This is 2011/2012
it's about time we get zone contents that are designed for different forms of gameplay. A level scaling feature would be the perfect solution. In another thread, a person complains about the ghost town effect of lower level areas. Well if high level players could scale their power and strength to fit that power level of the zone, while rewarding those players decently, than higher level players would have had a reason to return to lower level areas.

it's a THEMEPARK MMO. People are bound to move on from the zones that don't reward them with progression/challenge. Guild wars2 has a feature like I speak of. It allows the player themselves to scale their power down when entering lower level zones, so they can't over power contents their too greatly. Why can't WoW do the same. We could then have events in each zone, and reward players of all levels to do the contents.

Also I want to point out that the Outland level grind can be pretty boring after a while of doing it with many Alts. Problem is, that out lands is the only zones for characters to level from 60-70! That's ten levels of a boring grind for many people. Well with a leveling scaling feature like I mentioned before, ANY ZONE COULD BE USED TO LEVEL FROM 60-70, NOT JUST OUTLANDS!! same thing for replacing Northrend level ranges. Any zone could be used for 70-to-80! This opens players up to freedom to play what is Fun to them, and not just stay stuck on a few rails while leveling. Also it gives even more endgame players assess to even greater game play contents, rather than just being stuck with max level zones alone, as we have seen from Vanilla to CAT. I am tired of being stuck at the max level zones. What's the point of exploring if everything before the endgame zones are easy cake and not rewarding?

the world is so huge, but only a fraction of the contents is made for max level players. Sad really. Very poor design. So much room for contents, but its mostly tailored to non end game contents. This is why the game gets so damn boring for many players at endgame. If you don't raid/arena, you are basically screwed in terms of gameplay. All you have left is a few nerfed down Battleground instances and a few party dungeons and some stupid quest dailies. Oh wow!!!! There is so much more that could have been done by now. And I know if Blizzard were to catch on to this idea, than other developers of THEMEPARK MMO will as well.

really, at this point, what's the purpose of having levels at all now days? It's a pointless mechanic that only divides the community. It limits low levels as well as high levels. That's the design flaw..

I pretty much agree with this, but I don't think level scaling would be the answer. They already have this 'any zone can be used to level from 60-70' and it's called LFD. The world is empty because players no longer need it (at all) to progress in game. Can't see how mobs' scaling in levels would change anything.

But yes, this really is bad game design, can't really deny that.

Level scaling, in my opinion, is a terrible mechanic. It destroys the sense of context within the world. Certain areas should be tiered by level to some extent, otherwise progression is pretty much meaningless. Progression is a pretty important part of MMORPGs, as it creates a sense of accomplishment. When that sense of progression fades, said games tend to get very boring.

The real problems as to why low level zones become deserted is because there's no reason for players to return to them. This is compounded by the fact that the power curve from leveling is too drastic. In WoW, if something is 5 levels or more below you, it's ridiculously easy to kill and you get virtually no benefit for killing it. Similarly, anything 5 levels above you is nearly impossible to kill.

By flattening out the power curve, leveling would still be meaningful in the grand context of the game, but it would allow for higher level players to still participate in lower level content without completely destroying everything in sight, and likewise it would allow for lower level players to contribute something against higher level content rather than being completely useless. The main point however, being that there is still a reason to want to get to max level.

Originally posted by Ceridith

Level scaling, in my opinion, is a terrible mechanic. It destroys the sense of context within the world. Certain areas should be tiered by level to some extent, otherwise progression is pretty much meaningless. Progression is a pretty important part of MMORPGs, as it creates a sense of accomplishment. When that sense of progression fades, said games tend to get very boring.

The real problems as to why low level zones become deserted is because there's no reason for players to return to them. This is compounded by the fact that the power curve from leveling is too drastic. In WoW, if something is 5 levels or more below you, it's ridiculously easy to kill and you get virtually no benefit for killing it. Similarly, anything 5 levels above you is nearly impossible to kill. By flattening out the power curve, leveling would still be meaningful in the grand context of the game, but it would allow for higher level players to still participate in lower level content without completely destroying everything in sight, and likewise it would allow for lower level players to contribute something against higher level content rather than being completely useless.

 

that's an illusion that levels are the main form of progression. You seem like you have played WoW for years as a vet. You should know by now, that the most strongest form of progression comes from Gear Progression which takes place during a moment were level gains become stagnate. Aka Endgame. Endgame points (vanilla=60), (tbc=70), (WoTLK = 80), (cat=85). at those points in WoW's history is were the true progression ever started. And it had nothing to do with leveling. Most time is spent in those level caps mentioned above.

Also keep in mind. This is a old THEMEPARK MMO from 2004. People are bound to level up to cap at some point. Then their would be more higher level players than there are new lower level players. The speed of leveling is not the excuse. It is bound to happen with a leveling game that been out this long. The flaw, is trying to get players to return to older zones. Not trying to populate them with new players, which obviously are not coming to WoW. Remember when Blizzard said that most new players never made is past level 10 or 20(or whatever number it was)! Yet if levels are easy, which they are, then how come players don't make it that high before quitting? It's because those zones only purpose is for level grinding, that's it. Nothing else. That's boring after a while. Lower level zones, have little to no contents that's just there for fun/ something to do other than quest grind

Originally posted by MMOExposed

Originally posted by Ceridith
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that's an illusion that levels are the main form of progression. You seem like you have played WoW for years as a vet. You should know by now, that the most strongest form of progression comes from Gear Progression which takes place during a moment were level gains become stagnate. Aka Endgame. Endgame points (vanilla=60), (tbc=70), (WoTLK = 80), (cat=85). at those points in WoW's history is were the true progression ever started. And it had nothing to do with leveling. Most time is spent in those level caps mentioned above.

Yes, I played WOW since release and quit not too long after cataclysm.

I get what you're trying to say about gear progression. It is a form of progression, but leveling is still the primary point of progression. Without first leveling up, you cannot even attempt gear progression. Gear progression is merely an extension of level progression through increasing stats, which occurs on a smaller impact scale.

Either way, you're dealing with ever inflating stat points. Which brings me back to my main point. It's how drastically these stats increase from one level to the next, be it player level or item level increases, that can cause problems. When the scaling from "leveling" is very steep, you get situations where low level players are completely useless in anything more than a few levels above them (player or item level), and high level players absolutely demolish content more than a few levels below them.