Experience point
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Experience points (often abbreviated as exp, ep or xp) are a representation of a character's advancement and improvement in skills in role-playing games and computer role-playing games. Experience points are generally awarded for the completion of quests, defeat of opponents, monsters and other obstacles, but may also be awarded for successful role-playing.
In some (usually Dungeons & Dragons-derived) games, experience points are used to improve characters in discrete experience levels; in other games, such as GURPS and the World of Darkness games, experience points are spent on specific abilities or attributes chosen by the player.
In most games, as the difficulty of the challenge increases, the experience rewarded for completing it also increases. As players gain more experience points, the amount of experience needed to gain new abilities typically increases. Other games (mostly video games) produce a similar effect in a different way, by keeping the amount of experience points per level constant, but progressively lowering the experience gained for the same tasks as the character's level increases. Thus, as the player character strengthens from gaining experience, they are encouraged to accept tasks that are commensurate with their improved abilities in order to advance.
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[edit] Experience point models
[edit] Level-based progression
In games derived from Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), an accumulation of experience points increases a character's “level”, a number that represents a character's overall skill and experience. To level or level up means to gain enough XP to reach the next level. By gaining a level, a character's abilities or stats will increase, making the character stronger and able to accomplish more difficult tasks, including safely battling stronger enemies; gaining access to more powerful abilities (such as spells or combat techniques); fix or disable more complex mechanical devices; or resolve increasingly difficult social challenges.
Typically levels are associated with a character class, and many systems will allow combinations of classes, allowing a player to customize how their character develops.
Experience levels fell out of vogue during the late 1980s and most of the 1990s, but began to come back with the 2000 release of D&D 3rd Edition and the d20 System. Some systems that use a level-based experience system also incorporate the ability to purchase specific traits with a set amount of experience; for example, D&D 3rd Edition bases the creation of magical items around a system of experience expenditure (known as burning xp) and also uses a system of feat selection which closely matches the advantages of systems such as GURPS or the Hero System. The d20 system also introduced the concept of prestige classes which bundle sets of mechanics, character development and requirements into a package which can be "leveled" like an ordinary class.
[edit] Skill-based progression
In some systems, such as classic Traveller or the Basic Role Playing system, progression is based on increasing individual statistics (skills, rank and other features) of the character, and is not driven by the acquisition of (general) experience points.
[edit] Free-form advancement
Many modern systems (such as GURPS and the World of Darkness) use a combination of skills and mechanical advantages and disadvantages to build a character in a more free-form way. In these systems every change to a character has a discrete point cost, and players may advance their characters in any way they wish (within the constraints of their available points and possible prerequisites for certain abilities).
While this free-form advancement usually is much more powerful, it is also more complex. Some games therefore offer to simplify character creation and advancement by suggesting packages or templates of pre-selected sets of abilities.
[edit] Computer role-playing games
Since the original computer role-playing games derive from Dungeons & Dragons, most CRPGs use a level-based experience system.
In many games, characters are required to be of a certain level or higher to perform certain actions, such as wielding a certain weapon, entering a restricted area, or earning the respect of a non-player character. Some games use a system of "Character Levels", where a higher level character always has an absolute advantage over one of lower level. In these games, statistical character management is usually kept at a minimum. Other games use a system of "Skill Levels" that measures advantages in terms of specific aptitudes, such as weapon handling skill, spellcasting proficiency, and stealthiness. These games allow the players to customize their characters to a larger extent.
Some games (notably MUDs and MMORPGs) place a limit on how much experience a character can gain from a single encounter or challenge, hoping that it will reduce the effectiveness of powerleveling.
Remorting is another technique, while encouraging powerleveling, can alleviate the ill effects that powerleveling can cause by still giving the player a sense of achievement but keeping a balance with other characters of lower level within the RPG.
[edit] Remorting
Remorting is a technique used within some role-playing games, notably MUDs, whereby once the player character reaches the level limit within an RPG, the character can elect to start over or be remorted back to a weaker version of the player's character (back to level one usually). Yet the character has an added advantage, or power, that the player was unable to achieve before remorting. The advantage is usually access to different races, avatars, classes, skills or even different lands within the game that are not available to characters that have not remorted.
The term's origins are unclear but are thought to distinguish re-mortals (reborn characters) from mortals (normal characters) and immortals (game administrators).
Another explanation comes from MUDs where the players may apply to become immortal characters who tend to the administrative issues within the game, game development, design and such. The administrators are generally expected to keep a certain distance to the game, and their interaction with mortal characters may be severely limited. When such an administrator chooses to leave this position and to start playing the game as a mortal once again - usually from level one just as any other new character - he is said to have remorted.
Remorting is also known by numerous other names, such as ascension or reincarnation.
[edit] Powerleveling
Powerleveling (also known as racking up) is the process of sustained, fast leveling in computer role-playing games. It is essentially the RPG equivalent of speedrunning, but many RPGers dislike the practice believing that, as an attempt to "beat" an RPG, it misses the point of role-playing. Also, by power leveling high over the game developers' intended level, the challenge of the game decreases tremendously. Powerleveling can mean different things depending on whether or not other people are playing the game.
