Lunchtime Discussion: Leveling

As so often happens, something in yesterday’s comments sparked off today’s discussion. Whilst everyone else was discussing the unlock situation, jimmy-google turned his attention to the issue of balance and leveling in online gaming. Now whilst I’ve touched on this once before, when talking about fun in games, I must say I agree to some extent with jimmy’s position.

Leveling in multi-player games is becoming more and more common now, branching out from its RPG roots into shooter titles like the Battlefield and Call of Duty series. As someone who played Battlefield 2 back in my college days, I can attest to how much of a pain it can be going up against someone who’s out-leveled you. However Battlefield was still a very well balanced game, there was never an occasion where I literally felt I couldn’t win because I was out gunned.

By contrast, I can’t say the same about racers. I have felt, on occasion, genuine despair at the quality of cars available to other players, that I didn’t have access to. The sheer speed of other vehicles in some titles can make you feel that you’re left at the starting line, whilst the other drivers are half way around the track.

The key thing is testing for balance. This is one of the reasons that Super Street Fighter IV is a new game, rather than just DLC. Every character has to have some adjustment to balance them against the new characters introduced in the update. The problem with leveling up in multiplayer games is how do you maintain balance in a game, whilst still allowing leveling and unlocks to still feel worthwhile? How do you balance the games full arsenal against someone just starting off?

Part of it comes in the games matchmaking system. If you have a good matchmaking and skill ranking system hopefully you’ll only be paired with players of around the same level as yours, avoiding any real balance issues. Assuming that a game has a large enough player base it seems likely that you’ll always be able to be matched against someone of your rough skill level most of the time.

But what’s the true solution? Should leveling and unlocks be purely aesthetic? Should we just get rid of the system all together? Or do you like the sense of achievement that comes from genuine growth of your online character? Share your thoughts.

Note: I hit my head this morning and am feeling kinda fuzzy, so apologies if the flow of today’s discussion was off.