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Whilst I'm here I thought I'd get this off my chest.
What is it with people wanting to be power levelled? By this I mean they start a game and want to get their character level as high as possible in the shortest time possible.
This is particularly prevalent in MMORPGs like Final Fantasy XI or World of Warcraft, but you see it more and more these days in other genres, like people wanting to attain the highest rank overnight in Rainbow Six or SOCOM 3, or wanting to skip all the hard work to unlock all cars in Forza and so look for glitches to enable them to do it the easy way.
I have various arguments against why games should be played this way:
(i) You're missing out on the 'getting' there. This is particularly important in MMORPGs where you're skipping important quests/missions but worst of all you're missing out on meeting people who you could team up with. Instead you're just rushing towards an endgame where you'll be shunned for lack of knowledge and will only know a select handful of people who helped you get where you are.
(ii) You're going to be gimp. You may be Uber-Field Marshal Rank in SOCOM 3 or Rainbow 6 because you used a points glitch, but you haven't learned to shoot straight yet. People are going to look at you funny when you turn up at a game full of veterans and select the virtual equivalent of water-pistols and custard pies for your loadout when everyone else is choosing tried and tested combinations of weapons that they've learned to be exceedingly deadly with.
(iii) You're wasting your money. You pay £40 for a videogame and you want to see the ending within a few hours? It's your money I guess.
(iv) You're not learning anything. Videogames have learning curves for a reason. FFXI for example has an incredibly steep learning curve and, dig deep enough, and you'll find several more learning curves. It amazes me that I see characters running about in this game who have never bothered to learn crafting, never bothered to level in balanced parties, never bothered developing their character skills properly; and yet, guaranteed, the moment something goes wrong during a levelling session these are the first people to start pointing the finger at other party members.
The various arguments I see in favour of Power Levelling:
(i) If I don't get power levelled I'll be left behind by my friends. Some friends they are then. If you don't get power levelled you'll probably meet some new ones instead of overtaking everyone that you should be interacting with along the way.
(ii) The low level stuff is boring. Here's some news for you - if you think the low level stuff is boring, it's exactly the same game at high level except things take much more time to do.
(iii) I want to be uber. More news! Uber isn't a number, it's the consolidation of all that time, hard work, blood, sweat, tears and learning that you put into your gametime so that you're able to cope with anything the game throws at you. This is slightly different to boasting that you own every car in the game and then spin out at the first corner when showing them off.
(iv) It's my game, I'll play it how I want to. Great! Just don't expect to be playing with me.
Maybe it's a psychological thing? Personally I think there's something wrong with people who want to be power levelled, but with the proliferation of online gaming where it's easy to compare gaming achievements with other players I'm guessing that a lot of new players feel a bit substandard. Which is ridiculous when you consider that what we are talking about are games.
Or maybe it's peer pressure? Just because your best mate at school has the fastest laptime set on Laguna Seca with a car that takes 40 hours of gameplay to unlock doesn't mean you have to skip the same 40 hours of gameplay to beat his record, in fact it's probably better if you don't, you'll get to learn how to take the Corkscrew that much better as you attempt it again and again with different types of car.
Maybe it's just me? I've been knocking about in gaming for over a quarter of a century, and although online gaming is a relatively new (couple of decades) phenomenon, I see more and more people wanting to cut corners, it's practically an epidemic. Perhaps this is the shape of things to come, in which case I'll happily take my time playing catch up.
What is it with people wanting to be power levelled? By this I mean they start a game and want to get their character level as high as possible in the shortest time possible.
This is particularly prevalent in MMORPGs like Final Fantasy XI or World of Warcraft, but you see it more and more these days in other genres, like people wanting to attain the highest rank overnight in Rainbow Six or SOCOM 3, or wanting to skip all the hard work to unlock all cars in Forza and so look for glitches to enable them to do it the easy way.
I have various arguments against why games should be played this way:
(i) You're missing out on the 'getting' there. This is particularly important in MMORPGs where you're skipping important quests/missions but worst of all you're missing out on meeting people who you could team up with. Instead you're just rushing towards an endgame where you'll be shunned for lack of knowledge and will only know a select handful of people who helped you get where you are.
(ii) You're going to be gimp. You may be Uber-Field Marshal Rank in SOCOM 3 or Rainbow 6 because you used a points glitch, but you haven't learned to shoot straight yet. People are going to look at you funny when you turn up at a game full of veterans and select the virtual equivalent of water-pistols and custard pies for your loadout when everyone else is choosing tried and tested combinations of weapons that they've learned to be exceedingly deadly with.
