Massively.com: MMO Mechanics: Comparing vertical and horizontal progression

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Filed under: World of Warcraft, Game Mechanics, PvP, Endgame, PvE, Opinion, Guild Wars 2, EverQuest Next, Sandbox, MMORPG, MMO Mechanics

MMO players strive to obtain some kind of tangible progression each play session, but the method by which that progression is delivered varies greatly across the genre. Archetypal themepark titles frequently rely on level-based progression that culminates in climbing through gear tiers at endgame, but the freeform nature of sandbox MMOs lends itself to a more open progression system that focuses on the holistic development of characters. These two progression systems are described as vertical and horizontal progression: Traditional gearing or leveling is commonly described as a vertical climb, while wider choice-based progression is more often expressed as a non-linear journey.

The relative merits of these two diverging approaches to progression are commonly debated by modern MMO players. Many players wish to see a blended hybrid approach to progression that emphasises the horizontal, multi-faceted growth of their characters over rattling through yet another gear tier. Despite this, players still favour a goal-oriented attainment system and perhaps progressive gear that doesn't require a long run on the grinding treadmill. This balance can be very hard to achieve, so titles such as Guild Wars 2 have taken some knocks on the path towards perfect horizontal and vertical progression balance.

In this week's MMO Mechanics, I will look at what is meant by both vertical and horizontal progression, how they are mechanically implemented in MMOs, and what each type of progression means for the playerbase.

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MMO Mechanics: Comparing vertical and horizontal progression originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 05 Feb 2014 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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After my experiences with Warhammer Online, Vertical Progression has become a pet peeve for me within the gaming world - especially where MMO's are concerned.

I spent most of my time in Warhammer Online, thinking "I can't wait for the day when I reach RR80, complete a set of end-game gear and can finally attempt to compete in large scale PvP on equal terms with some of the toughest rivals". Unfortunately after 2.5 years, finally achieving this goal... the designers went and moved the goalpost, adding another grind of 20 more ranks and even more powerful gear to aim for. It brought home how pointless vertical progression was and my heart just wasn't in it any more. It was all just so wasteful. Hundreds of armour and weapon designs that served no purpose other than to be dropped the second a better piece of gear came along. A full 2/3rds (if not more) of the maps, quests and monsters designed, only to be left behind once they were out-levelled. It was all transitory - designed to keep you looking forward towards the next "shiney", never looking back to revisit what had gone before. Such an overall waste - especially considering the designers had clearly put most of their best work into the early levels of the game.

Ever since I left Warhammer Online, levelling has been nothing but a tedious experience for me. Sure, games have tried to distract me with good story content and interesting encounters, but they never really succeed because the game is constantly reminding me what level I am, and that at this level you should only be in this limited part of the game doing this limited content, because if you go over there, those monsters will kick your teeth in, and if you go over there, those monsters won't provide a challenge or the coin and gear you desire.

My holy grail is an MMORPG that completely does away with levelling entirely and just gives me a game where I'm not striving to reach the end, but simply playing the game because I enjoy it and actively want to play it. I hope I one day see it, but reading numerous gaming forums, it seems clear that the majority of players couldn't imagine a game world without vertical levelling (and publishers are equally loath to take such a risk with their investments).

GW2 has made a decent attempt. Upscaling helps keep WvW relevant for low level toons, while downscaling helps keep lower level zones relevant for high level toons. Transmutation stones ensure that hunting down that perfect look for your weapons and armour is just as engaging as hunting down those perfect stats. Unfortunately, GW2 also seem also to be constantly compromising. They've been on record saying that they considered doing away with levels entirely, but had to compromise and introduce upscaling and downscaling instead because they didn't believe the consumers would accept it. Now we also have ascended armour and weapons for more vertical progression.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWtvrPTbQ_c

@Dragron - I'm with you on the levelling thing, but gear has always been my bane. I've always hated the way it supports elitism - you know, the 'as long as you have the right gear you can come with us' mentality. Drives me mental, and really takes away the fun for me.

The only MMO I've played that has no levels is The Secret World. This one doesn't even have armour hehe You have items like trinkets that are graded in levels... once you have a full set of a particular grade you can move on quite easily from area to area. I REALLY enjoyed playing SW, but my gaming friends were heavily immersed in GW2, so I never quite stuck with it - my drive to game is more social than game focused, so I tend to drift.

There're a few things that I really enjoyed about TSW: no hard levels (as in that magic number); no armour requirements (aside from trinkets which are a combo of stat and level reqs); investigation quests - I was in heaven with these, they were designed for you to use google to solve them, it's literally built into game; and a flexible skill tree. One of the fantastic things they had cosmetically was the no armour, they had clothes stores (not cash shops, in game money - although they did have a cash shop where you could choose to purchase looks from) where you could buy all sorts of clothes, so you could style your character how you wanted to without it affecting your stats.

The downside is that it's urban myth based - so some of the weapons were guns, and I am NOT big on games with guns. There were still plenty of options so you could avoid it if you wanted to though.

I would love there to be an MMORPG that takes on board some of this stuff from TSW - not sure if Funcom have done so already.