I had been wondering about this, 15 seconds in. Harold at level 33. If I had to guess 20 is the max per sub-type, meaning the true current max would be 60. Salt and all that.

All the same that means during the beta we will indeed be able to max out our characters (or at least a sub-type), as if it was "the full game launch".

Interesting that the Guardian here is displayed as two different levels. He's listed as level 20 on the upper left of the player screen, but on the upper right as 29.

Some talk on reddit suggests that the "light" stat listed here artificially boosts the players levels somewhat.

Either theory sounds plausible to me!

...or 20 is still the cap, the higher numbers denote something else.

I didn't mean to imply the higher number didn't denote something else (or that 20 wasn't the cap, which I think is most likely). I was referring to the higher number as a "level" in the same way you referred to Harolds 33.

This is what I meant by being "artificially boosted" by Light, which again was merely speculation I was referring to. Bringing more parts to discuss at the table.

I keep seeing theories of which references to "Motes of Light", which is attributed to the Speaker. The more you "Rank", the more stuff you can purchase from him.

The Speaker is serious business.

Yes yes, such snazzy gear!

Edit: I think this sums everything up nicely.

Theory meet Fact. So if you need 10 "Motes of light" you need to be level 30 to be able to purchase said armor item. Suddenly the "your armor and weapons will keep you in Destiny" quote (which I can't seem to find) has more context. :D

Just seen this edit! It indeed sums this all up, nice and clean :)

I appear to have been going at it backwards. Whoops. My bad.

So a level cap, but you can keep 'leveling' like paragon levels in Diablo?

Ok, Cody don't get pissed yet. Wait. Wait. You still don't know…

Edit: I think this sums everything up nicely.

Theory meet Fact. So if you need 10 "Motes of light" you need to be level 30 to be able to purchase said armor item. Suddenly the "your armor and weapons will keep you in Destiny" quote (which I can't seem to find) has more context. :D

This part got me thinking:

Light increases your level, increasing the damage your abilities deal against higher-level enemies.

Does that mean only abilities? I would think not, we've seen abilities, weapons, grenades, and armor (and vehicles?) are all treated similarly. What about the "higher-level enemies" part? That seems specific. Which enemies specifically are higher-leveled? Ones with high levels, or ones with higher levels than you?
It's probably a leap, but I think whatever "higher-level" means, this is or might be saying that once you reach the level of an enemy, leveling up more won't make you do more damage to them with a given attack, that it tops out at wherever it is when you're the same level as that enemy. This is very good news to me, it means early-game content won't all turn to tissue paper when you get leveled up enough to take on late-game content. I hope that's what that means, or if not, I hope it's true independently of what that means. If that is what it means, what does it mean for the stats that weapons have independent of Guardians, and their upgrades?
For example, a level 14 Guardian and a level 42 Guardian both using a level 6 Thunderlord doing the same damage to a level 12 Hive is good, because you can play together and both meaningfully contribute, but if you can upgrade your Thunderlord to level 15 and rip right through that previously semi-challenging level 12 Hive everything goes out of whack again.