(iii) You're wasting your money. You pay £40 for a videogame and you want to see the ending within a few hours? It's your money I guess.
(iv) You're not learning anything. Videogames have learning curves for a reason. FFXI for example has an incredibly steep learning curve and, dig deep enough, and you'll find several more learning curves. It amazes me that I see characters running about in this game who have never bothered to learn crafting, never bothered to level in balanced parties, never bothered developing their character skills properly; and yet, guaranteed, the moment something goes wrong during a levelling session these are the first people to start pointing the finger at other party members.
The various arguments I see in favour of Power Levelling:
(i) If I don't get power levelled I'll be left behind by my friends. Some friends they are then. If you don't get power levelled you'll probably meet some new ones instead of overtaking everyone that you should be interacting with along the way.
(ii) The low level stuff is boring. Here's some news for you - if you think the low level stuff is boring, it's exactly the same game at high level except things take much more time to do.
(iii) I want to be uber. More news! Uber isn't a number, it's the consolidation of all that time, hard work, blood, sweat, tears and learning that you put into your gametime so that you're able to cope with anything the game throws at you. This is slightly different to boasting that you own every car in the game and then spin out at the first corner when showing them off.
(iv) It's my game, I'll play it how I want to. Great! Just don't expect to be playing with me.
Maybe it's a psychological thing? Personally I think there's something wrong with people who want to be power levelled, but with the proliferation of online gaming where it's easy to compare gaming achievements with other players I'm guessing that a lot of new players feel a bit substandard. Which is ridiculous when you consider that what we are talking about are games.
Or maybe it's peer pressure? Just because your best mate at school has the fastest laptime set on Laguna Seca with a car that takes 40 hours of gameplay to unlock doesn't mean you have to skip the same 40 hours of gameplay to beat his record, in fact it's probably better if you don't, you'll get to learn how to take the Corkscrew that much better as you attempt it again and again with different types of car.
Maybe it's just me? I've been knocking about in gaming for over a quarter of a century, and although online gaming is a relatively new (couple of decades) phenomenon, I see more and more people wanting to cut corners, it's practically an epidemic. Perhaps this is the shape of things to come, in which case I'll happily take my time playing catch up.
For this, I'm taking the example of Runescape; the only MMORPG I've played, and one I put a lot of time into over a few years.
Defining 'power-levelling' in Runescape is really a character with a high combat but low skills. However, if you can use playerkilling to make your money, though you need to be pretty damn good, you don't need to really get your skills up.
In Runescape you can get several skills up pretty high then concentrate on combat, which will cost millions of hard-earned cash, but by the time you get stats in the 90s you can easily take on the world of playerkilling.
In doing this, yes, you do miss out a reasonable amount of stuff on the way - but - for the actual things you do; the several skills and fighting, you'll have learned things the hard way and are likely to be a pretty decent player.
Against this though, there are people who use 'automouse' programmes which basically allow them to skip through the skill levels. I do understand this, to an extent, as it is a lot of constant clicking, and the rewards are much better than the graft. However, the rewards always seem better after a long time going for them the hard way. Also, if you do get a high level via this you tend to not really know what you're doing via selling and the best place to do this. Plus, you run the risk of getting your account banned, and after the time you put in (as you'll still have had to put in a reasonable amount) and the money you've spent on subscription charges, it's pretty gauling.
Though, the trouble in games like RS which claim to be 'family orientated', and encourage this through things like the unbelievably harsh filter, is that the online community isn't actually that good. You've got people who aren't particularly nice, and I don't just mean hackers or scammers, who can get onto the game for only a few quid a month and can get an alright account for around ten hours of work.
The problem with being combat focused and not 'skilling' lies more in the taunts of well-balanced characters and 'friends' than it does in the detrimental effects. Likewise though, 'skillers' without a high combat level are regarded as 'noobs' and are treated with very little respect or help.
I've gone off games like this due to the often poor sense of community, the amount of time needed to get almost anywhere and the sheer scale of the game is too addictive. Although I still go out and do work around it etc, whenever I have any free time, if I'm 'into' the game it tends to be spent on it - which isn't exactly how I want to live out my days. It's also true that a lot of time can be spent on things like playerkilling, only to lose a lot of money or only gain several thousand experience points - yet this is arguably the most fun element of the game.
Long story short then.. power-levelling will always attract people who want to make a quick buck selling their account or can't be bothered with the hard graft, obviously not recognising its necessity.
