Yesterday (again), it was nine days before the release of Guild Wars 2. Everything appears to get getting closer and closer and before we know it we will be enjoying our home instances, exploring the stretches of each map within Tyria, storming stonemist castle in world vs world and carefully selecting which weapon/utility skills for structured player vs player. In this post we will delve into the topic the leveling curve, or the lack of a leveling curve in Guild Wars 2.
9. No Leveling Curve
In every MMO that I can think of; there is a leveling curve. This means that for each level you gain, the next level becomes harder to achieve. This is normally done by increasing the experience you have to get to level up. Many games use this model meaning that the characters that are higher level have put a fair amount of work into getting there which in some cases is fair enough. The problem with this system lies with the feeling of grinding, when we consider the general questing system, general profession (crafting) systems which are in the MMOs of today; leveling up generally isn't enjoyable. Reading walls of text rather than getting into a battle to work out what's happening isn't the way games were mean't to be played.
"the experience that player gets will allow them to level at a consistent and constant speed."
If we wanted to read, we would read a book or some online wiki of the story, not play a game which basically tells us a story.Guild Wars 2's leveling system doesn't include grinding, every level the experience to level to rise slightly, but if the player is exploring and moving in line with the progression of the game; the experience that player gets will allow them to level at a consistent and constant speed. This not only eliminates the feeling of having to grind up the levels, but it also allows the player to level where they want! On top of all of this, there is a dynamic scaling system where the player will be leveled down when in a low level zone. This allows players to play where they want, with who they want and not feel that it is not giving them valid experience or rewards. Another massive plus to this system is that no player can come back to an earlier zone and ruin another player's leveling experience.
That's all on leveling in Guild Wars 2, next post coming soon.
