas. The world comes alive! I have 100s of people to play with. PvP becomes super active and enjoyable. The player economy is usually focused on endgame, so auction houses / player shops become really active and relevant. As I'm not focused on being out in the world questing, I have more time to be social, so I meet more people, have more chats, see more roleplayers out and about. Finally, endgame is the first chance the devs have to really start balancing content and give us something challenging to do, so even though there is much less content at endgame than there is leveling, the content is more enjoyable.Now, with that said, I feel this way because I believe modern MMOs do leveling totally wrong. Modern MMOs focus on story: for me, that is completely the wrong emphasis. Computer games in general are bad for telling stories - the tighter the story, the worse the gameplay - so they shouldn't be focusing on story. Stories also enforce a linear way of thinking about content (beginning, middle and end) which, again, makes for a worse experience in terms of gameplay.
These are MMORPGs we are playing - massively multiplayer - so the games should be designed around playing and interacting with other people. You know, the massively multiplayer part. It is the one unique feature of the genre, everything else can be found elsewhere, yet every single modern MMO has forgotten that. MMOs should focus on creating your own stories, not following an arbitrary story with generic, filler content. It is other people who make the world a living place, so we should have an MMO designed around playing with, grouping with, trading with, roleplaying with and killing with other people. That means breaking down the barriers between people (arbitrary levels / quests and power gaps) and allowing them to progress together, creating their own stories within the game world.
i enjoy leveling is relaxing , u dont need to think anything , go from quest to quest , finish and gain some lvls , gear and discover some places...
however after u have leveled 5-6 classes if gets boring , but still kinda enjoyable....
FFXIV is the only mmorpg where alts suffer , since u level doing dungeons or fates , now Deep dungeon too but still ugh....
Progression can be incorporated with designs other than levels, but at the end of the day progression and character growth are core pillars which have defined the genre since it's first days.
Sure you can diminish or take them away, but then you are creating something else, perhaps an adventure or combat game.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
If we think of leveling as a mechanism I find that when leveling is done right you get abilities that fundamentally change the way you experience the game over time, you get abilities like stun and disarm which allow you to do things you just couldn't do from the beginning. At the same time your foes becomes more tricky and if you don't use your new tools you will fail.
When leveling is done wrong you only become more powerful which is countered by monsters becoming more powerful. You play in the same way and nothing really changes when you get levels and it makes the whole leveling experience pointless.
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Crazkanuk
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