Why I Love Leveling.

Ding! I just reached level 30! ... awesome!

I find it quite interesting how much I love to level up in games. From a simple tower defense game where I am able to upgrade my tower's stats, to plotting a detailed and in depth course for a single character in an RPG, I simply love it.

I have to now ask myself, why do I like it so much? What makes it so appealing? Aside from getting into the nitty-gritty of different leveling processes and structures, I'd like to spend a moment to reflect what a leveling system actually does for a player.

My first thoughts on this matter is that leveling provides a structured way of defining progress. You can see at a glance who is likely to have an advantage of two characters simply by seeing who has the higher level. If I am having a hard time defeating a tough boss, I can go out and level up a couple times and I know that I have a better chance of winning.

The second reason why I think leveling is so fun is that it often provides opportunities to customize. In most RPGs I come across, a character cannot level up without getting a talent point to spend. So not only do I have a higher power level to strut around, but I am able to strengthen my character in a way that I think is best. I can take pride in seeing the effects of my careful spending of talent points and look forward to securing powerful combinations as my character's level increases.

The third reason why I like leveling is that it is a format used to dissolve barriers. For example, in Boarderlands, you can have a pretty sweet gun in your inventory that was given to you by a friend. The only problem is that you're character is level 24 and you cannot use the weapon until he is level 26. This may at first appear to be a turn off, but being introduced to that type of mechanic early on in the game helps ease the pain dramatically. Once you get to level 26, the gratification is astounding having that sweet new death blaster by your side. It's just like Christmas!

The fourth reason I enjoy leveling is the feeling of having paid my dues. As I am a weak little grunt wondering around killing giant rats in a cave somewhere, I will look forward to the time where I can just steamroll them. Being level 1 or 2 while in the cave will be a little challenging, but once I am level 12 or 13, I can just sit back and relax while my auto attacks do the rest. Hey, I already did my time fighting these guys tooth and nail, I deserve to chillie-whamp them. This is especially true if I have defeated a dragon or two in the meantime.

The fifth reason I like to level is quite similar to my third reason of dissolving barriers. In some games, you are limited in the opportunity to advance skills or abilities until you have reached a certain level. By reaching that level, you have simply increased your capacity to improve those skills, although you will still have to put in the effort required to actually build those skills.

So there are five basic reasons why I love leveling. Now I am going to through out some scenarios and questions for you to think about when it comes to the vast world of leveling.

What can levels control?

-The general statistics of a character. e.g. strength, hit points, intelligence ect.

-The availability of talent points for customizing characters.

-The availability of using powerful weapons, equipment or items.

-The progression cap of developing other skills and abilities.

It is no fun to level up when it hardly means something.

What do stats control?

When you level up, usually your basic stats increase. But why is this important? It is because stats are more or less that basics for how effective your unit or character is. A character can be 10 levels lower than me, but if his stats are off the charts, it doesn't matter, he can still beat me. Basic stats often effect secondary (or front line stats). For example:

-Strength affects damage (3 str --> 7-8 damage, 5 str --> 9-12 damage).

-Agility affects dodge, speed, critical hit chance. The higher your agility is typically, the more often you will dodge, and score a critical hit.

-Intelligence affects how much magic you have and often how powerful your magic actually is. (2 int --> fireball power of 4-5 damage, 6 int --> fireball power of 10-14 damage).

The thing to remember with stats, is that they are often an abstraction of the actual game mechanics, just as levels are an abstraction to stats in many cases. If your stats aren't affecting the game's outcome, then it is useless to have them.

So if we have level's affecting stats, and stats affecting other stats, can we have this go the other way? I can think of at least one game series that the level is affected by the development of stats. It is actually one of my favorite series.

If you can have levels affecting stats, and now stats affecting levels, what else can you do? Just as levels can abstract stats. And stats abstract other stats, can you set up a more complex abstraction system with five tiers or seven tiers and still make it fun?

If levels can control the use of talent points, would it be fun to design a system where you get 10 points with each level that go into four different talent piles to spend and customize your character? How complex can you make it and still make it fun?

I have played some games where a character is not eligible for a level up until his stats are in a suitable place. So leveling is more of a cycle of getting the experience points, and developing other skills, and the actual leveling. I wonder, how many steps can you put into a leveling system and still make it fun?

I'm sure all the answers to these questions depends on many factors such as the genre of game and the target audience. But I am looking forward to toying with some of these concepts in my future designs.