[MUD-Dev2] [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point...

[Michael Chui]

On 8/31/07, John Buehler <johnbue at msn.com> wrote:
>
> Aurel Mihai writes:
>
> > John and Damion both brought up a lot of good points a short while
> > ago.. Levels and experience in gaming are unrealistic because there
> > really aren't any numbers in nature.
>
> Note that my comments about realism have nothing to do with
> numbers.  Nature
> is chock full of numbers.  Pick up any physics book and you'll be
> inundated
> with them.  The root difficulty with current games is that the entire game
> experience is stratified.  To a degree, it's almost like playing a series
> of
> completely different games.


Well, actually, my physics textbook is filled with letters (half of which
are Greek) and symbols, but comparatively few numbers. =)

There aren't any numbers in nature; there's merely the simple fact that
there are countable quantities of apparently discrete objects in nature and
we use numbers to differentiate said quantities. However, levels and
experience are not counting discrete objects: they're (supposedly)
abstracting the concept of skill and knowledge.

Effectively, you're taking the SAT every time you kill a mob. "How'd you
score?" "I got a 1000." "Gratz, that's level 10!" Does that explain the
grind better? Random encounters are pop quizzes. "Are you ready for this?"
"I didn't study that question!" "Pwnt."

Haven't we all met kids bright enough to outsmart a college graduate, and
college graduates who keep pulling at doors clearly marked "Push"? That's
the equivalent of Level 100s being incapable of outthinking a Level 10, and
Level 10s annihilating a Level 100 at some contest.