I have been saying for years that leveling is a ridiculous concept in MMOs and I’m dismayed that TOR is perpetuating this rather than being brave and doing something new — which seems to be its modus operandi in other areas, so why not leveling?
Anyway, I mention this today because I caught an article at Massively earlier today and, understand, I normally pick holes in, and generally laugh at, articles on Massively. But one guy was on there today, talking about MMOs with comments I highly subscribe to. Check this out…
The genre actually started out featuring titles that were worlds first and treadmill games second, if at all. Titles like Meridian 59 and Ultima Online allowed the player to make their own content until Everquest (and its younger, more successful brother World of Warcraft) came along and hammered us all over the head with mind-numbingly repetitive (but psychologically addicting) DIKU concepts. Perhaps those who scoff at Age of Conan’s offline leveling haven’t played anything other than these two grinderific theme parks (or their many imitators), I don’t know, but the ultimate point is that anything that gives players more freedom, choice, and the time to use it is a positive.
As a virtual world enthusiast, I can tell you that I find leveling to be a contrived annoyance, and frankly, an insultingly uninspired mechanic for developers to mask the fact that they need recurring revenue. I grind when I’m away from my computer, it’s called a successful career, and when I get home after a hard day, the last thing I want to do is stare at an XP bar. I understand that some people do, and that’s fine, I’m not advocating the removal of that option, but there’s nothing wrong with throwing a bone to those of us who like to tell stories, explore, trade, craft, or whatever else catches our in-game fancy. These are, after all, roleplaying games.
Couldn’t have said it better myself. Yet all these developers out there — even smart ones like the ones we trust to make TOR a great game — can’t get away from leveling. It’s astounding. Do they not realise that games are far better without this kind of generic leveling that doesn’t mean anything? There are other ways to keep people interested…
Ahh good ole UO total sandbox and no levels.. Shadowbane had levels but spiritually came close.. Then Came Darkfall… no levels and solid gameplay but lots of other problems and cheating..
Bioware is takign risks on somethings, sticking to there roots but they also are looking at what works and makes money for a mmo.. and levels does. it is the safe bet. They also do it well, but unlike other games wher elvl 1 has 10 hp and lvl 50 is 35k or soemthing ridiculous if you look closely it is NOt that way with tor.
Odds are they will make it work but it was done most liekly due to financial concerns and sticking with what you know.