Who exactly "frowns upon" power leveling?

[Aikiebo]

In a thread today, someone was asking about being power leveled. Someone responded by saying that power leveling was frowned upon and that he wouldn't power level for money.

I'd like to ask about this. I don't want people to hate me. But, I think members should be able to ask questions or express their opinions without worrying about being attacked on some forum.

My question: Who exactly "frowns upon" power leveling? Is it the devs? Or, is it individual players who share a personal opinion? If it is the devs, where can we read about this subject directly from them - some official source? If power leveling violates the TOS, then I apologize for bringing this up and will end my questions.

IMO, as long as there is no TOS violation and especially when done correctly, power leveling is fine and can be a lot of fun.

I wouldn't power level for gold. You can make way more from farming. But for rl, ig, fellow guildies or simply to pay it forward by spending a little time being nice, I'd consider power leveling someone. But, if someone wanted to power level for gold there's nothing wrong with that (I can understand their point of view).

Power leveling doesn't hurt the game anymore than anything else. There's a lot of hysteria over the subject, but ANYTHING when done in stupid ways for stupid reasons is, well.... stupid. But, like just about anything else, power leveling has its place in the game and can be a lot of fun and actually help both individual players and the game as a whole. Don't get me wrong, I don't think power leveling has a major place in the game. It's just something that can be fun.

Anyway, to get back to my original question, who exactly "frowns upon" power leveling? If it is officially the devs, if so, where can I read what they have said? If it is more along the lines the personal opinions of individual players, are all members of the forums allowed to ask questions and state their opinions?

[lUp3]

Normally players who powerlvl.. - that is ask for help from a higher leveld char never learn to play their chars properly. If you have leveld one char properly then by all means powerlvl. But without going through the hard way people never learn to play their chars and noob it up in sewers. Thats the main reason powerlvlin is looked down upon by the players. Devs would be more than happy if you use plat elixirs while powerlvlin :P

[CanonicalKoi]

Same as lUp3's opinion. People need to learn the basics before they move on. All power-leveling does is advance them quickly in level while keeping them ignorant of the knowledge and skills they'll need later both to survive and to be an asset to whatever group they're in. Or, to put it another way, when I join a group of people, I'm hoping it's 5 of us against the world and not 4.1 or 4.0, kwim?

[Conradin]

Thus we encounter a problem that has mostly been fixed in recent updates- though, the hordes of MYNAS GENS still remain strong.

[Ayrilana]

Kind of kicking a dead horse but here goes a quick summary of why.

Power-leveling is bad because those getting power-leveled will not know how to play their jobs. You'll see mages who don't heal, bears who don't beckon but rather stomp, and such. We used to power-level people no problems before BS came out and it backfired on us. We were getting into games with capped people who just didn't know basic game mechanics. One thing that stood out back then were the people thinking the green orbs in Gurg's room stacked. They'd circle the room and take all of the orbs. These players are also dead weight since they consistently die during runs dragging down the team. They've also taken to begging nonstop which is very annoying.

If you want to know more then do a search on these forums. There are a ton of threads on this subject.

[noobmigo]

Honestly, I hated the nerf. I absolutely LOVED going to Plasma Pyramid with my twenty twink along with others (Someblackman, ahhitsmagic, teddybear, bearpire, mridgaf, tweenktastic, zeriousbear, pwnme) When I was losing PL interest, I hit my friends list, made a CTK/PP/VL game and spam invited all the twinks I knew under 30.

After the nerf, I quit for a while, came back, only because I had this great service I could offer, maybe (Migo's Market) but slowly losing interest again. Only hanging on now because Z has come back, as has FlyingHawaiian, and also because there are no MMO's I want to play that I haven't beat, besides O&C.

So yeah, I see why they did that, but puh-lease, why can't you bring it back to some extent? Maybe have a qualification period? You have had to play for at least 3 months to go to other dungeons besides the ones your level.

I understand they did that to wipe the Mynas Gen, but I'm crying for lost time.

[Register]

I frown upon powerleveling so much because most people dont know their class. We end up with tanks who hang out in the back, avians die cuz they cant combo, and mages dont know heal or res. If more powerlevelers know the class and even the game, i would be fine with it. Also, low kill count just looks terrible on a character page. I solo as much as I can and i love people randomely messaging me that i have a nice kdr. Also, more people arent paying attention to their hp....Thats y they have such a high death count....:/

[skavenger216]

Why do I frown upon powerleveling? Because it creates high level bears that dont know what taunt is for, mages that don't know what buffing/debuffing does, and birds that don't know proper times to thorn wall. Just some examples.