Defining 'power-levelling' in Runescape is really a character with a high combat but low skills. However, if you can use playerkilling to make your money, though you need to be pretty damn good, you don't need to really get your skills up.
In Runescape you can get several skills up pretty high then concentrate on combat, which will cost millions of hard-earned cash, but by the time you get stats in the 90s you can easily take on the world of playerkilling.
In doing this, yes, you do miss out a reasonable amount of stuff on the way - but - for the actual things you do; the several skills and fighting, you'll have learned things the hard way and are likely to be a pretty decent player.
Against this though, there are people who use 'automouse' programmes which basically allow them to skip through the skill levels. I do understand this, to an extent, as it is a lot of constant clicking, and the rewards are much better than the graft. However, the rewards always seem better after a long time going for them the hard way. Also, if you do get a high level via this you tend to not really know what you're doing via selling and the best place to do this. Plus, you run the risk of getting your account banned, and after the time you put in (as you'll still have had to put in a reasonable amount) and the money you've spent on subscription charges, it's pretty gauling.
Though, the trouble in games like RS which claim to be 'family orientated', and encourage this through things like the unbelievably harsh filter, is that the online community isn't actually that good. You've got people who aren't particularly nice, and I don't just mean hackers or scammers, who can get onto the game for only a few quid a month and can get an alright account for around ten hours of work.
The problem with being combat focused and not 'skilling' lies more in the taunts of well-balanced characters and 'friends' than it does in the detrimental effects. Likewise though, 'skillers' without a high combat level are regarded as 'noobs' and are treated with very little respect or help.
I've gone off games like this due to the often poor sense of community, the amount of time needed to get almost anywhere and the sheer scale of the game is too addictive. Although I still go out and do work around it etc, whenever I have any free time, if I'm 'into' the game it tends to be spent on it - which isn't exactly how I want to live out my days. It's also true that a lot of time can be spent on things like playerkilling, only to lose a lot of money or only gain several thousand experience points - yet this is arguably the most fun element of the game.
Long story short then.. power-levelling will always attract people who want to make a quick buck selling their account or can't be bothered with the hard graft, obviously not recognising its necessity.
Whilst I'm here I thought I'd get this off my chest.
What is it with people wanting to be power levelled? By this I mean they start a game and want to get their character level as high as possible in the shortest time possible.
This is particularly prevalent in MMORPGs like Final Fantasy XI or World of Warcraft, but you see it more and more these days in other genres, like people wanting to attain the highest rank overnight in Rainbow Six or SOCOM 3, or wanting to skip all the hard work to unlock all cars in Forza and so look for glitches to enable them to do it the easy way.
I have various arguments against why games should be played this way:
(i) You're missing out on the 'getting' there. This is particularly important in MMORPGs where you're skipping important quests/missions but worst of all you're missing out on meeting people who you could team up with. Instead you're just rushing towards an endgame where you'll be shunned for lack of knowledge and will only know a select handful of people who helped you get where you are.
(ii) You're going to be gimp. You may be Uber-Field Marshal Rank in SOCOM 3 or Rainbow 6 because you used a points glitch, but you haven't learned to shoot straight yet. People are going to look at you funny when you turn up at a game full of veterans and select the virtual equivalent of water-pistols and custard pies for your loadout when everyone else is choosing tried and tested combinations of weapons that they've learned to be exceedingly deadly with.
(iii) You're wasting your money. You pay £40 for a videogame and you want to see the ending within a few hours? It's your money I guess.
(iv) You're not learning anything. Videogames have learning curves for a reason. FFXI for example has an incredibly steep learning curve and, dig deep enough, and you'll find several more learning curves. It amazes me that I see characters running about in this game who have never bothered to learn crafting, never bothered to level in balanced parties, never bothered developing their character skills properly; and yet, guaranteed, the moment something goes wrong during a levelling session these are the first people to start pointing the finger at other party members.
The various arguments I see in favour of Power Levelling:
(i) If I don't get power levelled I'll be left behind by my friends. Some friends they are then. If you don't get power levelled you'll probably meet some new ones instead of overtaking everyone that you should be interacting with along the way.
(ii) The low level stuff is boring. Here's some news for you - if you think the low level stuff is boring, it's exactly the same game at high level except things take much more time to do.
(iii) I want to be uber. More news! Uber isn't a number, it's the consolidation of all that time, hard work, blood, sweat, tears and learning that you put into your gametime so that you're able to cope with anything the game throws at you. This is slightly different to boasting that you own every car in the game and then spin out at the first corner when showing them off.
