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Leveling and how important is it to you.
calranthe
Member UncommonPosts: 359
Hi all,
I personally have no interest in leveling for levels sake, no rush to get to end game and in the beta I played about 40 hours and my main character only got to level ten.
I spent all of those 40 hours exploring, talking to npc's choosing items of equipment and roleplaying the leveling just happened in theory I can see it taking a year or more for me to reach max level on my main character, to me that is true value for money.
Spending time exploring each new world, taking screenshots of the places of interest, writing a journal of my experiences, visiting every bar and social place, developing my character.
I am retired in theory I could max level in a couple of weeks seen as I have alot of spare time but the last time that I did that in a game I missed out on so much (anyone who knows city of heroes knows how much lore and storylines there are but if you group up and powerlevel you can end up seeing less than 10% of the content).
I play mmo's to be social and meet like minded people, grouping for me will be a rarity decided by one of two situations, roleplay or wife needs my help with her character in a heroic quest etc.
I have done the raid thing and the power level thing, bioware is giving me a chance to take a different aproach the same kind of aproach when I play skyrim or mass effect, to have storylines hopefully as memorable as or close to a single player adventure.
Having played mmo's since muds and gone through most of the mmo titles (favourite rp mmo being Anarchy online, the wasted hundreds of hours spent in baboons and reet's retreat) there is not many storylines or quests that stuck with me but in SWTOR beta I saw alot to make me stop and smell the roses as it were.
Maybe I am just getting wierd in my old age hehe.
Comments
This post reminds me of the story between the old bull and the young bull. Respect to you my friend and may the force be with you
Leveling isn't really important to me as far as a means to advance my character's story arch and LS/DS progression and gear. Aside fromt hat I could careless.
I approach every MMO the same way. I'm in no hurry at all. It's never been a race for me. Don't get me wrong, I love standing on top of the mountain, the view is amazing. But the harder and longer the journey to get there, the more I enjoy it. Plus I am an artist, and love to just wander around at times and enjoy the work that has been done.
I plan to take my time and relish it all.
I totally agree as to your plan on playing this game, nothing weird about it. I don't care if I ever hit the max-level. Like you, I spent many hours in the recent betas, and never went beyond lvl. 10, and had a lot of fun. Rock On
Il play it really slowly , 1st ill choose my char i'm not a reroller so i want to get it right from the start (Jedi Guardian), will see all cinematics lvl professions, and do lots of pvp/pve enjoying the game to the max, reading all my skills tooltips and pvp like a pro, even if we dont have Gladiator titles ill be pvping to become better just for the lols
I love levelling, not just character but weaponskills, fishing, crafting, factions, Honor, you name it, I just like watching the numbers change. The feeling of empowerment that comes with it is what drives me in MMOs.
One thing I love about SWTOR is the number of numbers it has (lots of different systems ingame) so whether it be finding a new piece of lore or dinging a new character level or just watching my credits increase slightly I'm happy.
The speed at which this all happens? Not fussed in the slightest, I'd go so far as to say I prefer slower than faster as it gives me ample time to get to know how my character works properly each time a number changes.
This game should/will allow you to do that. For once, there actually is a story and unlimited lore.
My theory is that due to the sheer scale of storyline, i won't even have to think about levelling and it will be a byproduct.
There will be nerds playing this on a level probably never before seen, who will grind out to max in a couple of weeks, so there's no point trying to keep up with them.
Levelling is really important to me... but it can wait while I enjoy the story.
Everything I say is my opinion or personal preference. You may or may not find it useful to your cause but regardless I am entitled to it.
See we are the people that alot of the previewers and naysayers are not counting on, as the old saying on AO goes
A powergamer plays a game to beat it, to win at everything and when no more content is available move on to new pastures but give a roleplayer a few tools, some social clothing and a place to call home and they will stay till the server room lights are turned off.
Alot of SW fans new to mmo's a huge amount of roleplayers this game could end up being home for them, they do not care about dps or tank, they do not mind about stats or end game raids or atleast not in the same way as some.
I also believe we are the people who now and again need to drag ourselves away from ingame and post on both mmorpg and the official forums of our good experiences and enjoyment of the game, we sadly should all realise by now people find it easier to complain than to compliment if most mmo's are anything to go by even to the extreme of SWG's NGE the complainers need to be balanced against those of us actually in game enjoying ourselves, which by our very nature of being happy and playing the game rather than visiting the forums is harder to do.
SWG is very good example, most of my friends in that game never visited the forum, were never aware of all the people complaining for change in SWG before the NGE hit, we were all in game exploring, refurnishing our new house or at the cantina and having amazing fun, I really never want to see that kind of imbalance again.
Story, minigames, leveling dungeons/parties are just cute diversions until you hit max level. Max level is where the REAL fun is at, and where the "MMO" earns its second "M".
Think about this, and my apologies for using WoW as a basis for my anlogy: you could give everyone who plays a heroic-blue geared character of their choice, and there would still exactly as many progression oriented raid guilds as there are now. This is because leveling provides absolutely no challenge, and is not a "barrier to entry" for the end game. So if the fun lies in the challenge for you, leveling isn't where the game lies.
