Nice column, Rob. I'm against the insta leveling right from when they first raised their nasty heads, as I wrote it numerous times
(not suprisingly, since I'm an rpg'er who loves the journey, and never cared the endgame... and even worse, an altoholic too, so my gameplay is: level to the cap, new alt, level to the cap, new alt, etc with switching games in the meantime for enjoying even more lore)
I'm not against the option itself (I'm all about options, having options is great), I'm against the widespread over-using it. If it would available only for, let's say, 1 levelup option for every 3-5 levelcapped characters, it'd be more acceptable I think.
I mean, it's not a new thing that folks seeking shortcuts, I remember when I first saw those "stripped" books back in the days. As someone who loves reading, I never understood that. True, it's maybe good enough for slipping through an exam with a 2 (that's a D in schools over there), but the whole point of reading a book is lost with that way. Seriously, there was even a Shakespeare full works, in less than 100 pages... :I
The very same is with rpg's. If someone is jumping to the cap, the whole point and reason of the game is lost. And while it's understandable for someone who already has a few capped one, for those who simply don't like the leveling and wants only the endgame through a shortcut it isn't. But even if I don't agree with their playstyle, I can accept that the option will be available - if it's not overused.
See, my main problem with this (and especially with it becomes more and more widespread) is, using the example above, in mmorpg's we're all reading the same book. Their behaviour affecting my game as well. Among the many posts only Sovrath wrote my main issue:
"If all that content can be so easily dismissed then what was the point of the content in the first place?"
This option, and its spreading cause faster and easier leveling route, devs dumbing down or even straightfully ditch world content, just exactly what we already see today. (just look at Neverwinter, I know it's not a full-fledged mmo, but still... the "journey" in it is like a quick trip with a Shinkansen). Slowly mmo's will turn into DotA-clones with a bit longer introduction part.
And yep, I know that the money talks and endgame players are seems to be a bigger bunch with every year. I'm not even saying that the leveling-focused gamestyle is more important. I only say, rpg's is about the journey, the developement and play of your character. Sadly, nowadays we only have MMOrpg's anyways, a few more years and the rpg part will be totally dissolved by the endgame.
I did not read the comments. I don't intend to. The article is about personal preference and beliefs and that is not up to debate.
Instant leveling is a stupid idea. And the reasoning in the article is beyond stupid.
1. Games should be fun - Find another game that suits you. There are lots of games and game types on the market. If an MMORPG means suffering to you, don't play MMORPGs.
2. "So what I really struggle to understand is why do people get so riled up when developers make it easier for players to play a multiplayer game with their friends?" - Why does level disparity take away your ability to play with friends ? Why only level ? How about class, gear ... If you cannot work out a way to play with friends under various circumstances, it's not the developers fault.
3. It does not affect other players - Yes it does. You forgot the MM part now. Since people are interacting, what affects a single person affects all of the people that interact with him. It might not be a big influence but it is still there. And the influence is different for different people.
The last issue I have with the argument is this: Instant leveling reduces the game to a simple Arcade game. People are forgetting the whole of MMORPG... they either argue MM or RPG. However that's a blend of both and there are games that go from one extreme (Diablo 3 is simply RPG and very little MM while EVE Online is brutaly both). If you remove the leveling process, you are removing a lot of the RPG part.
Basicaly you could do this: Create a game with instanced dungeons that starts with max level characters and selectable gear. A lobby for group formation. Will that still be an MMORPG ? In my view definitely not. But that's where WoW is heading at the moment.
Bottom line: If you don't like the game, don't play it. There's plenty of other folks that enjoy it as it is and don't need
I personally don't mind the instant high level toon thing. I can be called an alta-holic but even I get bored of leveling through all the low level content often due to having friends that don't play as many alts and having to grind through to catch up and play with the same friends on the alts over and over again.
Sometimes you want to level a class that no one plays because your group needs that class for endgame content and it is a painful class to level so you take advantage of any shortcut you can get without breaking the TOS just to help the group. You still have time to learn how to play the class, but avoid the hassle and time of grinding it up so that it benefits the group when it is needed not a month or 3 down the road.
Examples are solo leveling a Typical Tank or Healing class that take forever to kill things and progress compared to DPS that in many cases can solo through the same content at 3 or more times the pace.
It does not affect your gameplay if others wish to use the instant leveling and you choose not to or can't afford. (Unless you are grouped with them and they are complete morons. But then they would most likely be just as bad if they leveled "naturally" anyways then.) So I am all for the access. I don't use it myself unless it is a freebie and think you should have to learn to play the game before you use it, unless they do a tutorial Like EQ2 is suppsed to have that teaches you how to play that toon.
