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Leveling Speed

NicholasBNicholasB Member Posts: 4
in The Pub at MMORPG.COM

Is anyone aware of a good breakdown of leveling speed in MMORPGs?

 

Specifically, I'm looking for someone who had a lot of time on their hands and took the time to level a character from 1 to max in a variety of games, recording the number of hours in each, and then presented that information online in tabular or graphed format.  I'm a WoW player who has tried a few other games (Rift, GW2), and would really like to find something more akin to old school D&D, where maxing a character takes years instead of weeks; where the fun is the journey and not jumping up and down yelling "I finished everything first!  I'm bored now..."

 

I'd love to see the same sort of thing breaking down single vs helped vs grouped content in games.  I don't like the idea of groups being required to finish too much in the leveling process.  However, if a single player can easily blast through everything then there is no way to help others and help is not appreciated.  I like content very challenging for single players where seeing others out in the world, especially if they're willing to actively assist, is welcomed and appreciated.

 

Thanks.

Comments

  • RydesonRydeson Member UncommonPosts: 3,852

         Personally, I think leveling speed is way to fast and the worlds are not near as big as they should be..  IMO, I like to see it take days to level just ONE level.. When people can blow thru the content and levels in a month, there is something wrong..  It baffles me that so many players want level cap in a month, then spend the rest of the year grinding the same instance dungeons over and over..  Being a golf fanatic, that is like me playing speed golf holes 1-17 in 2 hours, then taking a week to repeat hole 18 one hundred times.... Why would I want to do that?

         I hate to give a define time to reach level cap because we all play various hours per week in game..  I would have no problem with a game taking 2,000 hours to reach level cap :).. and make sure the world is big enough to allow it :)

  • Cephus404Cephus404 Member CommonPosts: 3,675
    Assuming the game is good and there's lots of content, I'd rather see leveling take a very, very, very long time.  Many months, perhaps years.  I never play end-game, I'd much rather play a game that doesn't even have such a thing.  Leveling is the game for me.  Once I'm done leveling, I'm done playing.

    Played: UO, EQ, WoW, DDO, SWG, AO, CoH, EvE, TR, AoC, GW, GA, Aion, Allods, lots more
    Relatively Recently (Re)Played: HL2 (all), Halo (PC, all), Batman:AA; AC, ME, BS, DA, FO3, DS, Doom (all), LFD1&2, KOTOR, Portal 1&2, Blink, Elder Scrolls (all), lots more
    Now Playing: None
    Hope: None

  • syriinxsyriinx Member UncommonPosts: 1,383

    They dont make games with long leveling speeds anymore.   And I think thats a part of the reason why games have such fast turnover now.  People dont have enough time to get attached to their character.  Then games like Rift have the double whammy of having your character be a generic mix of abilities and not an actual character with strengths and weaknesses.  No attachment.

     

    The last game with any kind of medium paced leveling was Vanilla WoW. Its been all downhill since.

  • strawhat0981strawhat0981 Member RarePosts: 1,224
    I thought everyone knew this was the "I want it now" era...

    Originally posted by laokoko
    "if you want to be a game designer, you should sell your house and fund your game. Since if you won't even fund your own game, no one will".

  • freegamesfreegames Member UncommonPosts: 240

    I'm used to a level system that each level is between 30-60 minutes for traditional players and 15-20 minutes for speed levelers.

    Nowaways there are plenty of games where you can get to level 20+ easily and you just need a guide or guild or someone else to get you that fast xp.

    Honestly though im fine with games without a leveling system at all. Enjoyment of a game should not be directly related to the number of levels one has. Fun per hour is a good measure of a game. If one gets no enjoyment out of 5 hours of gameplay simply to finish quests then the game has some problems. I also agree that have groups and guilds to do required quests is simply foolish and neglecting a huge number of PVPers and PVEers.

  • DzoneDzone Member UncommonPosts: 371

    I've been playing ffxiv arr since beta phase 3. Its been out like 5/6 months now. I'm getting very close to capping my 6th class at 50.

     

    I pretty much play this around 4 hours everyday, just like I did with ffxi. FFxi on the other hand, I literally spent over 12 months just to get whm to 75.

