Thursday, January 10, 2008
Leveling Up Without Killing
WOW Insider has an article about a guy who is attempting to level up two World of Warcraft characters to level 70 without intentionally killing anything. Which is not only hard to do - it's too easy to accidentally kill / engage something in combat.
I won't go into too many details, because it's pretty WoW-specific.
15 Minutes of Fame: Noor the Pacifist
This made me think - as I often do - about combat in RPGs. Combat has been the primary source of experience in RPGs forever (with possible exceptions in games like Call of Cthulhu and the World of Darkness games... though even those tended to get into slug-fests in many adventures. In Call of Cthulhu, said slugs may be ten feet tall with tentacles, too...).
The main reason is that combat is where the greatest risks are taken. Mortal Peril is exciting, even if the actual gameplay risk is only reloading the saved game or taking on some XP debt when you respawn. If most XP was made going to a university class or studying at the library, that would probably not lead to an exciting game. The greater risk should lead to the greater reward, right?
Probably. Except for ... well, the exceptions. You can look at Cute Knight or The Sims or several other games (most not RPGs) for some exceptions. Even so, building up my fighting skills in the classroom in Cute Knight isn't as much fun as diving down into the ol' dungeon beneath the city and putting them to the test.
In MMORPGs, it's an even trickier proposition. It's all about increasing character power, as opposed to any kind of overarching storyline (you can't complete the story, because that would ruin it for all the other players). And players have demonstrated - repeatedly - that they will choose the most boring way to play the game to achieve that end goal. It's all about the path of least resistance. So designers are constantly fighting to make sure that the best payoffs come with the riskiest actions (both to slow down advancement and to encourage players to actually do something exciting).
Still - it's clear this guy is engaging in risky PvP actions, and is having fun trying to level up a pair of pacifist characters. So fun and risk are both happening. Without him intentionally killing anything, or building up his rogue's combat skills.
It's something to think about. Not that I'd want to get rid of combat altogether in RPGs (perish the thought! In fact, shoot it again to make sure it's fully perished!). But what sort of things could be added to RPGs to make non-combat activities more exciting, risky on some levels (if not to life and limb, then to other game-critical elements), and worthy of nice upgrade / leveling-up potential?
Discuss This Topic In the Forum! It May Increase Your Sex Appeal!*
(Vaguely) related ponderous ponderings:
(Tip o' the hat to GamePolitics for the above link.)
* And then again, it may not...
Labels: Game Design, Roleplaying Games
- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 8:24 AM (Permalink)