What makes most people rage in an MMORPG? Players not understanding how to play their class properly. This might as well be a guarantee. There's no way you can possibly go from 1-90 immediately and understand what situations warrant which skill use and what type of build to use, etc.
You're right. But I'd imagine that most of them will learn there role through playing the game those last 10 levels. I also don't believe that everyone that makes it to level cap on there own truly knows how to play their class to the best of its abilities. Have you been in a PUG lately?
Sorry, but I have to ask... have you? Even without instant leveling, people in PUGs who normally DPS and just threw together a healer build or a tank build so they could go to the front of the queue, stick out like sore thumbs. And that's people who have actually leveled 1-XX with that class--just specced as DPS. Now imagine someone who has never played that class at all doing the same.
I suppose the more jaded one is about MMOs being too easy peasy or the more years you have spent in an MMO so that you have seen every class play their roles in 42,000 dungeon runs, the less problem you'd have with the concept... mostly because you've forgotten that everyone isn't you and, believe it or not, even today, there are new players in WOW... imagine that!
In any MMO I've played that has group instances of different levels, I always notice a qualitative difference in how people play their roles when I get to the higher level content.
As a matter of fact the one case I can think of where this is not true is in WOW post Lich King when you get to the Outland dungeon runs and all of these scrub Death Knight tank wannabes come out of the woodwork and screw it up for everyone... expect that 10 times over with the instant-90 characters.
"Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community ... but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots”
― Umberto Eco
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?” ― CD PROJEKT RED
I am very much for this....I currently have 6 90s and 6 more 89s plus 7 more between 81 and 88...by the time WOD is released all of them will be 90 and I will relish raising one of my other alts all the way up to 90 without having to do all the quests one more time. While I may not be the best player in the game, I know I am a competent player always trying to improve my knowledge. I have played wow since Mar after it was first released and have come across a lot of different kinds of players....and have found people new to the game that really want to learn do so quickly and people who want to take the easy route do so whether new or not. I tend to run dungeons mainly with my guildies so someone not knowing how to play really isn't a problem as we try to help the one with a new character learn how to play their characters. So again...I am all for the instant lvl 90....the only hard thing is choosing which of my two lowbies to use it on as I have two accts....and whether to use it on a class I don't already have at max level on my main server or to make a 90 on a class I already know on the alternate server I play on less frequently.
I really dont care either way for the instant leveling. If they asked for my opinion I would simply say:
If the accounts that get the instant level are accounts that have been inactive for over a 5 year period i wouldnt have an issue with this.
5 years... thats about the time of wraths release so itd make sense. Many TBC and Vanilla players left the game when the tragedy of wrath was introduced. The only reason the population of the game wasnt affected obviously is the massive advertising campaign they pulled off.
So in a sense one could argueably state that if blizzard wants to bring back those who left because the game went to shit content wise that would be the time frame they should aim for.
If asked should new players have instant level.. no... just no. What kind of idiot gives brand new players a free pass to top end game content? hell we had to level all our pandas to 90 starting from a locked starting area... hell not even a mail box. o.O
As Blizzard is unlikely to but an account freeze time lock on the instant leveling im going to have to say this is about the dumbest idea blizzard has had since flooding end content with dailies.
It might not be such a good idea for brand new players, but for someone like me who already has several max level characters, it's a great idea. Over the years, I've levelled every class in WoW to at least 72. I currently have 4 that are max level. There's no way in hell I'd be able to handle levelling a 5th one, even though they would already be 72 or higher. There's only so many times, no matter how much fun it was, I can stand levelling another toon before I scratch my eyes out.
Is a man not entitled to the herp of his derp?
Remember, I live in a world where juggalos and yugioh players are real things.
I am reminded of the old 'Slash level' function in DAOC where you could create level 20 toons IF you had a level 50 already. It ended up being a nice time saver back in a time when leveling a 50 was a huge grind (Especially if you were a stealther not welcome in leveling groups).
Leveling 1-90 teaches you NOTHING about how to properly tank an endgame raid boss or heal or even to dps. You don't even make it through one cycle of an endgame dps rotation on a trash mob while leveling. The argument against an instant level 90 boils down to "I had to suffer through it, so you should to". Nothing more.
This trend toward fast high level toons illustrates a vital point about MMOs; leveling up is NOT an essential part of what makes them fun and keeps people subbed. In fact, if anything, leveling is a needless barrier to reaching the part of the game people enjoy. Levels are antiquated and no longer necessary in any way. Gear does what levels used to do and better.
