Levels, leveling, level caps, and level 20

No,

It's a great idea

if they want to kill the concept Guild Wars and ruin their game.

I got money on the levels going up eventually. May just even be 1 or 2 levels, but they will use it to push people into buying expansions eventually. Just give me 18 months after release before you flame me :P

*starts marking on his bush-isms calendar*

like freya said in an earlier post, upping the levels by even 1 would unblance the entire game, its just not probabable or smart on ANET's behalf. i guarantee if they raise the lvels alot of players will leave the game permenantly and never come back. prime example is a game i used to play called asherons call, great game...if you spent every waking hour grinding for exp and that next uber weapon.. but if you left the game for even more than a week you were then out leveled by almost 10 levels from your friends and then had to work 2-3 times harder to get back to those levels, with the way GW's is set up that will never happen, level 20 can be reached in a mtter of day's or even hours, and if you decide to leave the game just sitting there for a week, a month, a year then you would come back and everyone would still be the same level as you, so no added pressure to go out and play for 18 hours str8. ANET wont do that to people as theyve promised this wont be like any other MMORPG wher the only real goal is to get that next level.

*edit* they will never "push" people into buying an expansion, its not the way that ANET works. pushing people is what EQ does ie. if you dont get this expansion you cant play with your friends anymore, so whatcha gonna do? ANET has said even if you dont purchase any expansion you will not be punished for it, granted once the expansion coems out, every body is gonna wanna grab it, but if you cant afford it and haveta wait for a month its comforting knowing i wont be punished in anyway for doing so wit the level cap staying at 20

I'm definitely for the [no lvls up] people...

lvl 20 or lvl 99? They're just freakin' #'s!!!!

If they wanted, they could take the exp you've earned through lvl 20 and just divide it into 99 sections...

So instead of gaining 1000 exp to hit lvl 3 or what not, u only need 100, sheesh... Think about it!

Instead of getting to lvl "99" in 6 months of casual gaming, you hit lvl "99" [20] using the new GUILDWARS system in barely a week!!! Hoorah for GW!!!

I was sick of looking at the "hack me" glow in Ragnarok Online. Yay, I'm lvl 99! I'm bettar than all of you! bah... In this game, you can say you're lvl 20 and "bettar than all of you" when a much smarter lvl 15 runs up to ya in pvp and tears your sorry self in two...

Please, reward the skilled players!! Not the ones who think lvling makes you better...

"But I'm not a pvp person ya dork!" says you? Well... When you fight a lvl 25 character at lvl 20, and those are all the highest enemies you may face, what's the difference in that and fighting as a lvl 99 char vs. lvl 110s? Again, just #'s... Wha!!! HOORAH FOR GW!

/me barfs...

Sorry bout regurgitating everything that's been posted... The very reasons I've left these other "normal, $#!++y" MMORPGs is because Guild Wars is so different. Please, STAY DIFFERENT MAH BELOVED GUILD WARS!!!

[gets locked into institution...] GAH!!!

Well it is a midevil game so we will tie you to the Stake on top of the Pyre will that do?

I agree that there is no need for there to be a higher level than the 20 cap right now. As has been stated many times over, this is not a game where your level dictates what you can and cannot do (for the most part ).

I do think though, that after a few months/a year/a few expansions, a 4 or 5 level raise would add to the game. Not just to get to the highest level possible, but as others have said, there is something enjoyable about beating an enemy that is a few levels higher than you, because sadly, in this day in age, numbers are very important (in game - skill points, levels. in real life, weight. Paychecks, etc). And once you are level 20 (and please correct me if I am wrong), that satisfaction is dwindled due to the level 'cap' on mobs.

Guild Wars doesn't need any additional levels to enhance the game. Skills and attributes are far more important. But I will not deny that further down the road, making the level cap slightly higher could easily re-fuel the excitement in the game.

