How many times have you seen or heard of someone “out-leveling the content?” It’s probably safe to say it’s happened to everyone who’s played an MMO. You create a new character, grab all the quests you can, and start completing them, quickly leveling your character as you go. It usually doesn’t take too long for your character to level up to the point where some of the initial quests you got no longer offer experience rewards or items that are still useful. I was thinking about this the other day and I started wondering if the whole experience and leveling up system is backwards. What if it took longer to level up at the beginning of your characters life, and got quicker as you leveled?

If there’s just one thing you can count on with an MMO, it’s that a large number of players, if not the majority, will do whatever they can to get to the max level as quickly as possible. I saw it most recently with EverQuest II’s Rise of Kunark release, where players stocked up on experience-boosting potions and blasted through the content as quickly as possible to get to level 80. The general consensus appears to be that “all the good stuff” is at the end game, so that’s where players want to be. It was for that reason that World of Warcraft recently boosted the amount of experience gained between levels 20 and 60. It’s also what got me thinking of this topic. After being max level for so long in EverQuest II, I just didn’t have it in me to go through what I considered a grind to get to the new max level after RoK; I just wanted to be level 80 already so I could get back to raiding.

Why not put the “grindy” stuff at the beginning of the game, while you’re learning how to play your character? Pretend for a moment you’re a newly created Warrior, level 1. You’ve held a sword before, but never really used one in combat. It would probably take a fair bit of practice before you gained some measure of confidence with it and could then consider yourself a level 2 sword swinger. Yet, in any MMO I’ve played recently, getting to level two is usually a matter of killing a small number of mobs taking about five minutes, if that. Fast forward your imaginary Warrior a few years. He’s slain countless beasts and holds a mastery over his sword, swinging it with ease. How much more about fighting is there for him to learn after he’s been doing it over 60 levels? I would argue that there would be less experience to gain at the higher levels than what was gained previously.

In fewer words, I’m wondering if a system where going from level 1 to 2 took longer than going from 69 to 70 would work, and would it be more fun for the players? Among the benefits to this system, would be a greater chance for players to see all of the beginning content; it would be harder to “out-level” quests and zones. It would allow more time for players to learn their characters, which could only be a good thing, right? It could also help crafters sell their lower level wares; typically people don’t buy armour or spells in EQII until after level 20 or so as it is now. Finally, I think it could give a player a greater sense of progress, knowing that as they level, the process will go quicker, getting them to the end-game “fun stuff” quicker.

There’s probably many reasons why the system wouldn’t work. Just off the top of my head I think it could scare some players off if they didn’t get a quick sense of progress right from the start. If a player spends too much time at level one they may get frustrated. It could also potentially prevent players from creating alt-characters.

I think it could work, assuming the game had interesting starter zones to keep the players playing, along with a logical set of progression quests. It would be a great opportunity to outline some of the games lore at the start, and explain to the player what the world is all about. What do you think?

I’m just thirteen days away from having my cancelled EverQuest II account run out of remaining play time.  I haven’t logged in to the game in about two weeks now, and the last time I did, it couldn’t hold my interest for more than ten minutes.  My time away from EQII has allowed me to enjoy other games, like Oblivion and Company of Heroes, both of which are fantastic.  So why is it that I’m entertaining the thought of renewing my account?  What follows is a bit of self-therapy; I’ll list something that is pulling me back towards the game, and follow it up with why it’s also pushing me away.

Hours Spent
The fact that I’ve played EQII exclusively for three years is most likely the biggest pull.  You spend that much time (and money) with one thing and it’s bound to be tough to leave it cold turkey, although I think I would very likely cry to know what my cumulative /played time is.  For so long now, every bit of time spent at my computer was spent in EQII.  Now, I don’t have that kind of time.  Once my “real life” duties are finished for the day, I usually only have about an hour and a half of free time before I head off to sleepy land, and if I’m going to spend that time gaming, I’ve found it more rewarding to spend it having fun skirmishing in Company of Heroes or knocking off a quest in Oblivion.  I’ve tried popping in to EQII for short periods of time but I don’t get the same feeling of reward, in fact, it feels more like work.  I know others had a different experience, but I found the post-70 content to be a repetitive, boring, grind.  I found it very tough, not in difficulty, but in motivation, to get to level 74 and I just can’t fathom continuing that grind for six more levels.

