Obligatory http://xkcd.com/670/
At one point ANet wasn't going to even have levels in GW2, but they figured with everything else they were doing people wouldn't have been able to grasp the idea of no levels as well. They said they found people use levels as a measure of progression and if you told them the entire game is open to you right when you start...
Anyways, the leveling curve peaks at around 30 so the time to get from 79-80 is the same amount of time it will take to go from 30-31. They've said the average player will take about 90 min per level from 30+.
I could guess they chose 80 because they wanted to design a certain amount of content and 80 was the right number to fit into that.
Don't forget this game doesnt have (so far as i know) the "end game" kind of raids like WoW does where you cant play half the game till level cap.
in GW2 you could almost say the "end game" is the same as the "beginning game." It's all based around the idea that there is a story to follow, dynamic events to discover, etc. so im guessing the only thing the levels really do is limit what areas you can go to next, but even at max level it'll be fun to visit the old areas and help out with events you missed before.
I, for one, love having a goal.
If you played a game like Battlefield Bad Company 2 for instance..you stop getting new weapons/upgrades at like level 22 or 23. After that it's just medals/ranks. Which are pointless..literally pointless.
Having a goal and something to look forward to in the game is nice to have. I've I'm working my butt off to level and I only get 1 level in 2 days of playing(not full days)I would end up getting turned off from the game. The story could be amazing yes but not having something to look forward to on a daily basis gets boring.
This could be another reason why they made it so high.
Level 1-80 and level more frequently
or
Level 1-20 and level much less frequently
Actually I'm not sure how much levels will limit what areas you can go to with the side-kick system. From my understanding you can be side-kicked up to fight with friends in higher level areas as well. I suppose at the very start of the game levels might be a limiting factor, but after a month or two if you decide to start an alt you should be able to play with your level 70+ friends wherever they are going. I am not entirely sure about the dungeons though. I don't know if you can be side-kicked up to the minimum level to enter a dungeon. If not, then I suppose you could say that is about the only limiting factor in what you can and can't do based on levels.
I believe the upscale sidekicking applies to the dungeons as well.
The number is completely irrelevant.
All that matters is the time it takes from 1-80. It could be shorter than the 1-50 in SWTOR for example.
If it takes 2 days to get to level 20 in GW1... you are bad at the game. One of the fastest leveling games.
Yeah they added levels back in because they felt that, taken together with the removal of trinity and traditional questing, people might drop the game for being just too different.
The levelling process will just give ppl enough time to learn how to play the game, and is something to work towards.
We can say it seems high for a new game, but it's all relative at the end of the day, especially with a flat curve.
I was wondering if it's similar to wow's level cap for any particular reason...i.e. hey folks, it's not so different.
If so, Anet are gunning for the top what with swtor and rift being 50
You know..there are people that never played GW1..
You shouldn't go and assume because you did something, everyone else in the world did.
And I'll bet you a $1000 it took you longer than 2 days to level to 20 your first time. If it didn't then you
A: have way too much time on your hands
B: Didn't read any quest dialog.
Last edited by iCandy; 2012-01-24 at 11:42 PM.
I love leveling cause it feels so satisfying when you level up.
Didn't someone at anet say that it would likely take about half an hour for each level, or something around that?
They just gave an example, it is not set in stone on how long it takes to level. They just mentioned that lets say it takes 90 minutes to level from 24 to 25, it would take 90 minutes to level from 79-80. It was to illustrate on their flat leveling "curve". We really don't know how long it takes to level.
It's certainly faster now than ever. Esp. with XP scrolls. But Prophecies wasn't that bad at all. Most of the missions were like 1/4th-1/3rd a level of XP and you could run all the way down to Kryta with just chain missions.
Only when you meet up with the dwarfs is it worthwhile to slay a bit before LA. There is so much XP on the way to LA. The only way you could not be 20 is like, not actually playing well/getting lost in the jungles.
If you have no idea about what will be required for to ding those 80 levels I don't really know how you can say it's too much. For all you know there might be less time required to ding those 80 levels than it takes to ding 20 levels in wow.... It's just a number.
90 min per level from ~30+ till the cap for the average player. We don't know who the average player is so it's hard to get a grasp on how long it will each individual to level. For myself I'm betting 60 min per level past that point, though who knows. Then again I'm in no hurry and fully plan to explore more than any other game I've ever played so yeah.