Some thoughts, then some questions for all you DBOers (Destiny)

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Thursday, March 31, 2016, 17:17 (3253 days ago) @ Kahzgul
edited by Cody Miller, Thursday, March 31, 2016, 17:21

In short: Levels are how RPGs can automatically adjust difficulty to individual players' skills.

This is tangental, and not the original intent of leveling.

In tabletop games, your character would, in terms of the narrative, get stronger and better over time. But you as a player aren't shooting bows or swinging swords, so levels were used as a way to indicate that. The system of interaction was abstract, such that what you as a player do has no bearing on what your avatar does.

Fast forward to early RPGs. Leveling was necessary for challenge, because without leveling they'd be dead simple strategy games. This holds true for all JRPGs and MMOs to this day. Remove leveling, and it would become instantly apparent every one of these games sucks. So leveling was necessary, or else players would master your simple shitty systems in like two seconds.

But action games like FPS have a continuity of action between the player and the avatar. YOU large determine your success in an FPS for example, by getting better at moving and aiming. Your skill, not the avatars. Thus, leveling is not needed because the progression comes from you.

This is why action games had a selectable difficulty setting, and not leveling - they were not simple shitty games.

There are games that do avatar progression well. The secret is that progression makes the game more challenging. You acquire new abilities, and so can face more challenging scenarios. This is in contrast to games with leveling, in which you are simply facing more difficult situations that are no more challenging.