Just my .02

Couldn't have said it better myself. It's an arbitratary distiction, and outside of this specific game a meaningless one, at that. I love playing Legend of Zelda- there ARE no levels, there. The only thing about levels is that it helps to keep track of what you've achieved in the game; if twenty is as high as you can go, then once you hit it then you can be sure that you'll not have too much trouble against anythng else in the game. (You might have to be clever, but in my mind that makes a victory sweeter than being able to kill a monster by bumping into it accidentally.)

Besides, this game is less about going up and more about going "sideways": exploring, PVP, GVG, quests, missions, socializing... is leveling ALL you want to do in this game? Doesn't that stop being interesting after a while?

Dave III

Pfft, they may as well remove levels altogether as far as I'm concerned. Not that the current system bothers me, since you level up while playing the missions anyway.

Actually, there are. Have you ever played The Adventures of Link?


Back on topic, I oppose raising the level cap because (1) means more grind, (2) I don't like grind.

I agree, this game isnt about level = strength of character this game is about skill of player = strength of character.

- Iczer

I am probobly quoting someone..

But, there should be no cap.
But, you stop gaining attributes at level 20.
So we can show off, who has the most free time ^.^

I'm talking to you on Gunbound....lol...anyways I voted NO since they won'T expand the LvL-Cap anyways...

I better log on then

Ah, yeah, I keep forgetting about that one. I never got very far, partly because of the constant grind. I was thinking of the more traditional Zelda format, with the hearts and the items.

The grind is only an issue (to me) when it takes over the game, and there's always a point when that happens. I feel comfortable in assuming that I'll always be able to beat a given monster in Guild Wars, even if I wind up having to try several (dozen) times. It will involve learning the "trick", or a set of strategies, or doing something other than *Whack 'im with a sword*
*Whack 'im with a sword*
*Whack 'im with a sword*
*Whack 'im with a sword*
*Whack 'im with a sword*
(Heal)
*Whack 'im with a sword*
*Whack 'im with a sword*
*Whack 'im with a sword*
*Whack 'im with a sword*

...and so on. Almost all of the combat-heavy games I've played eventually break down to one thing: Not running out of hit points before the bad guy does. ...Ok, well, Guild Wars will too, but it'll involve a fair amount of forethought.

Dave III

I'm sure most of you already know the details of what happens after level 20, but no one has explained it nicely and clearly in this thread yet.
I'm not 100% sure of the details, but this is my understanding.
Once you reach level 20, you will have aquired 200 attribute points in total and assigned them however you wanted. Along the way you will have also aquired many skills, which can be equated to cards in a deck of Magic The Gathering. (Of all your vast store of skills, you get to take your choice of 8 of them into each mission I believe).
Further experience gained after level 20 awards you with attribute refund points which allow you to move your attribute points around to change the strengths and weaknesses of your character, but neve go above 200 points in total. Also as you play after level 20 you continue to gain skills, which give you more options, like having more cards to build a deck from.
Of course you would also gain 'l33t skillz' from playing the game, meaning you would know more about how best to play and how to use your skills in battle.

As I see it, there's absolutely no reason to move the level cap since it really marks the end of 'character building' and the start of proper playing of the game.

the other part is that all the following *chapters* (not expansions as they will be much more than a simple filler expansion) will be taylored to a level 20 character

and people will spend a lot of time in those areas

as soon as you raise the level cap you make all of the previous game just a point to pass through as fast as you can to get to the top level areas

much as people will pass through presear askalon to get to where the real action is as fast as they can

Honeslty it doesn't bother me all that much, A cap raised after a few expansions wouldn't hurt that much, gives people something else to do along with the new stuff, it's not necessary at the moment seeing as the game isn't even released yet, but it is somethin to think about.

it has been thought about and rejected as it would throw the balance out the window making 2 sets of players uable to mix with each other

the biggest point that GW has made in simple statements is that even if you do NOT purchase a single additional *chapter* your character will still be competitive

Why is attaining higher levels something to do in a game? The thing I like about GW is that I gain levels as I do the missoins. Sometimes I don't even notice when I've gained a level, and I know lots of people that I've played witha re the same.

Isn't the new content/missions/explorables areas/pvp areas enough to do?