Power-leveling is absolutely BROKEN

[Betelgeuzah]

That's not a MMORPG to me. Let me bold, to me. Is this really the new generation of MMORPGs?

Yes. Demanding Dedication is seen as a negative aspect (using terms with negative ring to them like "grind" when talking about this subject). Demanding Skill has become the be-all, end-all goal to strive towards in the modern MMO scene (using terms with positive ring to them like "challenge").

That said, to create contents that require Skill the developers are faced with the problem of balance vs. freedom. More variables means less balance and more freedom, which in turn means less developers have less control over all the variables, which in turn means developers have a much harder time to create balanced contents that require Skill.

The most significant variable developers have no control over in this context is the variable of individual player competency. Leveling up is the core progression system in any MMORPG and, since developers have no way of dividing the playerbase according to their competency level (no control over the variable), the content needs to be created with the lowest common denominator in mind.

That said, in this scenario only the lowest common denominator may require Skill to level. For the rest of the playerbase the content requires no Skill, and logically there is only one way to make the content worth the while for these people; requiring Dedication instead.

But Dedication these days is a taboo word, since the trend is to try to get rid of any and all kind of activities requiring it, in favor of having all activities to require Skill instead. That said, when it comes to leveling in an MMORPG, which takes no Skill, that developers still try to remove all the Dedication required anyway. Because it's "bad".

What we are left with is an activity that requires no Skill and less and less Dedication. In the end there is no reason to keep the activity in the game anymore. May as well start from level 50.

[Issac]

Yes. Demanding Dedication is seen as a negative aspect (using terms with negative ring to them like "grind" when talking about this subject). Demanding Skill has become the be-all, end-all goal to strive towards in the modern MMO scene (using terms with positive ring to them like "challenge").

Cap, you should login. We'll grind together in a light party and enjoy the game together. Hopefully we can fool ourselves into ignorance and ignore the fact that plvlers are everywhere elbowing in on the mob spawn.

But no, I'm serious, log on. We need more players like you.