To level up quickly or slowly - that is the question.

I am more of a hybrid type of player I don't want to rush through levels, but at the same time I don't want to spend a month and just being at level 10 or so.

 

I prefer not to level up too quickly. Yet I do not like mindless grinding of killing the same spawns over and over at the same spot. However, nothing is set to stone. It really depends on how the game is designed.

For example, if the game has tons of places to go for low/medium level players, while there are limited places for max level players, then it should slow down the leveling process, or the players will get bored quickly after they maxed out their levels.

From my own personal experience for example, on one Neverwinter Night server, there were tons of places designed for a team of max level players. So there was no problem for us to achieve max level fast. It used to take me 7 days of heavy fighting to get to level 40, but then the real fun began... Under such circumstances, everyone wanted to max out level as quick as they can.

 

For WoW, it took me about seven months to get to level 60 during Vanilla. I spent a great deal of time exploring, helping people, hiding from and subduing Alliance (I started on PvP realms for a few years) and just taking in the world. This was on my Marksman Hunter. Then later, I played a Shaman and decided to be a good healer, I leveled from 1 to 80 as a Restoration. I learned a great deal on survivability, crowd control and healing while mainly soloing. It also allowed me to explore a different perspective to the WoW universe that I may have missed as a Hunter.

However, as I branched off into other games, I became more of a hybrid player where I tried to level as fast as I can, but still humor myself with what the game world had to offer in terms of ambiance, lore and mechanics. The problem was my overall psyche by that time. MMO games just didn't live up to WoW's epic experiences. Even if new MMO games offered visual mastery and detailed art with a touch of unique flavoring, it just didn't feel refreshing anymore. There weren't anything wrong with the new MMO games. They just didn't give me the same feeling when I started with WoW.

So with that said, playing new MMO games hastened me to level and explore less, because most MMO games I've played just don't got the 'special touch'. One day, I hope an MMO game will give me the same or similar feeling as WoW did back in early 2005. However, I doubt it because for example, no game has given me the same feeling it did when I first played Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade on an Amiga 500 back in the late 1980's. I think oldie gamers would know what I'm talking about.

 

I like to explore just about all aspects of the game, so I fall into the slow and meticulous type. I want to know everything that has to be done for a certain level so that I got everything covered and not go back once I am already at such a high level.

 

I used to be the first kind that you mentioned. Back then, I like getting to a level as high as possible at the beginning so that I can handle the bosses easily. And then there's a lot of places where you are required to have a high level to access it, so it's kinda frustrating when you have something like "You have to be Level X to access this part" in Dungeon 1, and then you are required to go back again when you actually met the level they required. So I figured if I get to a high level from the start, I can just do everything that is available in one go.

 

I like to level faster, but through quests, dungeons and pvp... mindless grinding is out of the question. I have never done it and I'll never do it, it's just too boring.
There are few games where leveling slow is worth it. Almost in all MMORPGs the real fun starts after you reach max level and you start doing dungeons, pvp...

 

I agree to this. Mindless grinding is what usually turns me off MMORPGs that are low quality. Sadly, only a handful of them really shine out with the ability to completely reach max level without having to grind. But those are the ones I play.

 

Yeah a lot of MMORPGs fail at the leveling part. They make it so annoying that it literally chases players away. A good example of bad leveling(at least in my opinion) is TERA. Leveling there was a god-awful experience.
In my opinion the best leveling experience I've ever had was with Guild Wars 2. The events around the quests were awesome...

 

TERA and the much hyped Aion as well. I tried them both, and stopped playing fast. I agree with you on Guild Wars 2, its gameplay system is really unique and never gets old or boring. Another example would be Star Trek: Online, which has zero grinds as you level up only through quests, world bosses or pvp. Another MMO that seems to be pretty good so far is Rift, which went free to play last year.

 

I agree I am not a big fan of grinding myself, but it's the best way to make money in most MMO's so I have to force myself to do it usually when I go grinding is the only time I actually play in windowed mode and listen to some tunes.

 

Yeah Rift has really nice leveling system. Similar to GW2 with events all around the map it's pretty awesome since it keeps you engaged. What's more the leveling speed is quite fast as well.
Most games should be like that.

 

Well all the good MMORPGs(even TERA) focus their leveling through quests, however not everyone can make their game as appealing when it comes to questing. In my opinion EVENTS like in Rift and TERA are what is needed to make leveling more interesting.

 

Yes. Whenever I play a game, my goal is to get to the max level as fast as possible. I like to overpower everything before completing the main quest line. I don't mind grinding for hours just to get the best gears and the highest level.

 

I hope you were being sarcastic because that sounds like someone who is addicted.

 

I prefer to level up fast and go to bosses. Depeninding on the game. For example the mmorpg i mostly play is runescape well i got max level as fast as i could and then now i just go bossing and do quests. That is my preferred way to play

 

It depends. I'll give you an example. Whenever I had free time before I would spend it on WoW doing achievements, gearing etc... Now I'm at a point where I just log 3 times per week for my raids and every now and than for some PvP. I literally have nothing else to do on the game while I have friends who supposedly played less than me, but now are spending A LOT more time playing since they have a lot of things to do while I don't have any.
What's more I don't see any problem with being addicted. Gaming is a hobby. Some people do sports, other collect stamps me... I play games

 

Absolutely right, there is no shame in being addicted to playing games, at the end of the day as long as you have everything you need to do done and it doesn't work to the detriment of everything you need to do in life then there isn't anything wrong with it.