It is not hard, or time consuming to level normally in this game. I hit 56 on my first toon within 2 weeks of downloading PL, without any powerleveling. There's my two cents, lol.

[Orcish]

If you know the game/class very well then, power leveling isn't an issue. Most people have a problem with miracle grow characters that don't know how to play the game (bosses, combos, terminology, etc..) . It reminds me of the camper argument used in first person shooters, both sides have valid points, in end it's up to the individual how they want to play the game, who cares what anyone else thinks. Also those that have climbed to the top already, tend to look down on anyone that hasn't had to struggle as much as they did. Anyways play the game and have fun

[Lesrider]

I don't think ppl have problems with powerleveling their friends. But asking on the forum for someone to powerlevel you seems rude, IMO. It's a big favor to ask of people if they're not your friends -- so just keep it private in game if you must do it.

And some games make it impossible to powerlevel (no xp for anyone if someone in the team can't get any xp). STS has taken steps to keep low lvls out of high lvl dungeons, but high lvls can still plevel lowbies in the lvl-appropriate dungeons.

[ZeraJade]

I don't care.

I'm not going to power level anyone. If I don't talk to you, you aren't on my friends lists so I'm not being spam invited to be led to my death. If I'm in a party and someone doesn't know their role, I leave. How do I know if they have been power leveled or not? I don't know nor do I care.

We all know there are plenty of players who got xp on their own and can't play as I am sure there are some that got power leveled and do a good job.

*shrug*

[Physiologic]

My question: Who exactly "frowns upon" power leveling? Is it the devs? Or, is it individual players who share a personal opinion? If it is the devs, where can we read about this subject directly from them - some official source? If power leveling violates the TOS, then I apologize for bringing this up and will end my questions.

Power-leveling isn't against ToS by any means, but the devs have recently put level restrictions on campaign maps for obvious reasons. XP-rich maps such as Crush the Keeper (Alien Oasis 3 campaign) used to be a hotspot for low leveled players to get power-leveled, but that is no longer an option, leaving power-leveling to be quite tougher to accomplish.

[Pharcyde]

This thread has been pretty much covered, other then one point. Powerleveling also allowed players to reach end game incredibly fast. Which isn't a good thing for the devs. The longer it takes a player to reach end level, the more likely they are to spend money along the way. So for obvious business reasons, power leveling has been made harder.

[Fyrce]

Powerleveling isn't bad per se. However, PL levels are so easy to do that I cannot help but look down on anyone needing help leveling. The only level at the moment that is extraordinary is the "extra" level (Right now, that's L56).

For myself, I don't care if you powerleveled or not as long as you can play. If you join my groups and try to friend me, I'll wait until I see you play some before I accept. If you cannot play, you will get booted or I will reject your friend request and my games will be full before you can join them.

For the player who does not know the game but somehow got to a high level, personally I believe they have handicapped themselves. Being a bad player, they will not have that many friends; they will die a lot, thus making the game frustrating for them; they will have a hard time advancing in getting xp for themselves or equips when they die so much, have little knowledge of the game and have a dirth of friends. Players should try to learn the game and not handicap themselves.

Anyways, I'm sure I've posted these reasons in tons of threads already.

[JaytB]

I agree with all the responses posted here. I wish I could add something, but by now it should be clear why it's frowned upon by many serious players in this community.

[Zaltiar]

cause then there will be more scatter bears around

[Aikiebo]

One of the things that I am wondering is what have the devs said about power leveling and where can I read this. I have tried to find something and have not been able too. I realize that perhaps it is there, but I just couldn't find it. I'm really interested. I don't think the devs are against it unless it is abused. I can't find any info that they are against it.

If someone, especially at a high level, doesn't seem to know how to play their class, it doesn't make sense to jump to the conclusion that's because they were power leveled. In fact, it is highly unlikely to be the reason. The percentage of people to be power leveled for 50 LEVELS is microscopic. Who would power level someone for 50 levels? How could you earn enough gold to pay someone for that? Most power leveling is a lot more casual than that. Just like the player in the thread I read this morning, he wanted to be power leveled for three levels. Nothing more significant then that. Most power leveling is done in short bursts like that. Usually shorter actually. Sure, if someone just chases some high level for 50 levels (how long would that take?), then goes to the sewers and expects to know what to do, then yeah, that's kinda retarded. But that rarely, ever happens.

