MMO Weekly: Alternate Character Progression

24 Aug 2010 at 15:13:50 by Jeff Hollis

Hello there, kats and kitties, and welcome to the very latest edition of MMO Weekly.   In this week's edition, I'll be discussing character progression.  Particularly, I'll be discussing a growing trend in non-MMOs, and what it means for virtual characters in general. 

Two Systems of Character Progression

I just finished playing Borderlands.  Borderlands is, for the most part, a cutting edge, very contemporary first person shooter.  It's a good game, with challenging quests, fun combat, three distinct character classes, and a few plot surprises along the way.  Overall, it's pretty good stuff, and state of the art for the FPS genre.

The way characters progress in Borderlands is, for the most part, the way they progress in many of the other shooters I've played recently.  This is distinctly different from the way characters progress, or level up, in MMOs and RPGs, and deserves a bit of exploration.  Mind you, the terms used are interchangeable between the genres, so it's bound to cause a bit of confusion.  Further, in the following discussion, I am forced to use some generalities regarding both MMOs and FPS games as I see them.  If, at any point in this article, you want to scream, “That's not true!  In Double Death Commando II: Machine Gun Boogaloo, they don't use talent trees at all!” feel free to do so. 

Leveling up, MMO-Style

In most MMOs, characters level up in the traditional way.  Once they earn a given amount of experience points, for example, they suddenly transform from level 69 characters to level 70 characters.  At level 70, they become tougher to kill, since they have more hit points.  They do more damage.  They also gain access to more weapons and armor, which were unavailable to them at level 69.  Further, they gain access to more spells, which were likewise unavailable at their previous level.  At level 70, they also gain an additional talent point.  This talent point, which is spent on new skills from one of several talent trees, is used to “spec out” characters, granting them new abilities, and making them distinct from their peers.

If you've played any MMOs or RPGs in recent years, you are probably quite familiar with the many benefits of leveling discussed above.  These ideas aren't new.  In fact, they really haven't changed substantially since Gary Gygax invented Dungeons and Dragons, way back in the early 1970s.

Leveling up, FPS-Style

The style of leveling in FPS games is rather distinctly different.  Generally speaking, in most FPS games, you don't gain new hit points, you don't gain new spells or abilities, and you don't do more damage each time you level up.  What you do get is the functional equivalent of the talent point. 

This is where some folks may quibble.  FPS games are not, I must admit, tied to a single method of spending that talent point.  It might be described as an “unlock”, a skill point, or a perk chosen from a lengthy list.  While talent trees is becoming more and more common, they are not universal.

However, these points change each character dramatically.  By spending these, characters can gain additional hit points, improve their defenses, increase their weapon's range, increase their damage with specific weapons, change the way their explosives behave, etc. 

The Big Difference 

When you stop and think about it, the biggest difference between the MMO style of character progression, and the FPS style of character progression, is pretty straightforward.  The FPS system is essentially the same as the older, more familiar MMO system, it's just simplified and stripped down.

I'm not saying it's “dumbed down” (quite the opposite), and I'm not saying it's inferior.  The FPS system requires a bit of thought to get the most from your character – in fact, I had to respec my Borderlands character several times.  I am saying that the FPS system takes many of the traditional automatic improvements from leveling up (more damage, more hit points, access to more abilities, access to different gear and equipment) and strips those away.  When you level up in an FPS, you'll often get none of that.  In fact, the only thing you generally get is the one talent point.  That's it. That's all you're getting.

Instead of giving characters these “automatic improvements” with every new level, FPSes do something quite different.  They build those things into the talent trees as options.  If you want more damage, you have to choose the appropriate talents for that.  If you want to be more tank-y, you have to choose the talents that make you able to absorb more damage.  If you want to be sneakier, you have to spend the points to improve your sneakiness.   

Is there any advantage to leveling up?  Well, obviously, yes.  At level 50, you'll have more talent points to spend than at level 35.  You'll have created a better, tougher, more capable character. 

However, this system has evolved to keep the playing field relatively even.  It is, overall, flatter.  Generally, a lower level character has a chance of defeating a higher level one.  The odds aren't necessarily on his side, but he has a chance.  In most MMOs, this is simply not the case.  Generally, a high level character will simply walk all over a lower level one. 

The Future

I honestly don't see the traditional method of leveling up, so common in MMOs and RPGs, going anywhere.  However, the “talents” method used in FPS games is, in my view, becoming more common.   There are MMOs (e.g., Global Agenda) that have even completely forsaken the traditional method for the “pure talents” system.  While Global Agenda's approach is unusual, it's probably a growing trend. 

A second growing trend is for game developers to take elements from both systems, and incorporate them into their games.  In Borderlands, for example, characters do more damage with each level – a throwback to the MMO-style.  And yet, despite this, the primary method of character progression involves the expenditure of talent points. 

I'd love to hear your opinions and insights as to what you think about this.  I cannot claim to have played every recent shooter and MMO, and your experience (and thus conclusions) may different from my own.  As always, if you enjoyed this episode in the realm of geek-musings, please feel free to visit us over at Cool-O-Rama, where we thoroughly explore this kind of meaningless tomfoolery every day.  For now, ciao!

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