Character Growth: Leveling is part of RPGs

[casker]

This idea that people who don't want a long leveling curve are just FPS-playing-instant-gratification-wanting-ninnies is bogus.

Have you dudes played ANY games besides FFXI? GW1 gets you to max within a few hours. UO didn't even have levels but skill levels. Doesn't mean there was no effort involved in those games, or no community, or no exploration, etc.

In fact, this entire argument is pretty much pointless. What matters is not how long it takes but whether there is enough content to sustain however long you want the curve to be, and these days, massive grinds is NOT going to fly unless they want to cater only to the shattered remnants of FFXI players. Grinding monsters all day for one bubble of exp is not a premium experience worth a subscription fee.

I agree with these notions like "it's about the journey, not the destination" but after your first job in FFXIV there is no journey, just massive grind. It's a huge design flaw and making it longer isn't going to make it a journey it will make it an even bigger waste of time than this game already is.

[Jynx]

UO didn't even have levels but skill levels.

I'd just like to point out that skill levels in Ultima Online were pretty much levels in themselves unlocking skills and stats that you didn't have previously.

And they took a extremly long time to master some of them. Animal Taming was insanely long but one of the best skills you could have.