Powerleveling ruined my day

[Denmo]

My god, the only way these threads could be made worse is if /b/ invaded.


I think the downside of Power Leveling is pretty clear:

[SIZE="6"]It ruins the whole point of the game.[/SIZE]

Why is there mid level content if people just want to skip over it to get to 50?

Why is there any gear below 40?

If SE is OK with people speeding their way through levels, they might as well do away with half of the game. They're practically saying that their game isn't worth experiencing.

That's the truth of it.

This isn't a game where reaching level cap means "You win!"

It's a game where you interact with other people as you struggle to grow and EXPERIENCE the game. Is it really fun to go stomping through a low level dungeon by yourself at level 50? Really? What have you gained by being level 50 in two weeks (or however long it takes with these PL parties)? Did you gain new friends? Can you recall fond memories of when times were harder but you still pulled through?

No. You can't, because you exploited the game, and in doing so cheated yourself out of any enjoyment you could have had.

[Lavani]

Well, obviously you didn't read my post at all.
The problem is the connectedness of players in a MMO, not whether I made some puny EXP in that situation or not.
Rings a bell?

What part of

By that logic: why doesn't SE hand out artifact weapons for free?
After all, the whole mumbo-jumbo until max level and gear should be completely optional anyway?

states anything about player connectedness?

If you're talking about

Like, because in a MMO, players are completely seperated from each other?

No they are not separated from each other, but they are not forced to play with you.

Finally you did edit your post while I was replying to your original post.

[Charismatic]

My god, the only way these threads could be made worse is if /b/ invaded.

A little Captain Planet might make these threads a bit better.

[Cycloptichorn]

You guys ought to consider that many of the people you see being PL'd have other jobs at 50 already and are working on getting sub-skills.

I'm not huge on PL'ing but I really can't get as incensed about it as others here. For the entirety of my gaming career, there have always been ways to skip content, whether it's a cheat code or ways to advance to later levels of the game once you've already beaten it once. This is no different.

[Tsukino]

really? who cares? How does somone elses level affect your gameplay?


Oh that's right, they don't. Go cry about it some more...

Other people already did a pretty good job of explaining how it affects their gameplay.

If you want to level legitimately, the pool of other people for parties matters quite a bit. If only a percentage of people want to party without power-leveling, then you have only that percentage to work with. If everyone is instead forced to gain experience with those around their own level, then your pool is much larger.

Beyond that, there is also an issue with "campsites" and how people use them. If some level 50 characters are slaughtering level 30 targets, they've monopolized the whole place. If that wasn't useful for something, it would be free for people to gain EXP in normally - perhaps even more than one group to do so.

Finally, there are the hazier concerns about game balance and sense of accomplishment and such. In some games reaching the maximum level is a major achievement. Even if it is difficult to do without power-leveling, the option lessens the sense of accomplishment because they "could have just done it the easy way." Overall, with rising in level being very easy, you also end up with a game that has a pointless grind followed by content, rather than the RPG ideal of content alongside progression. Basically, the population influences the content and if everyone is max level due to power-leveling, why would the developers bother making content for level 30 players?

[Denmo]

People keep bringing up how Abyssea is SE's legitimized PLing feature in FFXI. What they forget is that if you're a new or returning player hoping to enjoy anything outside of Abyssea, you're pretty much SoL.

[Lavani]

The only viable argument against power leveling affecting players, that CHOSE not to power level, is the fact that groups will kill mobs faster taking the EXP in an area. I agree completely with that argument BUT there are many ways to play the game and many areas to gain EXP. You are not locked into one area for EXP gain, simply move somewhere else if the power leveling party is camping that zone, they are freeing up the entire map by staying put. If they were roaming then you can still gain EXP because the respawn timer on mobs is very fast from what I have noticed.

Right now I'm leveling my character until my friend decides to start playing again. If she wants to be powerleveld to catch up to my highest level class, i should be able to do so. If she decides she wants to be slower about it, i can switch jobs and play something else until she is at my main class level.

Finally, after we both reach rank 50 on a specific job, I don't want to have to do it all over again, I want her to powerlevel my second class, and ill do the same for her.

[Denmo]

The only viable argument against power leveling affecting players, that CHOSE not to power level, is the fact that groups will kill mobs faster taking the EXP in an area. I agree completely with that argument BUT there are many ways to play the game and many areas to gain EXP. You are not locked into one area for EXP gain, simply move somewhere else if the power leveling party is camping that zone, they are freeing up the entire map by staying put. If they were roaming then you can still gain EXP because the respawn timer on mobs is very fast from what I have noticed.

Ignoring all other arguments against PLing, and attacking the weakest argument. Good job!

[Lavani]

Ignoring all other arguments against PLing, and attacking the weakest argument. Good job!

That's because the other arguments are actually weaker than this. And I was not attacking anything. There should always be powerleveling especially in a game where there are many types of classes one character can have. Like I said, people that get to lvl 50 by any means, usually it's not by powerleveling, should not have to grind to 50 again each time they want to level another class if they don't want to.

:Edit: What would you concider to be the strongest argument against allowing players the choice to powerlevel friends, or anyone asking to be powerleveled?

[Denmo]

That's because the other arguments are actually weaker than this. And I was not attacking anything. There should always be powerleveling especially in a game where there are many types of classes one character can have. Like I said, people that get to lvl 50 by any means, usually it's not by powerleveling, should not have to grind to 50 again each time they want to level another class if they don't want to.

You miss the point of the game, then. The point is not getting level 50. It's participation in a world, interacting with people, and ultimately having fun while struggling to achieve.

Getting 100k exp in an hour removes that point entirely.

And last I recall, FFXI generally frowned upon PLing (the exploitative ones like SMN burns, not the mild ones where an outside friend would help heal your party), and also required everyone to level up each individual job that they wanted to sub/cap. I'm pretty sure XI did very well in that regard.