Bit Rant: Leveling Into Atrophy

Bit Rant is a parody series intended to overstate issues with specific elements in gaming for comedic effect. While some points are valid to a degree it is not intended to be taken literally.

Experience and leveling systems have become so ubiquitous in games that you'd be hard pressed to find any game released in the last several years that didn't have leveling in some form. Despite constant jokes about the pervasiveness of mechanics like shooting and sandboxes, leveling systems largely sidestep major criticism despite being arguably the most overused element in all of gaming.

It's unfortunate that the most manipulative and least interesting mechanic in the history of gaming is the aspect that has been propagated through the entire medium.

Manipulative Mechanics

From their very creation leveling systems were inherently designed to manipulate the player. On the surface they seem to provide a mechanism for steady avatar growth throughout a game, but it's fundamentally impossible for leveling systems to actually function that way.

For a game to be engaging it must be fairly balanced the whole way through. If the avatar inside a game increases substantially in power through some sort of leveling mechanic then one of two things will inevitably happen: 

1. The power of the monsters will increase on par  with the player, making the game mechanically identical
2. The game will become trivial and unengaging.

Of course option 1 is almost universally what happens, meaning that the only differences between the leveling system existing or not are aesthetic - bigger numbers and flashier animations.

You can tell it's a fun game because the numbers are so big they overlap!

Even among the highest rated classics we see the mechanics being used for simulated progression instead of actual expansion of the mechanics. More often than not levels, skill points, upgrades, talents, etc. only serve to give a passive upgrade to existing skills or "reward" us with a functionally identical new skill with bigger numbers behind it, making the entire game blur into vast expanses of near identical gameplay with slowly increasing numbers. It effectively emulates the excitement and variety of staring at a clock.

Gamer Hostages

The most frustrating thing is when people attempt to defend leveling systems by citing unrelated mechanics like some gamer version of Stockholm Syndrome. Some claim that games use the leveling to allow increases in enemy variety, possible player actions, degree of agency in the game, etc., but not only do none of these rely leveling but every single one of them can be fully implemented (usually to greater effect) without the existence of any leveling system. The only difference between giving the player new abilities at set times and linking it to a leveling system is that the leveling system can be broken by grinding.

The unfortunate truth however is that people are rather easily manipulated. We don't actually care what is challenging or interesting, we only care what appears challenging or interesting. As a result several industries have sprouted up and subsist in part or wholly on the psychological manipulation of people on a large scale (advertising, gambling, politics) with gaming being one of the more recent additions to the ranks.

Most of us are even aware of this problem too - we just don't care. We even go so far as to laugh at how easily we're manipulated into enjoying something devoid of actual content, but without actually condemning the behavior. As a result an entire genre of cow clickers has flourished despite being literally nothing but a wrapper on these manipulative Skinner Box mechanics.

Look at all those bars! That's a GOTY right there.

With how popular and prevalent leveling systems have become in gaming I can't help but worry about the future of the medium. If every game starts using leveling as a substitute for actual engagement, then how long before all games devolve and eliminate other options? If we as gamers continue to mindlessly watch bars fill up instead of seeking out actually engaging mechanics we'll quickly approach a point where our minds will atrophy and we'll be unable to care about anything but how fast our cows get clicked.