Originally Posted by
mafao
Well, in a classical MMOs, where the level really matters, it makes sense to prevent the player from leveling too quickly. Rangarok was already mentioned as an example in this thread. If everyone would get the full amount of XP from killing a mob, what prevents you from organizing groups of 200 people who would just steamroll the map killig all monsters and leveling extremely quickly? Thus, XP awarded by the mob is treated as an resource, and if multiple people are involved, they must share that resource. Mob tagging was introduced to prevent abuse (ninja experience and loot stealing). WoW took this system even further, limiting the XP you would get when grouped with a high-level character in order to avoid power-leveling.
So, in a classical MMO, players have to compete for resources such as loot, experience, farming spots, crafting materials which is one of the main reasons why the MMO community is usually so messed up. This is a system that actually promotes being unfair, secretive and taking advantage of other people. I really love how ANet tries to break this "circle of hatred" by implementing a system free of player conflict. The reason why they can do this, of course, is because the "level" in this game is a purely cosmetic thing, so its really irrelevant how long it will take you to 80. In WoW, once you are max level, there is absolutely no reason to go back to a low-level zone (or to a previous expansion zone). In GW2, you can still get back and enjoy the content, and maybe even get new, better loot.