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General: Forum Spotlight: Speed Leveling
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
Community Manager Laura Genender takes a look at what is being said on our forums about feeling pressure to level quickly in MMOs.
This week on our forums, poster Tutu2 brought up an interesting twist to peer pressure in his thread "Do you constantly feel pressured to level fast in MMOs?"
Tutu2, an EQ2 player, poses his problem to forum-goers: "In all MMOs I've played I've felt this constant need to level up as fast as possible." Tutu2 continues, "I just feel this need to be leveling quickly in order to keep up with guildmates, and get the latest and greatest abilities for my class." He closes by asking, "Anyone else have a similar prob? Or don't see it as a prob, and its just the way these games are made?"
Read the whole column here.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
EQ 2 is the only game I have played without a sense of pressure to level fast.
It is probably because the mentor system works so well in the game. In other games I have played, I have definitely experienced a sense of pressure to grind up.
Boycott EA Games. RIP Sim City.
no matter what game I am playing I don't want to be weak. That usually means levels, I could care less about keeping pace with guild mates etc I am a PvP whore. I just want to power out high level asap so I can get to the hardcore PvP action. its hard to compete if you aren't high level. That being said Ive never felt pressured to reach high level other than my own desire to reach high level but then again I'm a lone wolf.
Their is indeed the continue "pressure" to keep going as fast as possible in mmorpgs, wich make the average mmorpg quite boring after some years. Cause its no longer having fun in the end , almost tends to feel up like a job. And a game should be the total opposite especially a mmorpg cause that should excel in that, where u can really relax without the neverendign pressure of lvl'ing. (or at least thats my idea about a "perfect mmorpg).
But that being said for example huxley 'low lvl players can still compete with high lvl players" cause of the fps content, in such game i think the pressure feeling of "how the hell am i going to get this XX lvl ASAP", it might finally bring in the good old relax feeling for some people again (its bloody annoying in mmorpgs that most average people can only think about leveling as fast as possible and the rest is just secondary)
I don't play level based games anymore and i just find them tedious and restrictive, they don't allow proper character customization and everyone is the same. However in lower populated games like EQ2 you have to keep up with everyone else because theres sooo few people playing you wont find another group or raid to do it again. I fell behind my guild in EQ2 and i wondered around for weeks looking for a 2 x group to do a quest and i couldn't find the people. I quit EQ2 mainly cause of the low population in the mid levels and it's pretty much the same with every game.
In WOW however cause theres sooo many people on all levels you can take it at your own pace cause you'll always find people to group with.
I still continue to subscribe once in awhile to CoX, and I certainly do feel somewhat pushed to achieve certain goals for my characters. Some of the pressure is based on the class (brutes and dominators are encouraged to fill a special meter they have which in turn allows them to destroy things faster, so there is always an incentive to move as fast as possible), but even if I'm playing something with no such mechanic, I find myself pushing toward the next power that I'm excited about, whether it's the obligatory Stamina at 20, or one of my class powers that I have never seen before, or have seen and know how amazing it is (like Rage for a Super Strength character). That being said, I still enjoy every unique tileset map that I run across, and I push to complete as many story arcs (content) as I can rather than badges, because those are the most immersive things for me, and involve less hardcore grinding. When I do this, I find I actually level faster, because I'm just engaging a story in my head, not blindly searching for the next set of mobs. A sense of purpose, not a filled xp bar, is what motivates me most to level, and any game I play in the future will have to give me more than an enemy to whack to make me want to hit the level cap.
Wether it's levels, the next big spell, cash, trade skills or even just fluff like with Medals and Costumes in CoX... I always wanna feel like I'm in the top 10%.
I guess I just like to know there's people behind me who envy me. It's pretty much the only way you can feel like you're sort of... winning... at these kinds of games.
I remember the first time I saw someone flying in CoX... it's only a level 14 power but my jaw dropped and I just had to get to level 14 ASAP.
In the same fashion... I like to see people gawk in envy at something I have that they don't... not in a bad way though... then they ask how they can get it and tell em/ show em and they're all giddy!
I also love it when the group I'm in seems to think I contribute a lot more than the average person of my class. Getting power is part of what allows for these situations.
