Progression

I believe progression is the key to creating longevity for any game.  Progression keeps people playing, they want to improve and become stronger.  Progression gets player invested in there character and in the game.  A good progression system is one of the most important aspects if any game.  With that said I have a big problem with how games have been doing progression.  Here is my take on the good, the bad and the ugly of progression.

The Good: The role of progression is two fold.  First, is that players progress to make their characters stronger.  As players progresses they will unlock new abilities, collect better gear and unlock powerful talents.  These are to facilitate a sense of achievement for the player.  This keeps the game fresh and interesting.  It motivates the player to continue playing, the desire to unlock a new ability or get new gear.  However, there is a balancing act involved.  Give the player too much, and you diminish the sense of achievement.  Give the player too little and the game quickly become stale and boring.  

The Bad:  The worst thing about progression, by far, is what I call the division.  Progression is a system to improve and strengthen a character, to set him/her apart.  This creates a divide between the player and those he plays with.  It makes it extremely difficult to play with other, especially real life friends.  Here is an example:

A buddy of mine was really into World of Warcraft.  He started playing a little over a year before me.  He invited me to play one day and I accepted.  I was excited at the prospect of exploring dungeons and fighting the Alliance with my friend.  However, I was level 1 and my friend was level 60.  (Ignoring mechanics of decreasing experience and what not when grouped with a higher level player; lets focus on some philosophy).  I soon realized it was not fun to play with my level 60 friend!  He was too strong, I felt useless.  My being there contributed nothing.  Astonishingly, it was not fun for my friend to babysit me either.  The content was too easy, everything we did was trivial for him.  We quickly came to the conclusion that it would be best for me to level up solo as quickly as I could.  This lead to me and running through content as quick as humanly possible.  The game soon became a chore.  

Games need to be centered around the concept of always being able to play with friends in a fun and meaningful way.  

The Ugly:  I don't know why I chose this saying, but I am sticking with it.  The ugly is my ideas on how progression could be handled.  First I will state the objective of my system of progression, then try to articulate a system to accomplish it.  Progression should 1. give the player a sense of achievement and improvement while 2. allowing him to play with anyone at anytime.  Without getting into the topic of customization (a whole other can of worms for me) players should be free to progress in any way they please.  The main ways a player progresses is through utilities (this is what I call abilities, I'll explain more).  Weapons and armor should be customization choices.  By that I mean that no such thing as better gear, only different.  Same with weapons.  It isn't about finding the best weapon, rather it's about choosing a weapon that fits your play style.  As a new player should be free to go buy the highest damage dealing sniper rifle in the game, go shot a veteran player in the head and kill him.  Well what about the veteran player you ask?  This is were I want to talk about progression.  

As a player progresses he doesn't become stronger in the sense that he/she has more life or inherently deals more damage.  Just thinking about it, logically that doesn't make sense.  The difference between a Navy SEAL and I is not that a Navy SEAL can get shot in the face more times than me and not die.  The difference is that a Navy SEAL has the tech and the experience.  Therefore as a player progresses he can start to acquire more utilities.  These are obtained at the players discretion.  A few potential examples: stealth generator, jet pack, wrist mounted flame thrower, thermal vision, sentry turret, grappling hook ect.  None of these utilities give the player more life or allow him to one shot a lowbie.  Rather they offer him/her an advantage; you could say they make the game easier for him/her.

  

Lets revisit our example of a newbie with a powerful rifle, trying to kill a veteran player.  The veteran play can use the stealth generator to avoid getting shot from long range.  The new player doesn't have thermal vision so at long range can't see the veteran.  The veteran player can use a grappling hook to pull the newbie off balance, preventing the newbie from getting a clear shot.  Also the veteran can plant a sentry turret, which will attack the newbie, leaving the veteran free to dodge and avoid damage. 

This I believe is a more fair approach to progression.  The players regularly get cool new utilities that help him/her in combat.  The veteran can expect to win most fights against newbies.  But at the same time the newbie has a legitimate opportunity to win.  Not like in WoW where no matter what you do you will constantly miss and the veteran can kill you with an auto attack.