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Loading... When XP Is Not Enough

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Posted October 30th, 2009 by B. de la Durantaye

Welcome to the 1,198th edition of Loading...

Loading... is the premier daily MMORPG news, coverage, and commentary newsletter, only from Ten Ton Hammer.

How much xp is too much? Is there such a thing? With less and less patience from gamers now, why bother having it at all? Join us today as we mourn the loss of experience point value in Loading... When XP is Not Enough

The Pulse

You vote with what you view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the result is the Ten Ton Pulse (What is The Pulse?).

Here's today's top 5 Pulse results:

Biggest movers today:

Global Agenda (Up 14 to #18)
Dragon Age Origins (Up 9 to #19)
The Secret World (Up 2 to #15)

Recent MMO Releases

8/25 - CrimeCraft (release date)
9/1 - Champions Online (release date)
9/9 - Dungeons & Dragons Online Unlimited (release date)
9/15 - Runes of Magic "The Elven Prophecy" (expansion)
9/22 - Fallen Earth (release date)
9/22 - Aion (release date)
10/8 - Cities XL (release date)

Upcoming Releases

11/3 - Dragon Age: Origins (release date)
12/1 - LotRO: Siege of Mirkwood (release date)
12/2 - DOFUS 2.0 (release date)
Early 2010 - APB

Important Dates

10/23 - 10/24 - Hero-Con

Loading... Daily

It seems every game today has some sort of experience boost. Tell your friend about the game, get triple xp; buy a collector's edition, get an experience boosting ring; shop the microtransaction store, buy an xp potion; finish a quest, get xp bonus; log off, xp boost. It's hard to argue that it's not cool to get bonuses, but why does it have to always be xp?

New games launching now come with in-game items that will give you more xp, allowing you to level faster. Um, ok... cool, but... aren't new games notorious for having little for the player to do at max level? The reason for that being simple, in that MMOGs evolve over years, and you need to have a complete, polished low and mid-level game before you should be polishing the end game. So how does it make sense to push players into the end game quicker, so they can find the bugs/lack of content/whatever else and start fertilizing the forums with posts of discontent?

I think perhaps developers like to have little prizes and exciting things for their players, and it can be hard to keep coming up with new rewards ideas. But maybe the solution isn't found there at all, but rather a look at the system itself.

If the ultimate goal is to reach level 50, 70, 80, 1000, then once players reach that level, they're going to want to feel rewarded. They don't want to be met with lack of content. So why should that even be the goal? Remove that milestone, and suddenly the whole dynamic of the game changes. You'll have fewer players rushing past content that took years to develop, and more players immersing themselves in other ways. Content would become more valuable if xp was a thing of the past.

Sure, there's plenty of arguments against it too - playres need to level up to get to know the game, it's a good learing curve, it's a standardized reward system, etc. etc. etc. In the end though, I think we, as gamers, would benefit much more if we were more focused on either self-created goals, or open ended reward systems that equate experience with an ACTUAL experience, and not just another form of currency.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think it would make for a far more social and interesting game if character advancement was done through active choices, and not by grinding kills. What do you think? Let us know in the forums.

2 New Ten Ton Hammer MMOG features today! 124 in October! 2,072 in 2009!

Today's New Features & Guides

The Daeva Weekly: Ten Ton Hammer's Aion Newsletter - The Perks of Community
http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/76170
MMOGs are all about community. After all, there really isn't much point in playing one if you are oblivious to the players around you, right? Does this unique aspect of community make Aion's community management team vital to its success? Join the discussion on the role of community in a game's well being and get the latest Aion and Ten Ton Hammer news all in this week's Newsletter!
Aion: Downtime By Design
http://www.tentonhammer.com/aion/designeddowntime
In the era of slackers it is surprising that there might be a backlash to doing nothing. All kidding aside, downtime is one of those nebulous and often misunderstood ideas in gaming. Aion includes different mechanisms for players to take a break and enjoy some downtime if they so choose. Some players don’t enjoy any downtime and view it as a waste of time. Today we review the different mechanics for downtime in Aion and how it could promote community building.

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Thanks for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!

- Benjamin J. de la Durantaye and the Ten Ton Hammer team

Comments

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This is exactly the reason why I think all serious MMOs should opt for the skill system ie. EVE. Theres no reason why you can't adapt the eve system to use more traditional MMO means of increasing skills ie quests/killing/GM hacks.

I'd like to see a mainstream MMO with a skillbased system. Maybe The Secret World will pull it off....

I Agree

I think you make an excellent point here. I play EvE and one of the things I like most about is that it has no real leveling system. I can understand why leveling would be more appealing in games that are less sandboxy than EvE, but for the most part I think it drags down the game experience by, as you noted, causing players to rush through content.

The lack of leveling in EvE allows me to make my own way through the game at my own speed, without having to concern myself with how many expe...

Yes & No

Being an old (65 years old) D&D P&P player I understand the xp drill. But I do agree with you that all of these extra bonus(s) items/buys do distort the system and devalues xp to a commodity.

The main problem I have with MMO's is their currency systems which makes everything a commodity. If you are rich and have no morals/character you will just buy currency and to hell with game play. Where is the enjoyment of completing tasks that do give reward and enjoyment.

I think the main pr...

I think they all settle on XP boosts because simply cosmetic things are kinda meh, and anything else would make your character actually better than they guy next to you.

Oh, and I have no issues with XP boosts. If they let you get to end game too fast and there is nothing there? well, that isn't a problem with XP boosting items, it is a problem with your release :P

Ultimately, does it make any difference if the game in question is going to follow the typical pattern of having end game content?

If high level raiding and/or getting the associated gear is THE thing to do in players minds will they not just find the quickest route to doing just that?

Be it via XP or skill leveling?

If players aren't concerned with that then they are also probably not all that concerned in racing through content or any XP bonuses in the first place.

I think there...

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