I bet most of us would raise our hands when asked if we’ve played World of Warcraft. It’s a huge game, and it’s really well made. I think most of us would raise our hands again if asked if we ever left World of Warcraft for an extended period of time.
And out of those who did leave and come back, how many have felt the overwhelming sense of inadequacy when the weapon or armor that you worked so hard to get before you left is now completely worthless? I know I’d keep my hand raised — but not just in WoW, but in every single MMO that I’ve left and come back to has had this issue.
Superman Syndrome
In the past, I’ve called this issue the “Superman Syndrome.” In the beginning, Superman had a limited number of powers. But Superman had to grow as a character, and the enemies he had to fight had to become more and more grandiose. Eventually, it became so that there was nothing that Superman couldn’t do. In the comic books, Superman had to die. When reborn, his powers were diminished.
In the video game world, we call this slow growth in strength and invincibility Power Creep, and that’s what I’d like to talk about today. How does it start? Why do we still have it? And how do we fix it?
You keep using this word…
I’ve made too many assumptions in the past thinking that people knew what I was talking about when I referred to gaming development terms like power creep, so let me explain what I mean.
When an MMO launches — even one that has a skill system versus a non-linear progression system like WoW — there is a finite number of levels or abilities that a player can have. Sometimes this limitation is placed on the number of skill points a given character can have. Other times, the limit is in the skill bar itself. Maybe you can only have five active abilities at one time, as in Elder Scrolls Online. In the case of WoW, your limitation is based on your level. When World of Warcraft launched the max level was 60, and the whole game was based on that kind of progression. Dungeons, weapons, armor, and bosses were all based on that level cap.
When expansions hit you could level up to 70, then 80, then 90, now 100. As your level increased so did your player power. If you were doing 3,000 damage per second at level 60, then by level 90, you were doing 30,000 DPS. This was expected because your stats increased linearly and exponentially.
You didn’t just gain a damage stat increase, you gained increased strength, agility, stamina, etc. Although this wasn’t a multiplicative increase, the growth was exponential because a number of different stats were increasing at the same time. Suddenly, the dungeon that was difficult for you to complete at level 60 was like slicing through butter.
However, that also meant that if you left the game at 60 and came back when the level increased to 70 or 80, then your gear that you were wearing was no longer worth the time you spent gaining it.
Progression simplification
Effectively, power creep makes certain content worthless to even do. The hours that developers spent on creating those dungeons or even raids have now become wasted, and there is really no reason for players to ever visit that earlier content again.
Why do developers do that? Why would a developer want to spend so much time building something that will only become worthless by the next update?
I can tell you that many of the people actually spending time making that particular content would rather not spend their time creating content that people will blow through to never play again. However, from a production standpoint, games need to continue to make players feel more and more powerful — or in some way make them feel that they are progressing. The easiest way to do that is simply make the player stats bigger.
I was just talking to a friend about the gear treadmill. The idea is to make the player more powerful so that they stick with the game. But the truth of the matter is that power creep is so evident in systems that linearly progress player stats that it actually makes a player feel weaker. I hear things like, “Didn’t I do this exact same thing last expansion?”
Nothing compares to this
The question then becomes “How do we end the treadmill?” The direction that World of Warcraft took, was not the answer. With the Warlords of Draenor, the developers simply crunched all the numbers. Effectively, reducing the power output of the players. Of course, this helps make the numbers smaller so that they have some place to grow, but it doesn’t exactly fix the issue. The player still has to hop on the same treadmill, and the cycle starts again.
The best way to avoid a treadmill and power creep is to find a way to eliminate the direct linear progression. This is done through non-comparables, which are defined as abilities or stats that are not a direct increase in power from a previous stat. Putting it in the most basic terms: health and stamina are non-comparables. Non-comparables can be even more complex like haste and or critical chance.
Another way to add to the pool of non-comparables is to have passive abilities that augment an active ability. For instance, what if on one passive ability decreased the cooldown of active ability? That would be a non-comparable, in fact, that is likely the best kind of non-comparable. They are very specific to certain classes. In WoW, this is done via set bonuses.
Set Bonuses and Non-Traditional Leveling
Despite doing other things wrong as far as power creep is concerned, WoW hit the nail directly on the head when creating set bonuses. Of course, the problem is that WoW didn’t do enough of these. There tends to be only one set bonus per build; if you could build off those set bonuses or make multiple different kinds of sets bonuses, then you could create a sense of progression without actually creating power creep. Another example: if set bonuses are encounter-specific — maybe one set of gear mitigated damage from an ice attack from the Lich King — then it could be possible to never have a numerical level increase again.
Guild Wars 2 if far from a perfect game, but its willingness to try to get rid of traditional MMO leveling should be commended. Currently, the level cap is 80, and when the new expansion comes out, the level cap will still be 80. But how are characters still going to feel like they are progressing?
Guild Wars 2 is implementing skill lines that are meant only for the new zones. In fact, some of the abilities can only be used in those zones. Of course, we’ve only seen the new abilities demonstrated by the developers so far; it could fall on its face when player get their hands on it, but I’m optimistic.
I’m grateful for games stepping away from WoW way of progression, and more and more MMORPGs are seeing the importance of reducing power creep. But unfortunately, it’s still there. If games like Guild Wars 2 can be successful, then perhaps the future of MMOs isn’t too glum.