     

    I'm the type of person that enjoys the journey. I never hardly ever got into end game, but once I get the last 2 classes to 50 then what...

     

    Years down the road in ffxi, I became a full time fisherman. Certain fish always sold steadily on the AH. Like black soles. If there were to many of those on AH, I would just fish armored piescus and npc those. FFXIV fishing, I spent like 1 hour a day for a week and got it to 25/50 and felt like this was totally pointless. Never whent back to it since. FFXI I spent 4 months going from 20/100, literally doing nothing but fishing and it really grew on me, and it pretty much became my 2nd life.

     

    At one point I played ffxi pretty much everyday for over 2 years, enjoying my whm, helping others out in my linkshell (aka guild), Hunting NM's with my friends, helping random people out. So many fond memories of ffxi. FFXIV on the other hand, I don't know if i'll keep on playing this once I got those last 2 classes to 50.

  • NicholasBNicholasB Member Posts: 4

    Thanks, everyone, for the responses.  I didn't receive exactly what I was looking for, but may have received something more valuable: the knowledge that I'm not alone in my feelings about modern day 'speed leveling'.

     

    I'm actually writing a browser based MMORPG right now and it was designed to take years to hit max level.  I haven't done much work on it in a while, but this thread has been encouraging to me.  Playing a game that you, yourself have written is never quite as engaging, but this gives me hope that my instincts were correct and that perhaps I can provide a game for others with something that has been missing for far too long.

     

    Thanks!

  • Flyte27Flyte27 Member RarePosts: 4,574
    Originally posted by DMKano

    Here's a bit of data from 1999 when EQ1 launched 

    How long did it take a level 5 cleric to go from 0% mana to 100%  - 5minutes 25 seconds.

    Yeah that's 5 and a half minutes of downtime to just fill up mana to full. After you gained mediation skill - it was down to about 3minutes after each fight of sitting down.

    HP for warriors (non-trolls) was even longer.

    Needless to say leveling speed like this would feel brutally slow to any player who has never played any generation 1 MMOs.

    If would take people about 24 hours of /played time to hit level 5.

    Just to put in into perspective.

    Staring at the spellbook for 5 minutes was fun though.  You had wandering aggressive mobs walking towards you that you couldn't see.  People might be bringing a train your way.  hours of exp gain might be lost.  Fun times.

  • JemcrystalJemcrystal Member UncommonPosts: 1,989
    Fast leveling is all the rave.  I like to slow level as well.  I'm in it for the walk in the woods and some social.  FFXI was the slowest ever in leveling but FFXIV-ARR has "fixed" that.  To compensate there is a new system of having multiple classes.  So if you level one class you just go back and level another.  But the days of slow leveling games are extinct.  I would rather there was no level number attached to our chars at all.  Skill ups okay.  Not to push my fav f2p to much but Mabinogi has no level cap.  It can take years to be considered a "high level" in that game.


  • mohit9206mohit9206 Member UncommonPosts: 56
    I rather prefer a fast levelling experience not too fast but certainly not so slow that i feel that am barely progressing.I think the ideal time to reach max level should be a month.Most casual mmo players would be bored if it took longer and mmo are all about the casual market so catering to the niche hardcore mmo crowd who want to keep levelling for months is not good for business.
  • iridescenceiridescence Member UncommonPosts: 1,552

    I like slower leveling speed. Enjoying the fact that after a month and a half of playing DDO my highest character is only closing in on level 7. :)  I don't like endgame in most MMOs so like to drag out the leveling experience as long as possible assuming it involves something other than just mindless grinding on the same mobs over and over.

     

    I would definitely try out your browser game if you get it out.

     

  • free2playfree2play Member UncommonPosts: 2,043

    3 months is my average for capped out char.

     

    DAoC was one of the first level up games for me, Combat druid in 3 months. LotRO to 50 when it was subscription Angmar in 3. PotBS I needed around 3 months to break level cap and have a Treason flag ship.

     

  • plat0nicplat0nic Member Posts: 301
    This topic reminds me of Goldilocks and the three bears.

    image
    Main Game: Eldevin (Plat0nic)
    2nd Game: Path of Exile (Platonic Hate)

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