On the level

Are experience levels a necessary part of the RPG formula? This is a question that came out of a post I made about wanting a Tier 4-only version of WAR. It was said that without levels it would just be a FPS. I agree that is the case if there are no levels (levels can also be skill points) at all, but what about the traditional experience levels we have grown to love and hate?

The purpose of experience levels is to give a feeling of progression and in many cases to help tune difficulty. They come from a time before MMO's but have lived on in many of today's games. However, I now see them as more of a barrier than anything else.

Imagine a pen and paper DnD group. Would they exclude people from playing with them because their character was too low of a level? Would the GM tell him (or her) to go grind out a few levels and then they could participate? I've never played in a DnD group, so I'm not sure. It doesn't seem likely though. That could be the case with larger more official groups, but a group of friends?

There are many kinds of levels, not just the tyrant experience level. WAR has a renown level system, EQ2 has AA points, LoTRO has Legendary Items and so on. There are a myriad of ways to advance your character without separating them across levels.

In games like Eve Online and Darkfall you can play the heart of the game a few minutes after creating your character. You may not be very effective, but you can at least participate in some fashion. Even 0.0 space holding alliances need tacklers (which new players can do) in Eve.

That is what I'd like to see in WAR and other up and coming games. Let people play together and let them enjoy the meat of the game from the start. Use levels to allow progression and character customization but not to act as an artificial barrier between your players.

Posted in: MMO