It depends on the game in UO I didn't felt a little pressure to max my skills out, but at the same time even a newbie can be contribute and be fairly useful so there wasn't any major pressure. Other games like EQ and WoW though your almost useless against anyone out of your level or group range so there's a lot of pressure to level quickly. Games like EQ and even more so WoW are more based off time devotion than player skill so there's a lot of pressure to level or raid as much and quickly as possible or be quickly handicapped. Another factor is in UO a more skilled player could easily beat a less skilled one and sometimes many of them.
I am a highly competive gamer and feel the pressure to level up by using every ethical trick in the book ( and I know them all because most mmorpg are cliches of the WOW hegemony) - but my style of playing is solo "explorer" which is a dichotmy/oxymoron.
Luckily I do not need to work and game on average 30 hours a week.
However, from 30 plus years of gaming I am disgusted with the whole level system that dominates mmorpg game design and no longer play those styles of games ( I could add why but my abuse of what other people find "fun" would not be a constructive or a healthy diatribe).
There are many reasons for the pressure - for competetive people like myself there is the issue of being the best and earning "status" in a game. However games should primarily be about having fun and I have come up with some ways to allow hard core gamers and casual gamers to have fun side by side.
1 - perma-death - i have solved the problems of perma-death for online games and think this is required to take off the pressure of speed leveling. Why? by using a more authentic and exciting system like perma-death (at a complex level) superior avatar no longer play a role within the community. Therefor, game mechanics replace the onus of the game to power up; in other words those with strong desires to do well concentrate on working for the society and not to be the best they can in the sociery for their own benefit. The parallel is of a capitalist society moving away from "dog eat dog" society to a "strong protect the weak" ETHOS...total alien to the consciousness of most first world countries I may add! However pvp would play its part as a method of deciding who are the strong worthy enough to protect the weak.
2 - remove levels - I find it terrible that only similar level characters can play together in most games. City of Villains/Heroes has tried to counter this with henchman and as mentioned previously EQ2 also has a similar system. BUT imagine if games had no level system and all adventures (I will save my attack on static scenarios for another thread) are eligable for any one. Games like Guildwars owe their success to providing a balance between what is needed in the future for mmorpg design and what has gone before. A bridge if you will between the problem and the solution. Almost a a path to enlightenment for those who seek the light!
3 - a heriarchy in a game that rewards players/customers for what they give to the game. Dynamic worlds in mmorpg are the future (from a cost effective point of view in making the ganes as well as a plausible and breathable game experience). AS fun as it is to be led around a game by your nose, the concept of say, what a guild master does for his guild should be the tenplate for true reward in a game. Killing 100 "x" creatures, then doing it again to the same "x" dressed in a diffferent skin rewards nobody. The gamer, unless he takes huge amounts of narcotics, will find the comfort of his alternative world a recurring nightmare unless it exceeds the needs to be found in the real world.
so when I say hierarchy, I suggest the concepts of a community/a guild/a religion/a family/of ethical codes/of right and wrong/alignment need to be what drives the player and not the tedious tread mill of being first to hit level 60!
In conclusion - there will never be the perfect game but all gamers have had that moment where they have experienced "perfection" within a game. Achieving that should be the ultiamte goal in a game and any true gamer who is also involved in making games should be trying to recreate that moment despite the mundane problems of funding/limitations of technology/small mindedness of the team leader.
Ok i know well just read that very intresting topic and YES people are pushed into high lvl on most games (Lotro......not in one bit) but every other mmo i have played every1 wants to get max lvl....even on my time on city of heroes i was some friends who didnt want to sleep till they hit lvl 50....we finished at 9am....2 hours b4 they had work....but an answer is well easy, 3 letters long, tho it doesnt slove the whole puress to want max lvl it does give u something to do while u are working your way up and with no need to worry bout max lvl raiding, yes i mean WAR, from what i have seen they have everything from lvl 1 RVR, buddie system so a lower can play with a higher and vis verse amazing group quests that dont even need to be grouped to do...just amazing that game will make all us gamer re-think how we play and how fast we lvl
I remember back when I started playing Ultima Online, It took me close to 6 months to become a Grandmaster Bowyer and A YEAR to become a grandmaster lumberjack. On my occasions, I felt a sense of accomplishment with both things. Then the game designers made it easy to level, instead of cutting wood, you could gain lumberjacking skills by fighting, wood became easy to buy, people were doing in hours, what I spent a year doing. This is when I first started seeing the pressure to make it to the finish line with everyone else. I believe that they need to go back to the days where it takes time to do things. I know people will still try to power level, but it the game designers make it hard to do it, they will find more and more people slowing down and enjoying their product.
