IGN Roundtable: The Leveling Treadmill

IGN has posted #7 in its Online Worlds Roundtable series.

One of the things players of online worlds complain about most often is the so-called "levelling treadmill" that involves repetitive play, often combat against NPCs that present little real challenge, in order to advance their characters. On the other hand, this mechanism can be viewed as aiding retention in that it provides a long-term series of goals. We asked this month's panel to comment on various aspects of this subject, including but not limited to the benefits and drawbacks, possible modifications, the validity of these complaints, the pros and cons of other possible types of designs, and their personal feelings.

This is a good question, so fundamental, and so difficult to solve. IS there even a solution? Are we asking too much of games?

[a href="http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/432/432071p1.html?fromint=1" target="_blank"]IGN RPG Vault: Online Worlds Roundtable #7, Part 1[/A]