I have (more of) the power!

Leveling is a problem. Well, it has it good points, of course. Particularly:

- gives players clear goals
- feedback is simple and satisfying, strong sense of progress
- comparing against others is easy, very satisfying to many
- investment is rewarded

Now that last one is interesting. Rewarding investment is good for player retention, and that is the bottom line. But many players will cry that time invested should not replace skill. I agree in general, but it is not all bad. The time=power formula has some very compelling points in it's favor. It levels the playing field and broadens the audience. Everyone can succeed at leveling, as long as they have the time. More subtlely, a monster that you can't beat at level 50 becomes reasonable at 51 and easy at 52. This is a good thing for player satisfaction.

But there are problems:

- low level areas become ghost towns
- content becomes trivialized
- pvp degrades into ganking
- friends have difficulty staying "together" as they progress
- leveling ends

The latter three issues lead experienced players to view leveling as a necessary evil, a prerequisite to the "real game", and they burn through it as fast as possible. Why is this a problem? Because content creation is the problem and all these things waste content. Developers end up creating two if not more different games and you get all that "hardcore vs. casual" garbage that WoW spewed up.

Well, skill systems then? That's an interesting wrinkle, but I don't think it addresses the issues all that well. Because the problem I see here isn't just leveling, it's the use of an absolute power scale. Everything in the game is on a scale and as you "level" or "skill up" or whatever, you move up that scale. Rats at the bottom up through bandits, dragons, demons and demi-gods. The scales may be multi-dimensional, but you still start at 0 and move higher and higher. It can be with gear, the WoW endgame leveling, as well as levels or skills.

So what would happen if we change to relative power? After all, when you're busy fighting monster 2951094 its level does not matter, only the difference in levels between you and it. How would that work in a persistent world?

For simplicity let's imagine there are 3 kingdoms of bad guys, each with their own area. You, the great hero, are at level 0 with respect to all three. You go charging into the first area, equipped with all manner of quests to complete and discover bad guys who range from slightly less than you to several levels above you. Now, if you really are a skilled player, whatever that means in this particular game, you might beat enemies who outlevel you by quite a bit. Regardless, as you fight them you level with respect to them (call it learning their weaknesses or whatever) making it easier to defeat them. The more skilled player can take pride in completing his goals in the area without having to level much while the less skilled player can still complete it with more time invested.

The most important point, however, is that completing the first area does not level you past the second area which has it's own relative power scale. Content is not trivialized, areas don't get left behind, groups can play together more easily and it doesn't divide the game into leveling and end-game. Likewise, you always remain at the same relative power level with other players so PvP is not wrecked by PvE.

Because it has less drawbacks and is more flexible, a relative power scheme is a better foundation for a game than an absolute power scheme. However, it comes with its own significant drawback - the blind drive to see the numbers go up is compromised. Each area has to stand on its own as a fun and interesting to do because there is no underlying motivation to grind through an area just to get to the next one (under the blind fallacy that it will be different somehow). As a player, I think this is a good thing, because it raises the bar for developers to come up with alternative motivations.