Quote:
Originally Posted by Old Man Potter  That was an assinine statement by Raph Koster. Levels are the tangible result of accomplishments in level based MMO's. Each level is a unlockable gateway to more content, spells, abilities and such. Unlockable content is a mainstay of video game design philosophy. Levels also play a fundamental role in providing players with an element of social status. You want to play high end content? Then earn it. Nobody gets automatic entry on a Super Bowl team because they can throw a football around. Raph as a highly paid game designer should simply know better.
Raph needs to realize there is a vast difference in talking about good game design and actually producing good games. Talk is cheap. Stop talking Raph and start creating something. Let's see you make a great game for a change. |
Except this no longer holds true since WoW came along. Levels are mostly
seen as obstacles to get to the "real" game. Noone is getting status from
being max level today, this holds true in EQ2, EQ and WoW, all level based
games. While levels are the easiest way of designing games, in this day and
age where most play for the fun and social factor, its simply an annoying
thing.
You dont need levels to "earn" anything, its more a question of how good you
are as a player that matters, and face it, max level means dick in most cases.
Hell, the minute we left the non-instance content behind we gave up the
entire "elite guild" concept and the need to be on top (and probl unemployed
or in school to have time for it) to experience the whole game. The whole
concept of "time invested = progress" has no place in games for a broad
public that want to play to have fun with a few friends a night or three per
week.
Why do you think WoW is still so sucssesful? Because its Warcraft, or because
a trained monky can level up to max in two months playing a few nights a
week?