So Much to See, So Much to Do
I’ve barely scratched the surface of Rise of Kunark.  I’ve been finished with Timorous Deep for a while, and have seen most of Fens, but aside from brief forays into Kunzar Jungle and Jarsath Wastes, I haven’t seen much else.  I’ve heard how cool some of the instances are, and the raids that I’ve read about also sound impressive.  Unfortunately, this one comes back to the whole “time” thing.  My understanding is that at 74, I’m still a tad too low for most of the instances.  I did get into a Karnor’s Castle group a couple weeks ago, but I was the only one not level 80.  My guild is making great progress on the raids, and in fact has become a fairly popular guild, attracting several new members.  The focus of the guild has shifted slightly towards a more dedicated raiding guild (not quite hard-core, but approaching there) and as a result the raid spots are occupied for those that can raid more often, which I can’t do.  As a healer, I could probably get a raid spot easier than others (provided I was 80), but I wouldn’t feel right being a casual raider in this guild.  In addition to the zones and instances I haven’t seen, there’s some content I’ll regret never finishing.  The Claymore line is first and foremost there.  Yep, I never finished my Claymore.  There are lots of reasons for it, but the short version is that by the time I got around to it, everyone else had moved on and no one ever wanted to go back to Sanctum of the Scaleborn.  Now, I’m sure I could whip through most of the quests fairly quickly, but would probably have a hard time finding people doing the raids at the end of the quest line.  For the same reasons I’ll never be able to finish the Sword of Destiny line.  Finally, there’s no way I could even fathom spending the time needed to get my epic weapon.  Obviously, EverQuest II, much like any other MMO, just isn’t designed for those people without a lot of free time on their hands.

The Friends
When I look back at my time in the game, the most fun I’ve had was when I was in a group with my wife and friends.  It didn’t really matter what we were doing, because the group made it fun, and I think that’s what I’ll miss most of all.  I found those moments started disappearing for me as soon as raiding became our focus.  We no longer grouped for fun, or to check out instance so and so, rather it all became about getting this or that gear so that I can improve my dps by .05% to hopefully start showing up on the parse.  Rise of Kunark essentially killed grouping with its focus on solo quests, and finding a group for older zones became next to impossible mostly because everyone was focused on leveling in RoK, or because the old zones didn’t give “good enough loot”.  As a result, the past few times I’ve logged in, I’ve ended up working on the solo quests in Fens, which, quite frankly, gets wicked boring very quick.  I was able to tolerate doing those quests when my wife played along with me, but she left the game a while ago and I don’t have the same kind of fun without her.

The Blog
This blog wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for EQII.  While I honestly never anticipated having an audience, the server stats show that I do get visitors (not a lot, but more than I ever anticipated).  EQII certainly provides a lot of material for a blogger, and I’ve thought about the impact on this blog if I stopped playing.  However, as you may have noticed, I’ve just started blogging about the games I am playing, and while my traffic has dipped a smidge, there’s still people coming, and who knows, I may even get a new audience.  Ultimately though, I don’t do this necessarily for an audience, rather, I do it because I enjoy it, and I’d probably keep it up even if the stats showed no one was reading.  That said, I have invited my friend who plays EQII a lot still to contribute to the blog, although he has yet to do so.  He begged and pleaded with me to give him access for so long, and now that he has it, he’s got cold feet or something.  Hey Joe… brawk, braaaawwwwkk!

So that’s it in a nutshell.  I’ve had too much fun over the years to just dismiss the game, so it’s not easy to watch my subscription expire.  At the same time, I’ve already found several things I enjoy doing that wouldn’t have seen the light of day with EQII still in the picture.  I’m sure I’ll have even more second thoughts as that final day of play time approaches, but for right now, I’m still content with my decision to cancel the account.  I may be back, I may not, I don’t know at this point.  I’ll definitely play another MMO at some point; I’m currently looking forward to seeing how Warhammer Online turns out, and there’s always World of Warcraft too, which keeps tugging at me for some strange reason.  Who knows…  we’ll see.