Gamestorming

Like brain storming, only related to gaming.

What if...at every X0 level (i.e. 10, 20, 30, etc) you were presented with the opportunity to take a snapshot of your Toon? And all their gear, Stats, enchants, etc, would be preserved, even though your Toon continues to level on to Cap.

Why might you do this? Or why should a game offer that feature?

What happens when you convince a friend to play? You & your buddies who've been playing for years are all at Cap, while your friend is a lowly Newbie. Oh sure, you can boost him through all the Instances, and power level his quests for him, but how much fun could that be, really? Your friend isn't playing the game, he's just got an Uber Bully of a friend destroying anything around him that poses a threat. Does he even learn how to play the game? What role his character should play in a group? Doubtful.

Now, what if you and several of your buddies could take snapshots of your Toons at 20, then when you convince another friend to start playing and it comes time for him to hit his first Instance, instead of him getting a boost through by your Uber Toon, he joins a party of his friends, all at level 20, and everyone is at just the right level for that Instance. Now he gets to experience the Instance with knowledgeable, but not overpowered friends, and he gets to actually play the game.

Instead what you get is a company with the mindset that the trip from 0-60/70/80 is just a chore, and they do everything they can to boost you to Cap themselves. XP/kill and XP/Quest gets jacked up. Toons at Cap get access to over-powered Hand-Me-Down gear to pass onto low level Alts. Even newly introduced Classes (only accessible to XPac players, mind you) get a speed boost, and start the game with the equivalent of 50-60 hours of leveling under the belts.

What does this tell you? Only that a company with such a game probably no longer cares for their low level content, and they're probably wondering how they can introduce the option to pay for a Capped character without breaking their game (or starting riots). And yet the workaround is simple. Anyone with a capped out Toon (and a copy of every expansion released to date) can just buy one. Oh, you don't have a capped out Toon? Better hurry up and level your Main to 80 then. Seriously, it doesn't take that long now. I mean we've tweaked the level grind so much that you practically gain a level every time you complete a Quest. What more do you want from us? It's either that, or more and more (& bigger & bigger) companies will begin offering paid-for power leveling services.

Seriously, who would you rather pay to have a Toon power leveled? Some dodgy company based in BFE (or God only knows where) who are more likely to get your Account banned during the weeks they have your Toon?

Or the gaming company themselves who just need to press a couple of buttons and Shazam! You've got a Capped Toon.

Yeah, if I was willing to pay for such a service, I know who I'd choose as well.

Of course me being me, I wouldn't be willing to do this, because regardless of what The Company (& its spokespersons might think), for me The Leveling is The Journey. I enjoy the grind to Cap because I can take my experiences and knowledge from previous trips and expand on them to facilitate my present and future journeys. Sure, it's blurring the line between Player Knowledge and Character Knowledge, but I don't care too much about that anyway. I might RP with my Toons sometimes, but it's not like I play on an RP server ;)