Sometimes in single player games it refers to a player strategically playing with the sole intent of gaining experience points as quickly as they can. This is frequently done by finding opponents that give a lot of experience points for very little challenge or by going to an area with very powerful monsters and abusing the game's healing system. This definition can also be used in multiplayer games, but it is typically displaced by a much more charged meaning.
Powerleveling is most frequently used in multiplayer games, where it usually refers to a player that is of much greater power assisting a player of much lower power in defeating enemies that are far too powerful for the low level player, but are easily and quickly killed by the more powerful player. Defeating high level challenges rewards the lower level player with experience points more rapidly than normal. In general this is considered a form of cheating, or manipulation of the game system for unintended results.
To combat powerleveling, game designers have devised better means of rewarding a player based on their actual contribution to the completion of the task. Another method used is to cap how much experience a character can gain at any single moment. For example, the game might not allow a character to gain more than 20% of the experience they need to level up by defeating an enemy. This is controversial in that it also punishes players who are skilled enough to face challenges more difficult than regular players or that band together with other players to face more difficult challenges. Another anti-powerleveling method is to base the experience given out on the highest level within the party that killed the enemy — powerlevellers get around this by what could be called "passive powerleveling", where a high level character who has access to healing abilities heals the lower level character as he or she fights the enemy, or places beneficial spells on the low-level character while placing curses on the enemy.
Powerleveling increased in EverQuest as it became more common to sell characters through the Internet, which could go for as much as $5000 USD. Estimates of possible annual income one could generate as a full-time EverQuest player range from $6000 to $30,000 depending upon particular practices of the player. Of course, techniques of kill stealing and powergaming would make this pursuit considerably more lucrative.
Powerleveling in MMORPG's can also refer to two other things. In one case multiple people play the same character in order to level up quicker, there are even some online services which will do this for money. This practice is highly looked down upon both by players and the game companies. The other form involves a higher level character following a lower level character around and helping them defeat monsters either higher level than they normally could or at a much faster pace. This practice is still looked down on by some.
Some online companies offer powerleveling services, whereby a customer pays a fixed amount for the company to level up their character. Essentially, the customer provides the company with the username and password for their account, and the company assigns an employee to play the character for the customer until a desired level is reached.
High Risk of Powerleveling Services
Many powerleveling services operate out of China, where the cost of labor is exceedingly low. Some of these companies are unscrupulous, or historically unwilling to resolve complaints. They can also do an expert job of projecting an online identity of being much larger than they really are; when in reality, they are quite small (just a few, or even a single individual).
This is easily accomplished with a sophisticated website, and the exclusive use of chat-based customer service. Using multiple identities allows a few employees to appear as though they are a large paid staff, thus adding to the illusion of legitimacy.
Before deciding to use a powerleveling service, a potential customer must carefully weigh the risks involved. It is recommended to first investigate from what country the company is counducting business. This can be done by doing a WHOIS search using one of the many domain registration sites on the internet (i.e. NetworkSolutions.com). Is the service located in a country where the customer will have little recourse if they are cheated? If the sevice operating out of the PRC (China), where powerleveling fraud is known to be a problem, this should be factored into the decision.
Because customers must provide the service with their username and password, there exists the inherent risk of having your account highjacked. In some cases, customers have found their passwords changed without their consent. This is often a stalling tactic used when the account it being cleaned out. To regain access to their account, the customer must often reset their password; assuming it has not been deleted. When the customer does regain access, they may find that their gear, money, and other inventory is missing. In such a scam, the employee assigned to level up the character has used their access to transfer their customer's gear to a different, unknown account in the game. If multiple characters are connected to the same account, they may clean out all of the characters' inventories to which they have access, in an act which amounts to the theft of virtual property.
This kind of theft is further complicated by the fact that many powerleveling services outsource the leveling task to people who are not actually employed by them. These people undergo little or no screening before being given sensitive customer informations, and the service company maintains little or no real control in the event of theft from the customer. Because these levelers are easily recruited over the internet, the company providing the service may have never even met them in person, and may possess no verifiable information about their identity or whereabouts. This makes it almost impossible for the service company to prevent or reverse a theft. While it may seem obvious that the service company should take responsibility for compensating the customer in such a case, this is rarely done in practice, even when proof of the theft is submitted.
When such a fraud is perpetrated, the customer may have little recourse in getting their inventory back. Due to the location of many of these companies, and the fact that their usage is against the policies of many MMORPG's, there is sometimes no one to which the customer can lodge an effective complaint. Appealing to the game company itself to act as an intermediary is often ineffective, since they clearly warn players about giving out their username and password information. Trying to lodge a complaint with the game company regarding powerleveing fraud may even result in the cheated customer getting their account suspended for breaking the game company's password policy.
Recently Blizzard Entertainment, developer of the highly-acclaimed World of Warcraft MMORPG, banned 100,000 accounts suspected of "exploiting" in the game. This includes gold farmers, exploiters, and accounts that have had paid power leveling services. Because the majority of powerleveling companies are in China, tracing the IP of individuals who are paying for these services is extremely simple. One website, Powerlevelingsucks.com, has a forum where users tell stories of how their accounts were suspended after paying for the services.
