[MUD-Dev2] To Level or Not to Level

[Jeffrey Kesselman]

i have a postulate...

People hate leveling.  They hate it in large part because we as game
developers make it unpleasant to do.  There is a reason its called a "grind"
and not a "picnick among the flowers."

Ive actually been considering a model for a game where characters never
level.  They spring fully formed from the mold as what the player wants to
play.  There is some "progression" in finding gear but its minor.  if the
player gets tired of this character, fine, go create a different one.

This actually is NOT out of line with the rends  in the past 10 years or so
in pen and paper gaming.  Point based systems tend to be much less
experience oriented then the old class and level systems.

When you ask 'what is the purpose of leveling" its an interesting question.
I know the purpose in a pen and paper campaign-- it simulates the dramatic
arc of a hero's journey from a nobody to an all important somebody.

But onlien? i think its basically got the perverse job of holding the
players back and making them suffer to get to your content and thats about
it.  It has an economic prupose in slowing down the consumption of that
content, but if we can moe the game away from game-maker driven content,
that would also solve the problem.

(Im not literally suggesting player created content.  IMHo thats a hail-mary
play of the highest order.  Rather i am thinking of games built form simple
interlocked dynamic systems that effectively create content in response to
the players' actions within them.)

On Thu, Aug 20, 2009 at 4:37 PM, cruise <cruise at casual-tempest.net> wrote:

> Jeffrey Kesselman wrote:
> > They arent really eliminating leveling.
> >
> > SKing has been possible, since very early in the games life.
>
> Indeed, but it's one step closer to levels not mattering at all -
> content will not be level-gated anymore apart from PvP and one top-level
> raid.
>
> Fundamentally, what does a level for? Is it simply a measure of
> character ability, or does it serve a purpose as something to reach for?
> These are the discussions that have gone back and forth on this list
> many a time, but now one of those reasons has been drastically neutered
> - there is very little to reach for when all content is available to
> anyone who teams.
>
> I think it will be interesting to see what effects this has on the
> playerbase, if any. I have a suspicion those who enjoyed Co* in the
> first place where those (warning: sweeping generalisation approaching)
> who placed less emphasis on gaining levels over simply being the character.
>
> So far the feedback has been overwhelmingly in favour, though once
> people get to actually play it that may change...
>
>
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