Jenner- Guildleader SWP in Starwars Galaxies
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While it really isn't an MMORPG, I never felt compelled to level quickly in Planetside. The only grind I ever felt in that game was command rank. Sure you get the occasional power session to get the few more BEP so you can get to the next battle rank and an extra cert point, but I never felt like I had to to stay competitive, just that it gave me a chance to try a new piece of equipment.
I only found one MMORPG I did want to Speed Level to the cap right away and that was the original Neocron because you could explore that game without having to be max level.
One of the reason why I have got in the habit of Speed Leveling in games is the fact that you hear people talk about some form of content you have never seen and in order to even get a chance to see the content you have to be the level of the content or higher which hinders people that want to explore the game world. The fact that the developer make such a wide gap between levels is what makes most people speed level. Leveling should be more of a feeling of you are building up bit by bit like working out and building up muscle, and not the whole Popeye eating spinach feel most games have when you gain a level.
One of the other reasons to speed level to the max level is so you can play the game with your friends and not worry about all being different levels and not being able to play together.
The following is an example of how the level gaps may affect groups of friends:
This is why I solo 90% of the time. No need to worry about getting that next level to keep, I can go at my own pace.
I'm quite a fast leveler in all the games I play, but that is my choice and I do not feel pressured into leveling fast, I just enjoy it.
I am not a fan of PvP and the only time I feel pressured into leveling really fast is on games where there is FFA PvP, because I need to lvl fast or i'll be ganked which will ruin my game experience and fun.
If raiding is the sole object of the MMO and people are power leveling and paying others to level for them then what is the point of leveling and enjoying the game? Why not just make an MMO where you have about 100 raid areas broken down into first 20 raid areas yields tier 1 gear, next 20 raid areas yields tier 2 gear, etc, etc, and you begin the game raiding and end raiding without any levels.. Since raiders want to raid and skip everything pre raiding and other gamers want to experience the lore, immersion, community, and other content then wouldn't it be better to seperate the two play types and make two distinct MMO genres for the two completely different play types. I think players would be more satisfied that way and developers would not have to try to cater both sides at same time with usually leads to conflict amongst the players.
I tend to level up very fast in MMOs and then quit.
There's something I'm looking for in MMOs, and I haven't found it yet. I'm looking for a MMO that feels like a interesting other world I can visit, where I have another identity I can play with. However, in every MMO I've played I just feel like an obsessive compulsive serial killer... the only way to get a meaningful reaction from the world is to kill things... LOTS of things.
Also, whenever I'm paying a monthly fee for a game I don't feel free to play other games... since I'm paying a fee I should play that game all the time! This leads to me levelling up fast and burning out on the game completely.
wow no one has said the obvious in the article and or remarks after, maybe because looking at yourself in a mirror is hard to do when you know the reason is..................................
BRAGGING RIGHTS!
lol this is , after all the end of end of any issue when it comes to MMO and you!
Those that get to the top boast it like no tomorow, then complain no one in their guild is there and now they are bored. Then once others get there, the pwn that tard for finally reaching that level in some type of pvp combat then guess what......
MORE BRAGGING RIGHTS!
Notice a trend here? lol thought you guys would, this is indeed the reasons behind it all. We are a socioity built on things, things are what identifies most with their neighbor, do I have more then he or she does? Good that means I am doing better! That is the truth of it all.. sad I know, but it is what it is, put this mentality into any MMO heck, even mention this in a guild with a female player (yes I am picking on you RL ladies now) and see their reaction. You would actually be shocked. Everytime I do so, it is the EXACT same response no matter the game or guild. We are a world based on materialistic needs and when you put that into an MMO world, it is even more so shown on the dependance of "Owning things"... I am more uber , I have more then you, blah blah blah... lol get a clue this is nothing new. Sadly if your a religious person as myself, you know this is a very sad trend indeed, as this is one of the major sins, oh well human nature at it's worst.
