Community Highlight: What Good Does a Meta-Leveling System Do?

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Article by: Darkness

To start, I'd like to clarify exactly what I'm going to talk about here when I say "meta-leveling system." I'm talking about Modern Warfare style, unlock more junk as you play kind of systems implemented in various multiplayer games. I'm not talking about RPG leveling, where it makes sense. I feel this is an important distinction. A competitive RPG is based around loot, skill trees, group dynamics, and the players' ability to factor all of this information into their decisions of whether or not to initiate a fight. Most of that is capped by levels, in a fair way. A shooter, like Modern Warfare, should be based around how well you can shoot dudes.

I'm going to talk mostly about Modern Warfare and its sequel, since Modern Warfare, as far as I can tell, pioneered this sort of system. While it may be a little outdated, I haven't seen much change between the original Modern Warfare's system, and how it's been implemented in newer releases.

However, when the meta-leveling system is added, and you have perks, guns, and attachments being unlocked as you level up, it throws your skill into part of an impossible equation. Your ability to shoot dudes is hindered by your inability to use the equipment you want to use. In an RPG, this makes sense, because you're generally not going to be getting stomped by a higher level player with better gear than you, and if you are, there's ways around it. In a game like Modern Warfare, which is run by matchmaking (or dedicated servers, in the first Modern Warfare on the PC), you don't have any provision to only play with people near your level, and your choice of equipment is limited for no reason.

I compare the equipment and perk selection in games like Modern Warfare to the skill trees of RPGs, moreso than equipment from an RPG, due to the fact that working your equipment and perks in tandem is the same as building a skill tree in something like Diablo II more than it's like throwing the best armor and guns on your character.

However, this is much more limited than a skill tree based system such as in a Diablo game. Take, for example, Diablo II, where each character has three skill trees, and the player has the choice of taking skills that he or she wants. Yes, this is capped by a points requirement, and therefore by level, but the main point here is that, in Diablo II and similar games, the player has the choice of taking different skills. In any and all meta-leveling systems I've seen in online multiplayer games, you simply unlock a certain set of equipment per level.

This becomes an issue when one of the few arguments I've heard to support meta-leveling comes into play. The argument is that the perks and weapons are balanced so that you can build them together to fit your play style. But when you're limiting my ability to use equipment that might fit the way I play games, that's not balance. I can't use equipment I would want to use until level 16, whereas this other guy gets stuff he wants to use at level 2.

I personally like to play multiplayer FPS games as a sniper, staying out of regular combat, and not being found. However, when I'm put on the minimap every time I fire because I can't use a silencer, and when I can found via UAV because I haven't unlocked the perk that stops that, and yet the folks who want to run in, guns blazing, get extra health and assault rifles out the wazoo to start off with, that's when I have a problem with systems like this.

This seems like poor implementation, to me. I think that, if a game is going to have this sort of meta-leveling system, they should at least do it like RPGs do, and let me get the stuff I want to use. Let me start out in the Sniper tree, taking stuff that makes me a better sniper as I level up.

Or, hell, why not just let me use evetything from the get-go? If the system is so balanced, why can't I just make a hard-to-find sniper, right out of the box? The only justification I've heard for this is that it gives the game longevity through a sense of progression.

First of all, this is a multiplayer FPS we're talking about. If you want a sense of progression, it should either come from recognizing that you're getting better at shooting people, or from playing an RPG where the progression actually matters.

But that aside, does it really add longevity to the game? Are there really people out there who can't stop playing these kinds of games until they max out the level cap and complete all of the challenger to unlock gear? If there are, they are certainly a very small minority. Most of the people who would spend all the time unlocking everything in these games are the kind of people who would play it for years (or at least, until the sequel is released) anyway.

For instance, I point at Counter-Strike. Originating as a mod in 1999, it got a full retail release from Valve in 2000, with its latest version having been released in 2003. People still play that game, and are passionate about it. The Source Engine remake of the game, released in 2004, is even more successful (though it has been criticized by fans of the original). The people still playing those games today are completely happy with its gameplay style, and don't need to "prestige" for zero benefit. Those games don't have the nonsense meta-leveling systems purported to add longevity to games, and yet, people still play them (and some very passionately, might I add), six or more years after its release.

This could be due to any number of factors, such as the modding community, or what have you, but the point still stands. Six plus years, and without this supposed longevity added by a pointless meta-leveling system. Are there still going to be people playing Modern Warfare in 2013? And, more to the point, will they be doing it because of this leveling system? I doubt the former, but I can say no to the latter. After about a month, the meta-leveling system is a moot point. Anyone who cares enough about the game to play it longer than that has already hit the max level, and the folks who don't care about the game enough to play it for a month won't come back six years down the line to finish grinding out those levels they missed.

But this kind of system isn't stopping at multiplayer FPSs. Oh, no. It's reached other genres as well. I think the worst example of this is in Command and Conquer 4. C&C4 is an RTS, a genre noted for how well-balanced each faction has to be in order to ensure fair gameplay, and noted for the technology advancements made in-game. These two conventions, destroyed, and in their place, a system that says to the user, "Hey, you haven't played this game enough. Fuck you, you can't build these units or buildings."

It's no more apparent than here. In a genre where the entire strength of your forces comes through in-game advancements, based on your ability to out-perform your opponent and create strategies to counter them, your ability to do any of that is limited because you haven't won (or simply played in) enough games.

If it's still unclear as to why this is so dumb, let me try to explain it using an MMORPG. For those who don't know, in World of Warcraft, battlegrounds are divided into brackets by level. Every ten levels starts a new bracket. So, in any given bracket, you can have a dude at level 20, and one at 29, but not at 19 or 30. This provides some balance, as the group dynamics and everything else that can be factored into performance in an RPG come into play.

Now, imagine for a minute that, instead of 10-level brackets, you just threw everyone into the same battlegrounds. Now, you have level 10s and 80s in the same areas. No matter what teamwork you use, no matter how you try to do it, even a group of 40 level 10's isn't going to take down a level 80. They would stand about as much chance as a woodchuck in a wood chipper.

Now, while the difference between a level 55 and a level 1 in Modern Warfare may not be quite as severe, keep in mind that this is boiling down to how you're building your skill tree. A level 80 in WoW simply has better, more powerful spells, and more choices in how they want to take down opponents. Similarly, a level 55 in Modern Warfare simply has more choice in how they want to play the game, where as a level 1 is almost forced to play as a guns-blazing, close-quarters lunatic, or else be gimped in any other way they want to play until such a time as they can unlock the equipment they want to use.

As I said earlier, I don't see any reason for this type of meta-leveling system. Whether it's poor implementation, or if it's just a bad idea altogether, one thing stands true, and that's that there is absolutely no reason to not just let me build my dude how I want to build him, right out of the box. For an RPG, there's actual progression there. For an FPS, there is only a hindrance.