I've come a long way from the original Everquest and the MMO industry has allready taken away corpse runs, travelling per scheduled(!) ships, manual loot distribution, social aggro and mobs that pursued one for minutes not just seconds (amongst other things).
I am playing Rift atm and honestly with all that mentoring, powerleveling and microtransactions I have no clue if the other folks in my pick-up dungeon groups or (so-called) raid events are noobs or veterans.
It doesn't matter anyway because its always rush-rush, kill-kill, LOOT - and rarely a "TFG".
After 10 years of MMOS I don't see any of them as a challenge so why should I object people buying max levels - or getting them for free? The influx of casual gamers and the (so called)F2P models have forced the publishers to redesign every MMO to be nearly soloable and strip the games of any timesinks so letting players start at higher levels is just the last possible shortcut they could still ad.
Comments
Nice column, Rob. I'm against the insta leveling right from when they first raised their nasty heads, as I wrote it numerous times
(not suprisingly, since I'm an rpg'er who loves the journey, and never cared the endgame... and even worse, an altoholic too, so my gameplay is: level to the cap, new alt, level to the cap, new alt, etc
with switching games in the meantime for enjoying even more lore)
I'm not against the option itself (I'm all about options, having options is great), I'm against the widespread over-using it. If it would available only for, let's say, 1 levelup option for every 3-5 levelcapped characters, it'd be more acceptable I think.
I mean, it's not a new thing that folks seeking shortcuts, I remember when I first saw those "stripped" books back in the days. As someone who loves reading, I never understood that. True, it's maybe good enough for slipping through an exam with a 2 (that's a D in schools over there), but the whole point of reading a book is lost with that way. Seriously, there was even a Shakespeare full works, in less than 100 pages... :I
The very same is with rpg's. If someone is jumping to the cap, the whole point and reason of the game is lost. And while it's understandable for someone who already has a few capped one, for those who simply don't like the leveling and wants only the endgame through a shortcut it isn't. But even if I don't agree with their playstyle, I can accept that the option will be available - if it's not overused.
See, my main problem with this (and especially with it becomes more and more widespread) is, using the example above, in mmorpg's we're all reading the same book. Their behaviour affecting my game as well. Among the many posts only Sovrath wrote my main issue:
"If all that content can be so easily dismissed then what was the point of the content in the first place?"
This option, and its spreading cause faster and easier leveling route, devs dumbing down or even straightfully ditch world content, just exactly what we already see today. (just look at Neverwinter, I know it's not a full-fledged mmo, but still... the "journey" in it is like a quick trip with a Shinkansen). Slowly mmo's will turn into DotA-clones with a bit longer introduction part.
And yep, I know that the money talks and endgame players are seems to be a bigger bunch with every year. I'm not even saying that the leveling-focused gamestyle is more important. I only say, rpg's is about the journey, the developement and play of your character. Sadly, nowadays we only have MMOrpg's anyways, a few more years and the rpg part will be totally dissolved by the endgame.
I did not read the comments. I don't intend to. The article is about personal preference and beliefs and that is not up to debate.
Instant leveling is a stupid idea. And the reasoning in the article is beyond stupid.
1. Games should be fun - Find another game that suits you. There are lots of games and game types on the market. If an MMORPG means suffering to you, don't play MMORPGs.
2. "So what I really struggle to understand is why do people get so riled up when developers make it easier for players to play a multiplayer game with their friends?" - Why does level disparity take away your ability to play with friends ? Why only level ? How about class, gear ... If you cannot work out a way to play with friends under various circumstances, it's not the developers fault.
3. It does not affect other players - Yes it does. You forgot the MM part now. Since people are interacting, what affects a single person affects all of the people that interact with him. It might not be a big influence but it is still there. And the influence is different for different people.
The last issue I have with the argument is this: Instant leveling reduces the game to a simple Arcade game. People are forgetting the whole of MMORPG... they either argue MM or RPG. However that's a blend of both and there are games that go from one extreme (Diablo 3 is simply RPG and very little MM while EVE Online is brutaly both). If you remove the leveling process, you are removing a lot of the RPG part.
Basicaly you could do this: Create a game with instanced dungeons that starts with max level characters and selectable gear. A lobby for group formation. Will that still be an MMORPG ? In my view definitely not. But that's where WoW is heading at the moment.
