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Level treadmill

The level treadmill is a term used by fans of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) to describe the uninteresting gameplay of endlessly gaining experience points and levels by performing repetitive tasks. It compares this kind of play with exercise treadmills. This practice is also known as level grinding. It is one of the most common criticisms about MMORPGs.

The most common form of level treadmill is the practice of killing monsters for experience points. The player constantly chases after the next level in order to be able to defeat the next slightly stronger monster. The outcome of MMORPG combat tends to depend more on the character's numerical statistics than the player's skill. Thus there is usually little for a player to do beyond clicking an attack button until he or she wins, or is forced to flee when nearing death. So whether fighting small rats or large demons, the player is performing essentially the same actions, the only difference being the larger numbers in his or her character and the monster's attributes. In other words, running forward while going nowhere, as on an exercise treadmill.

Players often criticize level treadmills as an obvious method of requiring the player to play the game longer. They argue that the most interesting gameplay comes when their character is at the highest levels, where they can effectively participate in raids or player versus player combat. They believe that the MMORPG provider's motivation to add treadmills is to slow the time it takes to reach the highest levels so that the player pays more subscription fees along the way.

Some enthusiasts of the genre have objected to the term level treadmill as an oversimplification of an MMORPG's gameplay. They argue that, like traditional role-playing games, there is no goal in MMORPGs other than to enjoy the experience. However, some would argue that in traditional RPGs, players play for enjoyment, and to act out their character; in fact, some players deliberately create weak characters because they find them interesting to play.

Another criticism of the entire leveling concept is that it often allows the player to avoid real challenges (such as strategic or reflexive challenges that one might encounter when fighting a powerful opponent) by simply spending a large amount of time battling weak characters in order to ascend enough levels so as to have no problem vanquishing the main enemy. This has been compared to having a cheating mechanism built into the game and critics have said that this mechanic leads to RPG players being more likely to avoid challenges in life itself.

It has also been observed that intense grinding can actively damage the role-playing aspect of a game by making a nonsense of the simulated world. A classic example of this occurred in Star Wars Galaxies, where skills were improved by using them. It was therefore possible to see groups of three people, in which:

• One person was repeatedly deliberately falling over, taking a small amount of damage each time.
• A second person was healing the first, increasing their healing skill, and taking "stress" damage themselves.
• A third person was dancing for the second, relieving their "stress" damage and increasing their dancing skill.

The IGDA Online Games Special Interest Group has noted that level treadmills are part of the addictive quality of MMORPGs that caters to those who play more than 25 hours a week (hardcore gamers). Gamers have also used the term catassing to describe someone who is obsessively playing an MMORPG.

References

1. Dunin, Elonka (ed.). "IGDA Online Games White Paper, 2nd Edition - March 2003". (PDF)

See also

• Experience point
• Level (computer and video games)
• Progress Quest

• Computer and video game gameplay