Paul, are you sure you''re a level 3 game designer? I think you''re a level 4! ;p Did some guy who''s the head Guild Master of the Game Developer''s Guild tell you you''re third level?

Back to the topic.. should we cap levels to stop powermaxing?

I''m all for it in certain games. The game opens up to more social types of fun, and less hack''n slash. It becomes all about who you''re with, not what level you are. As was mentioned in another post, you often feel a sense of accomplishment when you first get so powerful nothing can beat you. But then, slowly, you realize it''s pointless and you start to feel like there''s no challenges left.
In the AD&D gold box games, specifically NeverWinter Nights since it was online, you had level limits and you were forced to be in a party to attack some of the bigger creatures. Dracoliches, golems, etc.. all required groups. These groups made the game fun. Getting to talk with old friends and make new ones. It was a true online community and people stayed there forever! yet we''ve lost this today. People in EQ hate eachother "hey, you stole my kill!" etc etc.. that didn''t happen back then! does anyone else get my point here as to why level limits might be overlooked now when they certainly worked then?

J

All through life I see this occurring, people focusing on the problem and not the solution. Discussions gallor on how to stop powergaming, character tweaking, minmaxing. Get rid of levels, eliminate advancement, make it invisible, blah blah blah. The real solution is to give them something more worthwhile to do. If people are minmaxing in a game, it''s because there''s nothing more urgent or rewarding to do. Everquest is an excellent example. The game completely lacks substance. There is absolutely nothing promoting good roleplaying, and thus it''s filled with all the perceived evils of RPGs. You take the powergaming out of this game and you have absolutely nothing left. You give the game adequate substance and roleplaying promoting features and this aspect will fly whether the advancement system is there or not. There are no Storylines in EQ to get deeply involved with. There are no dynamic quests. Hell, there''s no dynamic anything. And right now, there isn''t a CRPG out there that doesn''t suffer from this problem at one level or another. You can waste all the time you want on how to stop powergaming, but the bottom line is, if you don''t replace it with something more worthwhile, you''re going to end up with nothing at all, and if you do replace with something more worthwhile, then there is no need to waste any effort on getting rid of it. It will disappear of it''s own accord.

Presuming i understand what you''re saying about attrition here''s a way to balance it. (To make it work)

I''ll use an example thay tend to work best in these situations:

Taking a theorietical game that contains the attrition rule of:
1. for player to gain skills a in-game timer is setup which determines how much game time must pass until they gain the new skill.

You are lacking a second rule to counter-act (balance this):
2. if a character remains motionless for a period of time then some skills will begin to deteriate.

What i''m saying is that a character will select a skill that they wish to improve. They don''t leave this character at a training centre whilst they train, instead the skill/knowledge is implanted in the character. As they player the game further this skill/knowledge seed begins to take root and slowly provide benifits.

Also..

This could be structured in a way that only one skill can be germinating in a character at one time. Thus eliminating the need to powerlevel through the game if levels are only going to give you new skills. So it becomes a reward just for playing the game.

Which means "role" players are less disadvantaged to the hack''nslash players. It may not be the ultimate solution we are looking for but its a step in the right direction/true?

WE are their,
"Sons of the Free"

That would be one hell of a gimmick... when applying for a game design job, submit a character sheet instead of a resumé You never know, if it got the real information across and showed some ingenuity, it might just impress them enough to consider you

Oh, and one more point:

Attrition is a great way of implementing a practically unlimited skill system as an alternative to levels.

But having skills drop with inactivity discourages people from standing around socialising, or talking ''in-character''... you may even force them to use game mechanics as opposed to ''role-playing''!

Food for thought.