(iv) It's my game, I'll play it how I want to. Great! Just don't expect to be playing with me.
Maybe it's a psychological thing? Personally I think there's something wrong with people who want to be power levelled, but with the proliferation of online gaming where it's easy to compare gaming achievements with other players I'm guessing that a lot of new players feel a bit substandard. Which is ridiculous when you consider that what we are talking about are games.
Or maybe it's peer pressure? Just because your best mate at school has the fastest laptime set on Laguna Seca with a car that takes 40 hours of gameplay to unlock doesn't mean you have to skip the same 40 hours of gameplay to beat his record, in fact it's probably better if you don't, you'll get to learn how to take the Corkscrew that much better as you attempt it again and again with different types of car.
Maybe it's just me? I've been knocking about in gaming for over a quarter of a century, and although online gaming is a relatively new (couple of decades) phenomenon, I see more and more people wanting to cut corners, it's practically an epidemic. Perhaps this is the shape of things to come, in which case I'll happily take my time playing catch up.
What is it with people wanting to be power levelled? By this I mean they start a game and want to get their character level as high as possible in the shortest time possible.
This is particularly prevalent in MMORPGs like Final Fantasy XI or World of Warcraft, but you see it more and more these days in other genres, like people wanting to attain the highest rank overnight in Rainbow Six or SOCOM 3, or wanting to skip all the hard work to unlock all cars in Forza and so look for glitches to enable them to do it the easy way.
I have various arguments against why games should be played this way:
(i) You're missing out on the 'getting' there. This is particularly important in MMORPGs where you're skipping important quests/missions but worst of all you're missing out on meeting people who you could team up with. Instead you're just rushing towards an endgame where you'll be shunned for lack of knowledge and will only know a select handful of people who helped you get where you are.
(ii) You're going to be gimp. You may be Uber-Field Marshal Rank in SOCOM 3 or Rainbow 6 because you used a points glitch, but you haven't learned to shoot straight yet. People are going to look at you funny when you turn up at a game full of veterans and select the virtual equivalent of water-pistols and custard pies for your loadout when everyone else is choosing tried and tested combinations of weapons that they've learned to be exceedingly deadly with.
(iii) You're wasting your money. You pay £40 for a videogame and you want to see the ending within a few hours? It's your money I guess.
(iv) You're not learning anything. Videogames have learning curves for a reason. FFXI for example has an incredibly steep learning curve and, dig deep enough, and you'll find several more learning curves. It amazes me that I see characters running about in this game who have never bothered to learn crafting, never bothered to level in balanced parties, never bothered developing their character skills properly; and yet, guaranteed, the moment something goes wrong during a levelling session these are the first people to start pointing the finger at other party members.
The various arguments I see in favour of Power Levelling:
(i) If I don't get power levelled I'll be left behind by my friends. Some friends they are then. If you don't get power levelled you'll probably meet some new ones instead of overtaking everyone that you should be interacting with along the way.
(ii) The low level stuff is boring. Here's some news for you - if you think the low level stuff is boring, it's exactly the same game at high level except things take much more time to do.
(iii) I want to be uber. More news! Uber isn't a number, it's the consolidation of all that time, hard work, blood, sweat, tears and learning that you put into your gametime so that you're able to cope with anything the game throws at you. This is slightly different to boasting that you own every car in the game and then spin out at the first corner when showing them off.
(iv) It's my game, I'll play it how I want to. Great! Just don't expect to be playing with me.
Maybe it's a psychological thing? Personally I think there's something wrong with people who want to be power levelled, but with the proliferation of online gaming where it's easy to compare gaming achievements with other players I'm guessing that a lot of new players feel a bit substandard. Which is ridiculous when you consider that what we are talking about are games.
Or maybe it's peer pressure? Just because your best mate at school has the fastest laptime set on Laguna Seca with a car that takes 40 hours of gameplay to unlock doesn't mean you have to skip the same 40 hours of gameplay to beat his record, in fact it's probably better if you don't, you'll get to learn how to take the Corkscrew that much better as you attempt it again and again with different types of car.
Maybe it's just me? I've been knocking about in gaming for over a quarter of a century, and although online gaming is a relatively new (couple of decades) phenomenon, I see more and more people wanting to cut corners, it's practically an epidemic. Perhaps this is the shape of things to come, in which case I'll happily take my time playing catch up.