(Of course, I'm not talking about botting. Any kind of botting for any reason accomplished in any way sould be not tolerated-no exceptions.)

For example, if some is level 52, and they have been power leveled 3 different times for 1 - 4 levels each time, maybe 8 levels. They have had plenty of chance to learn how to heal or whatever. If someome is that bad, don't jump to the conclusion that it's power leveling is the problem. It's probably not. There are many reasons why that may be other than power leveling. For instance, apparently, there's a whole trend where some casters won't heal. They consider themselves to be offensive mages so some don't even have one point in heal. When I read this I had a hard time stopping laughing. Then kind of a stunned shock took over. To this day, I find this hard to believe. (In the real world that's called social loafing, lol.) But, just like power leveling, if it's not agsinst the TOS and not really hurting anyone, I believe people should play their game the way they want to.

As far as the devs being against it for their own financial gain - that is if people level fast then the devs lose money. I'm not sure that we can conclude that. People who are into power leveling have their reasons. Don't matter if anyone else understands those reasons, agrees with them or are even aware of what the reasons are. They have their reasons. Without even trying I can think of a dozen valid reasons someone might want a little power leveling. If all these folks lose interest in the game, then the devs lose tons of money.

Besides, the folks calling the shots on this game really don't seem like the micromanaging type. They seem to me to be, and I'm no fanboy-I'm being sincere, level-headed and fair and trying to make the game fun for all their customers. That seems to me to be quite a balancing act.

[Pharcyde]

cause then there will be more scatter bears around

In case any of you don't know the definition - a bear who doesn't know how to play, AT ALL. A bear that just uses stomp nonstop, and generally blasts the boss out of the room and causes it to heal

[Arterra]

Since I have no written evidence I wont throw it at you. Instead, lets look at the dev's actions.

1) mynas tombs.
Maybe at first the devs didn't recognize powerleveling. But they sure did at one point. Bam,Fromm all mummies to lotsof djin thrown in.
2) ao2 lv2 (idk name lol)
This was the next hotspots. Again, djin added to make it less temptingto lower levels, along with normal mobs.
3)minimum level entry
So as to not just hyperbuff any easy level, the devs simply restricted lower levels from leveling on higher level easy areas. That pretty much ended the standard 1-50 powerleveling, like said.***
4) shadow mummies XP farming
Wthin a small time span the devs neutralized this easy method to spam XP and get to 53 easily.

I think they support natural leveling.


***= in fact the devs haduntil then been pretty adamant about level restriction, as their position was that you should be able to enjoy any content you spent money on. Now that free, doesn't apply as much I guess.

[joopiduh]

There's nothing in the TOS against power-levelling. You play the game how ever you want to play it, as long as it is within the bounds of the TOS.

However, you also have to remember that this is a social game, you are not playing with a programme against a programme. And because it is a social game, there are some things that are expected of you when you enter a room. A mage has skills others do not have. Same as a bird and as a bear, regardless of how you spec. An offensive mage is still a mage, and if they do not utilise the skill they have, e.g. heal and revive, then they are not capitalising on their strengths. Which could mean that they don't know how to play their toons properly in a group. If you have a skill that can save yourself and others, offense or defense, wouldn't you use it? There are very few skills that affect the entire party, and if it is not utilised, the party loses out.

When you talk about power-levelling, you are correct in saying not everyone powerlevels all the way, but I do know of a few. They get pinks along the way and this funds their powerlevelling. But the term "powerlevelling" does not include short bursts of one or two levels. That term means "to bring one to the highest level possible in the fastest time by any means possible". They may run one or two levels with one person, but they will run another one or two with someone else, and so on. In that, they lose out on learning the mechanics of the game as old habits die hard. They would hang back and get all the xp while the higher level does all the work - an inactive player. So when they get up there in levels, they still do the same thing. And I do beg to differ. If you have played that long to get to a high level the natural way, being active, you would pick up things along the way because in order to do that, you would have had to play with many many different people.

So play the game the way you want to. Nothing is stopping you from doing that. Just remember, you do not play alone unless if you solo all the way. You can either chime in and help out how you're supposed to, get some friends along the way, or you can hang back, get the xp, lose out on the social aspect of the game