Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street has once again written about the design process of MMORPGs. This time, many modern representatives of the genre, such as World of Warcraft, are being criticized because, in his opinion, they make a crucial mistake during the leveling phase.
What is the mistake that WoW and others make? The former lead developer of World of Warcraft and the MMORPG for League of Legends believes that it is a big mistake to make the leveling phase so short, easy, and linear, as many current online role-playing games do, just to get players quickly into the endgame of the respective game.
Through various posts on X, Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street explains: “I think it is the experience of leveling that we all fell in love with and that connected us to MMOs. I believe reaching the level cap should be an achievement, not a triviality.”
The new studio of Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street is currently working on the MMORPG project “Ghost”:
“We can’t please everyone”
What else does Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street say? The experienced developer explains that even during his time at Blizzard, he insisted on designing the leveling phase as a challenge that requires effort to master.
Ghostcrawler also emphasizes that a good endgame is equally important for an MMORPG. Some representatives of the genre have failed from his perspective because they had a decent leveling experience, but then the high-level content was lackluster. His current project “Ghost” aims to offer both.
Furthermore, the founder of “Fantastic Pixel Castle” explains that with a challenging, long leveling phase, some fans of the genre will inevitably be put off. His comment on this: “We can’t please everyone, or we will become softies.”
How does the community react? Under his posts, the developer is already facing some backlash from various players for his statements. However, Ghostcrawler wouldn’t be Ghostcrawler if he didn’t immediately jump into the discussions.
Emek is certain on X, for instance, that the combination of many classes and a long leveling experience is likely to deter many players with limited time. The developer’s response: “It will be hard to reach the maximum level, but once you have done it, it’s okay to take a break until the next content appears.”
In response to a question from Azikiel (via X) about whether fans of twinks have to struggle through the long leveling phase multiple times, Ghostcrawler answers clearly: “No.” To the player Xarallei, who generally hates leveling phases in MMOs (except for Final Fantasy XIV due to the story focus during leveling, via X), the developer explains that there are certainly reasons and solutions for that.
And how does Ghostcrawler want to enhance the leveling phase of “Ghost”? By (via X) “immersion in the world, great fights that require interesting decisions, a strong social component, and challenges that are satisfying to overcome.”
What do you think about this discussion? Should modern MMORPGs have as short, easy, and straightforward leveling experiences as possible, so you can quickly reach the endgame? Or should the XP hunt already feel challenging and occupy a significant part of the gameplay time? Share your opinion in the comments! You can find out more about Ghost here: Former lead for WoW was supposed to make an MMO for League of Legends, now his game focuses on specialists like in LoL