Bottom line: If you don't like the game, don't play it. There's plenty of other folks that enjoy it as it is and don't need
No matter how cynical you become, its never enough to keep up - Lily Tomlin
I personally don't mind the instant high level toon thing. I can be called an alta-holic but even I get bored of leveling through all the low level content often due to having friends that don't play as many alts and having to grind through to catch up and play with the same friends on the alts over and over again.
Sometimes you want to level a class that no one plays because your group needs that class for endgame content and it is a painful class to level so you take advantage of any shortcut you can get without breaking the TOS just to help the group. You still have time to learn how to play the class, but avoid the hassle and time of grinding it up so that it benefits the group when it is needed not a month or 3 down the road.
Examples are solo leveling a Typical Tank or Healing class that take forever to kill things and progress compared to DPS that in many cases can solo through the same content at 3 or more times the pace.
It does not affect your gameplay if others wish to use the instant leveling and you choose not to or can't afford. (Unless you are grouped with them and they are complete morons. But then they would most likely be just as bad if they leveled "naturally" anyways then.) So I am all for the access. I don't use it myself unless it is a freebie and think you should have to learn to play the game before you use it, unless they do a tutorial Like EQ2 is suppsed to have that teaches you how to play that toon.
Sorry, but I have to ask... have you? Even without instant leveling, people in PUGs who normally DPS and just threw together a healer build or a tank build so they could go to the front of the queue, stick out like sore thumbs. And that's people who have actually leveled 1-XX with that class--just specced as DPS. Now imagine someone who has never played that class at all doing the same.
I suppose the more jaded one is about MMOs being too easy peasy or the more years you have spent in an MMO so that you have seen every class play their roles in 42,000 dungeon runs, the less problem you'd have with the concept... mostly because you've forgotten that everyone isn't you and, believe it or not, even today, there are new players in WOW... imagine that!
In any MMO I've played that has group instances of different levels, I always notice a qualitative difference in how people play their roles when I get to the higher level content.
As a matter of fact the one case I can think of where this is not true is in WOW post Lich King when you get to the Outland dungeon runs and all of these scrub Death Knight tank wannabes come out of the woodwork and screw it up for everyone... expect that 10 times over with the instant-90 characters.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
I really dont care either way for the instant leveling. If they asked for my opinion I would simply say:
If the accounts that get the instant level are accounts that have been inactive for over a 5 year period i wouldnt have an issue with this.
5 years... thats about the time of wraths release so itd make sense. Many TBC and Vanilla players left the game when the tragedy of wrath was introduced. The only reason the population of the game wasnt affected obviously is the massive advertising campaign they pulled off.
So in a sense one could argueably state that if blizzard wants to bring back those who left because the game went to shit content wise that would be the time frame they should aim for.
If asked should new players have instant level.. no... just no. What kind of idiot gives brand new players a free pass to top end game content? hell we had to level all our pandas to 90 starting from a locked starting area... hell not even a mail box. o.O
As Blizzard is unlikely to but an account freeze time lock on the instant leveling im going to have to say this is about the dumbest idea blizzard has had since flooding end content with dailies.
Played: UO, LotR, WoW, SWG, DDO, AoC, EVE, Warhammer, TF2, EQ2, SWTOR, TSW, CSS, KF, L4D, AoW, WoT
Playing: The Secret World until Citadel of Sorcery goes into Alpha testing.
Tired of: Linear quest games, dailies, and dumbed down games
Anticipating:Citadel of Sorcery
Is a man not entitled to the herp of his derp?
Remember, I live in a world where juggalos and yugioh players are real things.
This trend toward fast high level toons illustrates a vital point about MMOs; leveling up is NOT an essential part of what makes them fun and keeps people subbed. In fact, if anything, leveling is a needless barrier to reaching the part of the game people enjoy. Levels are antiquated and no longer necessary in any way. Gear does what levels used to do and better.
Personally I couldn't care less.
I've come a long way from the original Everquest and the MMO industry has allready taken away corpse runs, travelling per scheduled(!) ships, manual loot distribution, social aggro and mobs that pursued one for minutes not just seconds (amongst other things).
I am playing Rift atm and honestly with all that mentoring, powerleveling and microtransactions I have no clue if the other folks in my pick-up dungeon groups or (so-called) raid events are noobs or veterans.
It doesn't matter anyway because its always rush-rush, kill-kill, LOOT - and rarely a "TFG".
After 10 years of MMOS I don't see any of them as a challenge so why should I object people buying max levels - or getting them for free? The influx of casual gamers and the (so called)F2P models have forced the publishers to redesign every MMO to be nearly soloable and strip the games of any timesinks so letting players start at higher levels is just the last possible shortcut they could still ad.
No objection from me.