PEACE,
X
"The monster created isn't by the company that makes the game, it's by the fans that make it something it never was"
The obvious way to remove this is to design more mmorpgs with
1) NO LEVELS (or classes for that matter)
2) PERMA-DEATH - spawning is not only a poor game mechanism but seems to desensitise people to the concept of life and death - the task systems of kill 100 "x" creatures has the same morality as genocide
maybe deletion of a dead avatar would restore the balance some what?
3) MORE RELIGION in games - I don't mind if people wish to play an evil alignment or act the part of trouble maker because that makes role playing fun. However I would like to see dieities play a bigger role in mmorpg to help us learn about morality, right and wrong, caring for others. YES, good guilds do perform this service to an extent. However, it is well known that mmorpg are great places to develope a range of skills (in an arena where mistakes can be made and learnt from without having RL consequences) to help us achieve in RL, be it in the workplace or the home.
Fantasy mmorpg are particularly ripe for making religious ethos less peripheral - as an example playing TOTAL WAR Medieval 2 has taught me a lot about the history of Christianity and the Muslim faith (as well as many other minority religions) even though the game is non static and the player alters history - thus it allows the player to look at what if? scenarios to learn more about the real world.
In answer to power leveling, there were times I did it to get into a new area of say, WOW. But most times I did it on my own and then used my "power" to escort lower levels through dungeons and such. I enjoy gaming very much . It also depends on the guild that you are in. My guildmates are great and the pressure was never really there. If someone chooses to do that , hey to each his own ..competition is fun at times..but as I stated before I play more for pleasure and socialization.
To sum up: Skill based, where nobody knows your level and everybody has a use.
I know for one thing alot of games are like that were you seem to eed to level to have any fun. Games like WoW for example, you can't take 1 day off or else your way behind in leveling of your friends. Then eople won't allow you in there groups and you can't go to the same instances as your friends. So then you level up so you can be with your friends agian. Another thing is most mmorpgs are a grind to level 20 (estimate) to get any new skills or get a real class be sides the generic clas of "New Player". So yes there definetly is a pressure to level.
Even if you play with real friends, there's still this thing in the back of your mind that says, "I wanna be better than them". So that you'll have... bragging rights.
LOL! I read this and pictured board meetings at every major MMORPG developer - "Alright everyone, they're on to us. What do we do now?!" You nailed it, without question. This is why I hate PvP, and one reason I hate level-based MMOGs. It's all about which tard can move bits faster than some other poor schlep. There WAS a game that didn't focus on the get-more-have-more-pwn-more aspects of gaming... it was changed into WoW In Space.
There's a sucker born every minute. - P.T. Barnum
Yes, i would have to agree bragging rights is a big thing in mmorpg's. But i'd have to also say that the feeling of accomplishment is also what push's alot of us. Once you hit that one lvl, get that one item, put that one boss on the raid "farm" list, you feel like you've actually done something in the game, like you've actually achieved a goal / interest point, which then turns into a feeling of accomplishment.
I never felt better about taking down a big badass mob like Avatar or War than when our guild smashed his ass for the first time.
Or, when my guild for the first time took down the Zek's in PoTime when PoP was released after numerous attempts and tactics, it finally succeeded. Which then gave that morale and spirit to the guild. We finally got over that mentallity of ," Sob, not this guy again, Inc wipe...", which then turned into a, "Aight, np, lets use so and so tactic this time...".
So i guess you could say the same thing about "speed leveling". If that's your goal, to hit the top lvl before anyone or most people hit that level, it could be seen to some people as a sense of accomplishment. Only thing is, once you hit your one goal, you get / set another one, whether it be an item, a pvp rank, so and and so forth
Sidekicks is one of the best ideas going and should be done by every mmo that has a level based system.