Big Evil = Levels

If you know me, you probably realize that I'm really against designing MMORPGs with levels. (I'd like to rant about these D&D artifacts, but this isn't the time.)

Adam Dray recently distilled an article by Raph Koster about the purpose and problems of levels:

Essentially, levels are great for a few reasons:

• Levels push towards cooperative rather than competitive play
  
• Levels provide random reinforcement, Skinner-box style (conditioning)
  
• Levels provide a ladder that players feel they have to finish off(commitment)
  
• Levels are a marker for social validation
  
• Levels are the exclusive "velvet rope" that make you want to see what is behind the door
  
• Levels supply additional power and thus validation from the game itself
  
• Levels are a content multiplier

Levels suck for a few reasons:

• Levels require content developers to provide their content in bands
  
• Levels prevent people from playing with each other

Raph sums up:
The things [levels do] that have been listed throughout this article are:

• Feedback for achievements
  
• Public status based on achievements
  
• Gated communities that require special status to enter
  
• The lure of power based on significant achievements
  
• Regular changes or variation in the challenges undertaken within a given playstyle
  
• Cozy worlds created with players segmented based on when they entered the game and the rate at which they leveled; or self-selected by players

Bottom line: none of these need hit points to go up. None of these need the traditional notion of levels as we know it, actually. Nor do they need any of the other sorts of "levels-in-disguise" things like skill trees, actually. Power can be satisfied with a number of things, including collection mechanics, customization, and...

Now all I have to do is work this into Impswitch (much I already have).

Fang Langford