On Levels (Destiny)

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Friday, July 25, 2014, 15:41 (3774 days ago)

The initial purpose of a leveling system at all was to simulate the progression and learning of skills in games that were otherwise simple. Starting with D&D, you weren't actually learning how to fight or get better with swords or becoming more fluent in whatever language your character spoke. In terms of narrative however, the hero has to grow stronger and more skilled, and so a level progression system is meant to simulate this, since the game systems don't lend themselves to such mastery.

Many early video games likewise had simple systems that were easily mastered. Thus, leveling systems. However there are plenty of games and genres that DO rely on the player's actual mastery of the skills involved to play the game. It's no coincidence that these types of games almost universally lacked level systems. There was no need; the player himself would grow more powerful as he learned the game.

See where this is going? FPS is a pretty complex genre, and with Destiny being new, the world, mechanics, and interacting systems could have been complex and meaningful to master. A leveling system is meant to simulate something that Destiny could have actually had. You're getting the simulation, which precludes the real!

But what about Deus Ex? I always talk about that game, and it allows you to level up abilities. Again, this was done as simulation. You aren't actually asked to pick locks, nor are you asked to actually hack. Thus, the abstracted leveling system for these types of skills understandable, and was rolled into the larger fabric of the game in a really meaningful way, by allowing you to steer your character and thus your experience, all without grinding.

It's astounding that nobody on the project realized this colossal misstep.