I'll admit however that I've got great memories of meeting people and many a drunken dungeon while leveling - but face it, those incidents are far and few between. MOST time on a character is spent at "endgame" (whether you PVP, Raid, or whatever) and it's where MOST challenging character development takes place.
That's not to say that there's anything wrong with doing nothing but leveling characters or roleplaying with your low levels or whatever. In the end, it's a game, and if it's not fun FOR YOU it's not worth playing. What I've described above is just what's fun for ME - and unfortunately, many self-described "casuals" are some of the most judgemental players I've met, who insist on calling my style of play "not fun", and constantly rage about the disparity in effort vs. reward in our respective favored activities.
That is just your opinion, I have done end game content in games, to me and alot of others the journey is the focus and SWTOR seems to have us in mind alot more than any other mmo's and btw you will find alot of mmo players who are burnt out by "end game" and are realising that Story, minigames and exploration are not diversions but actually what an mmo should be about.
I'm with the OP, it's about the journey, not the destination.
I've never understood this whole mentality with MMOs where you have to race to the end cap to start the real fun.
Maybe it's because I cut my teeth on UO where there was no "end game" so to speak. Back then, it was about immersing yourself in the world and spending your time living in that world as your character, and not looking at some mythical end point where you can say you beat the game.
All themepark games have a set amount of time it take to get to lvl cap, so the only way to not level is to not quest. And considering questing in SWTOR is really the only thing to do besides grind instances and occasional lackluster crafting, you will lvl up as fast as everyone else.
The only way to slow your lvling in SWTOR is either to not play it or stand at the AH and chat with others...
Your experience in SWTOR is already predetermined ):
"It would be awesome if you could duel your companion. Then you could solo pvp".--Thanes
OP I am rather envious. Every time I start an MMO I tell myself that I am going to take things nice and slow. I find the worse is when it is a brand new release, you often want to just get past the starter area where there are 50 people trying to kill 10 field mice. Once you start on that path it takes some effort to get off it.
Personally I will sometimes rush a character a bit and then come back and run an alt at a more liesurly pace (it's nice to have a realtively rich benefactor). By then things are usually more comfortable. Ironically headstart/release is probablly the worse time to play an MMO yet here I am anxiously waiting for my headstart email.
One thing I do try and do more is take more breaks rather than playing every single waking hour. Maybe go out for dinner or watch a bit of TV with the girlfriend.
I do plan on doing some other stuff rather than rushing through the main story...a bit of crafting, some pvp, some exploring (if the world is big enough). I hope to find a decent guild too that can really help enrich (and slow) the experience too.
I guess he did pretty well to only get to level 10 in 40 hours then.
An interesting opinion but flawed in so many ways, for example one quest for my inquisitor consisted of a simple "go check these" completable in 2 mins but it took me an hour, why because I roleplayed, I explored the area and I pondered my choices, the crazy thing Is I could have taken even longer in doing it and you know what I probably will once I get into early start.
And you are also forgetting the kind of quests a roleplayer or explorer will set themselves like taking pictures of every enemy type in the zone, writing down notes on there tactics and the way they live.
Remember also the second M in MMORPG does not mean "forced grouping" alot of us grew up on those fantasy and scifi books where one solo hero saves the day but without his friends around it means less, this could mean grouping or it means being that guy who gets the achievement of not being a sheep of doing his own thing in a multiplayer world. Multiplayer can mean grouping or sitting down in the bar after a day of killing scum and telling your friends of your adventure.
I am in no way against interaction and social play or grouping, in EVE my char is part of a major alliance we are gearing up for a huge war, many times I will be in fleets of thousands and even with the lag it will be epic, my fondest memories are of the day I got on 7 titan kills in o2o trying to hold back the russians 2100 people in system and so laggy that a fire of the guns was taking 15 mins to register but bloody hell it was fun.
So no need to preach to me about grouping and epicness but to me swtor is a different kettle of fish, somewhere I can roleplay, explore, imerse myself in every quest, listen intently to every voice over and ponder seriousely my every decision.
Levelling/gear progression etc is just something for me to fall back on if I've exhausted interesting story or places to explore or need it to be able to progress in crafting. It's not the end goal for me. Just a means to an end.
So your roll playing solo with quests? What has the mmorpg community become lol...
"It would be awesome if you could duel your companion. Then you could solo pvp".--Thanes
It varies for me. I generally will work to achieve levels that unlock things.. for instance ship or speeder in this game.. but outside of those I tend to be extremely casual about it. So much so in fact I tend not to join guilds because then I feel pressured to 'keep up' .. I take my time and enjoy the game and for me that heavily includes exploring, finding 'cookies' like datacrons, etc. Heck in beta I probably wasted a ton of time cause I would stand around on my ship or at fleet sending all my companions out to craft just so I could change the color crystal in one of my companions guns. I am a extremely casual player in that sense.
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
Final Fantasy 7
I do not need to "level" but I like to feel that if I put in a good number of hours that some how I have advanced. Whether that be some gear, stat, social item, etc. I just want to feel that in my time I have achieved something. The actual leveling for me could be slow as hell so long as I am not just logging in to kill 400 of 10000 X's needed to level with no real improvement to my character.