Great Game Design Debate: MMO Leveling Edition

[Continuing my thought process on MMOs, today's debate is on leveling up. Should a game require months of playing to reach the cap, or days? As always, there are pros and cons to both sides.]

Two things that are synonymous with MMOs are leveling up and an endgame. Most gamers argue that during the leveling up time, the player is in training for the main event, and the endgame is where the real game starts. Based on that philosophy, most MMOs have a high cap on their levels which also serves as a way to keep people playing for months and get them ready for the endgame.

Yet some MMOs have experimented with caps that can be reached in days; Guild Wars had a cap at level 20, and DC Universe Online was set at 30. With a low cap, it allows more of the fan base to experience "the real game", now with that said, is one form better than the other?

Let's start with a large cap, which has several key advantages. First is that it has a clear progression model, someone who is level 5 won't be doing the same things as a level 70. These games are designed with a "treadmill" mentality in mind, to keep the player interested and to keep playing to reach the cap. Another way to keep the player invested is with side activities, like crafting to give the player a diversion while still rewarding them. Since the player is going to spend so much time in the world, these side activities help branch out the gameplay.

With all those levels to climb, also means that there has to be a lot of places to visit. For those looking for worlds to explore, games like World of Warcraft and Ever quest 2 can fit that bill. A huge world also helps with keeping griefers somewhat in control, as with all the different areas to go to, means they can't focus on one area and attack low level players as easy.

Now the problems with a high cap, because most MMOs are based on character progression and not player, means that the player will usually figure out the game before hitting the cap. However, since it doesn't matter how skilled the player is, they will still have to level up before starting the endgame, sort of like being forced to eat your vegetables before getting to dessert.

Because content is spread out across so many levels, it makes designing a variety of content difficult; if you've seen one fetch quest, you've seen them all. With so many areas to fill with content, it would take a very long time to create unique content for every single section, which for game launch; designers normally don't have that luxury. With so much space to design content for, it can lead to two situations where gamers can quit.

During the early days of City of Heroes, the designers ran out of content for the time spent playing between levels 35-40; forcing players to grind on regular enemies for 5 levels before they can do any new missions. The enjoyment factor of the game took a nosedive for that part which is a shame, as there was some interesting content after the hump.

The second scenario is when the treadmill no longer provides a hook. Spending months doing the same tasks before "the game begins", can be as maddening as running out of content. I played World of Warcraft back during the launch year for about 6 months. During that time my highest character was only level 50 and I really stopped caring about progression around the 40s. I grew tired of the same tasks and how the content was so generalized and stopped playing.

Huge level caps also make it very hard to try new characters due to the time commitment required to level just one character (with exception to the hardcore players.) Since the first impression is important, content at the lower levels are usually more varied as it eases new players into the game and their classes. However, once the player leaves the starting area, they are usually taken to a more generalized area where everyone has access to the same pool of quests.

Moving on, let's talk about low caps. Because of the lower cap, it allows gamers to reach the cap, and endgame, around the time that they have figured out the mechanics of the game. With less content needed to level up, it frees up the designers to create more varied content at the endgame, as they know that the majority of their audience will get to see it.

PvP is usually more focused and built around the game better, once again going back to more players being able to experience it. With Guild Wars, the game really became PvP focused once players reached the cap and could start experimenting with their skills and get into matches.

Creating different characters is also easier as the lack of a serious time commitment allows players to try out a variety of classes without having to spend months grinding them back up. Speaking about classes, one similarity between games with lower caps is that the designers try to do something different with the gameplay compared to high cap games. Guild Wars featured a collectible card game like system, of designing your skill bar from a variety of options, with rare skills obtainable from quests. While DC Universe went for a more action game like combat system and a different way of rewarding gamers for completing quests which will be the subject of another entry.

Now the problems, the main one has to do with content, but of a different subject compared to high cap games. Because more gamers are going to hit the cap and play the endgame in lower cap MMOs, it also means that the designers are going to have to design a lot more content. Since lower cap games don't have a lot of side activities, it's going to take a continual implementation of end game content to keep people playing, in other words like constantly feeding a coal driven locomotive engine to keep going.

The lack of content is one of the aspects that really hurt DC Universe Online right out of the gate. With everyone reaching the level cap within a week, the designers were put on the spot to live up to their promise of putting out content monthly. Unfortunately as we all found out, they weren't able to keep up which was one of the points that led to the game going F2P.

Lack of rewards is another big deal. Being able to see your character become powerful over the course of the game is a powerful draw for high cap MMOs. By the time the player hits the cap, they’ll have a huge pool of skills to draw from and a variety of equipment. However in low cap MMOs, you don't have that luxury in rewarding players. The problem with most endgame design is that it's built around raids (high level content requiring larger groups of players to succeed.) The purpose then becomes, completing raids to get more gear so that you can do more raids and this repeats until the player gets bored.

DC Universe Online attempted to get around this with various solo, duo and raid content at the endgame, but it all feeds into the same process of getting gear. While I'm enjoying DCUO, after reaching the level cap, I'm still baffled as to why the designers originally thought that a subscription model would work, as I don't see this game being worth it in terms of content. Guild Wars knew that it didn't have enough content for a subscription model and designed it from day one with that in mind, something that DCUO would have benefited from.

That last point is interesting, the lower cap MMOs I've seen either start out as F2P, or transition into it and I think content is the big deal. It's far easier to create generalized quests that can fill 70 or more levels of gameplay, as oppose to 30 levels of completely unique content.

As for me, since I've gone on record saying that I like F2P design in the past, my preference is for shorter level caps and having the chance to try more skill based gameplay is always a plus. When you look at both sides of the argument it comes down to where the experience lies, for high cap, it's in the journey and for low cap it's the ending.

Personally, regardless of level caps, I do feel like the traditional model for an endgame needs to be revised. Doing raid content for the sole purpose of getting the gear to do more doesn't sit right with me. Endgame content should be the most diverse that the game has to offer and should give out more tangible rewards then just shinier pieces of loot. After-all as many gamers put it, it's "where the real game begins."

Josh Bycer