All throughout my online gaming life, right back to 1999 and Everquest, my virtual monsterhunting existence has been shaped, defined, molded and even dictated, by one constant gripe, one eternal thorn in my otherwise happy-go-lucky side. Levels.
In my EQ days, I came to know a number of other players, all decent, interesting and intelligent people. People who perhaps in other circumstances, I might have called friends. Being of a somewhat literary bent, many of these people I came to know via forums and websites, rather than the game itself; this was Rallos Zek - talking to Strangers wasn't especially the done thing, you see - not if you wanted to keep all your equipment anyway.
We'd all post and reply and sometimes even email privately, but when it came to the game itself, well, life became awkward and complicated, largely down to the simple level differences involved. We'd 'meet' in world on rare occasions, but this was EQ-Extreem!, of the 2000 hours for the win variety; nobody got anywhere by just sitting about chatting, unless of course you couldn't score a Clarity hit, and so had to sit about lots between pulls - but even then, you'd be doing so in a group of people your own level.
We'd 'text' of course - carry out the odd conversation, or even "RP" via /tells alone, but on the whole, most people I knew would only actually play together if they were of the right kinds of levels in the first place. It was all a bit strange as a first-timer to the genre, and perhaps a bit lonely too. Why not make friends my own level, I hear you ask? Well, that is pretty much what I did, and for the brief fortnight or so while your available play times coincide, it works well! The drifting apart soon sets in though; today's groupmate is tomorrow's affectionate twink recipient, or endgame rolemodel...
I'm pretty much used to it all now, but I suppose one of my own personal difficulties with being more outgoing and group-play oriented in these games, is the pessimistic certainty that in three week's time, we won't be able to play together in any meaningful way, turning such friendships into nodding acquaintances, if that. Without a large (and often unreasonable) 'pact' in place, it becomes all too easy to lose touch, as I have done on many occasions. I tend to solo a lot as a result, and try not to get too 'invested' in the other people around me, or I just hang out with a small group of friends who, against all probability and game-design, I seem to have ended up becoming trans-game pals with.
Why must an abstract scale of incremental game achievement take precedence over the desire for a group of friends to play a game together?
Nifty! #10: City of Heroes' Sidekicks
While out and about in Paragon City, backup is always nice, but despite being a Levels Game in the traditional sense, the whole Levels-as-position-in-society thing can effectively be set aside in the interested of just beating stuff up with one's chums. Using one of two options, any two players, of any two levels, can join together, and find themselves fighting enemies of an appropriate, and balanced challenge, rather than the more usual outcome, of one character running about and one-hitting everything while unarmed (no fun for the lower chap), or the other character getting the ever-living snot kicked out of them if a monster so much as looks at them (also not much fun for the lower chap).
Our two Heroic buddies can do this in one of two ways.
The lower levelled of the two can become a Sidekick. This boosts all their relevant stats up to one level below his high level friend (The Mentor) for the duration of the partnership. They get their normal level of XP, which prevents blatant powerlevelling abuse, and get no extra powers, but can comfortably hold their own when tagging along on the high-level friend's missions, and critically, they can usefully contribute! When the high-level leaves, or ends the partnership, the lower levelled chap drops back to whatever level they really are, but have made equivalent progress, as if they'd joined a group of their own level. They'll have also got a bit of a sneak preview of some of the more end-game types of foes and missions, which is a bonus!
Or failing that, the high-level can slum it instead, by becoming an Exemplar. This drops their own level down to that of their low-levelled friend, temporarily removing any power choices they'd made after that level. Unlike the low-levelled friend (The Aspirant), this person gets no XP, (which isn't the point of it anyway), but instead gets extra Influence instead; CoH's 'money'. The high-level gets to relive old missions, sometimes even qualifying for badges and titles they may have missed entirely the first time through (Such as the Police Radio Bankjob Explorer ones), and all the time, is helping their low-levelled friend, but importantly, as an equal, rather than just turning up and obliterating everyone effortlessly. Well-meaning 'help' from on high can often be a misguided thing, and cause hidden resentments if it goes on for too long, becoming inadvertently patronising, which doesn't happen in this case. Once finished, the high-level snaps back to their proper level, their powers all come back and it's business as usual.
(This also provides a handy fall-back in emergencies; if things get too hot, simply drop the pairing and have your Actually-20-Levels-Higher friend get you over the difficult bit, then re-pair up again afterward, although this probably is cheating somewhat! Mind you...this is the game that lets you auto-complete one mission every seven days or so, in case of difficulty/bugs/boredom, which is awfully grown-up of them!)
The practical upshot of it all, is that in CoH, pretty much any player, can play with any other player, at any time.
All very clever, and possibly a unique result of CoH's own peculiar mechanics, where seemingly, there are no absolute numbers, beyond the level itself. Most stats seem to be expressed in percentages and relative terms, meaning that the entirety of a mission or spawn can be scaled effortlessly. The mission doesn't particularly care if you are level 12 or level 42 - it's just one variable in a very flexible equation.
Adding some clever dynamic Sidekicking system like the above is probably quite an easy thing in light of all that, (one temporary tweak to the 'Level' value of a player, and everything else adjusts around it) but the sheer release if offers is quite remarkable. 'Level' becomes as relevant as what colour one's cape is, and Archetype and power choices become more pressing. Most importantly, if you make a friend in that game, you needn't worry about the level-enforced drifting, and two or more friends, of wildly varying play-times can still have fun together, for as long as they're all still interested in the game. You might drift apart for other reasons, but you can't blame the game for getting in the way.
The system isn't quite perfect, with one notable problem spot - the Task Forces, which have an absolute minimum level bar to entry, which even the above does not help with. You must indeed be this tall to go on those particular rides, something our own super-villain group had troubles with toward the end of our season in CoV; differing play schedules causing us not to all be there at the same time. It would have come together in time though, I think, and it was mostly other interests that put that on the shelf for me. I'll be back though, and it won't matter how far ahead/behind the others are when I do return, because of all this Sidekick stuff.
I have troubles remembering the exact chronology involved, but Everquest 2 is another game that offers something similar, if less flexible, and even EQ1 caved in and added something that allowed high-levelled players to meaningfully, and fairly, help their friends with less abundant spare time, in the end.
Many other games remain unrepentant in the face of strained and stressed gaming friendships, and it is a shame, because I've personally lost touch with a lot of good people, in a variety of titles, because of this kind of prioritisation of Game Rules over Game Players. Perhaps the way that some game systems have been put together, precludes anything like the above from ever being possible? City of Heroes seems to have hit upon a winning formula for dispensing with a lot of the more common-place gaming relationship anguish though.
So, for understanding what MMOs are really for, and for not letting red tape keep people apart, City of Heroes' Sidekicks; Nifty!
City of Heroes and City of Villains can be found on the sidebar, and probably has some kind of free trial going on somewhere, what with them pushing a whole new content patch at present; Issue 12, which is something to do with time-travel and Romans, apparently!
You need to be at least level 10 to take on a Sidekick, and neither of the two systems will work if you are too close in level, (meaning you won't need them in the first place!) You'll have to find your own friends however, as I'm not currently playing!
You can find the options for these in the Group Options, once you've grouped with your intended Sidekick/Exemplar/etc.
(Like pretty much everything else in CoH, City of Villains has identical mechanics to the above, only the names are different; Lackey/Boss and Malefactor/Minion respectively)