(no subject)

[lunartulip]

I don’t understand the school of RPG design whose level curve is such that, as one levels up, the time between levels increases. As far as I can tell, that sort of curve has pretty much no benefit compared with curves which have constant time between levels, and comes at the cost of reducing the frequency with which the player gets to experience the satisfaction of advancement, so it seems pretty purely negative to me. Does anyone have thoughts on what design principles lead to exponential time between levels seeming like a good idea?

(I do understand why it’s valuable to have fast levels early on, because they’re a nice compromise between low levels being boring for experienced players and low levels being information-overload-y for new players, letting the new players settle in to the basic gameplay but then introducing more mechanics quickly enough that the non-new players don't have time to get too bored. My point of confusion is specifically about why there are so many games which don’t keep going with that faster leveling curve once they’re past the early levels.)

Comments

[princeofdoom]

It actually has to do with game designers using the way the human brain's reward system works to get more people hooked than would be otherwise.

As I understand it, making quick progress when starting a new endeavor, especially when someone is completely new to a game or hobby, makes someone far more likely to continue with it. Once someone has made a habit of doing something, they don't need as many rewards to continue, and they are more willing to wait for longer and longer times, as long as the rewards they do get increase in size too (better loot, more in game money, access to new maps, etc).

When done well, it adds to an already enjoyable experience. Done poorly, and it's a cheap trick to get new players hooked and long time players to stay. It might also be paired with smaller, semi-random rewards that make things like gambling so addictive.

[lunartulip]

Huh. That's interesting, because to my mind that same reward-system thing is precisely why it seems worse than a more linear time-per-level. When time between levels goes up, I find that I lose investment compared with when level-ups are more frequent, because I'm no longer getting the constant rush of Cool New Stuff to keep me focused. But I guess maybe I'm just psychologically weird in that regard and for most people the slower rate feels fine once they're hooked?