Think... er... I mean, Decrypt Different™ ;) (Destiny)

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Friday, September 01, 2017, 08:56 (2693 days ago) @ dogcow

Again, it helps to take a look at the purpose of avatar leveling systems in games to see why they are not nessesary in an FPS.

Keep in mind that leveling and upgrade systems are not the same. Upgrade systems like in Deus Ex kick ass and make the the game more challenging, more interesting, and more diverse. What we are talking about are systems that deal with traditional power levels. Systems where your power is directly tied to a level. This is different than acquiring weapons and skills as you progress through the game.

The purpose of such systems is to decouple effectiveness from player skill. The reason being in tabletop games was that you as a player weren't actually swinging a sword or shooting a bow or whatnot, so there was no way for "you" to get better. Thus, leveling was a way to allow your character to become more adept in world, as they would as they progress on their adventures.

RPGs kept the leveling system because at their core they are very simple games that don't have a lot of depth and are easy to master. The systems are not very dynamic, and thus players could master them very quickly. Play a Final Fantasy game and see what I mean. Attack, heal, repeat. You could finish the game very easily. So to give the illusion of progression and difficulty, your avatar had a power level as did the enemies.

It should be obvious the FPS is a genre that is pretty deep and diverse with plenty of room for player skill to grow, and for challenges to strain the players. This on principle, there is absolutely zero reason for an avatar leveling system to exist in Destiny. None. The game would be far better suited if players acquired skills and weapons as they play without such a system.

There is a reason for the system, and that is time. It's designed to hold you back even if you are ready skill wise. Because Bungie wants you to constantly play Destiny, without realizing that no game can sustain that without either an insanely expensive conveyor belt of content, or time wasting grinding.

It's a solution to a non problem.