Poll: Thoughts on level caps?

[Rakenar]

Disgaea gives you a ridiculous cap that only the most hardcore players will every see...

I don't mind caps, myself. I restart games when I hit them and try something new.

Damn, ninja'd. Yeah, in Disgaea, the max level is 9999, and you can rebirth to "accumulate" even more levels... it's just ridiculous when you are beginning to hit for 123k a hit on enemies and they survive lol.

 

[HellsingerAngel]

Disgaea gives you a ridiculous cap that only the most hardcore players will every see...

Quote for truth. I was going to say something similar.

OT: In single player games, I think level caps should be faithful to the maxxing of a character. One should only be applied once all skills have been gotten. This way, if someone wants to get every skill, they can. Game balance isn't so much an issue when you can simply dedicate a gross amount of time to perfecting a character and it effects no one but the player involved. Conversely, this should put emphasis on the game developer to ensure it does take a long time for someone to achieve this maximum and the majority of players will simply get enough experience and skills to get through the game with a decent challenge.

Multiplayer is a little different. You should have enough levels to be able to do your job properly without overshadowing another player. You should be forced into a role to promote diversity, or cover only two roles fairly effectively. None of this "three trees, three roles" crap that Druids from WoW or Red Mages from FFXI suffer from. To be blunt, I'd rather see it more like D&D 4.0 than anything; the ability to focus on one role and then branch out into choosing between two secondary roles. It promotes diversity while still giving an overall understanding of what that chracater should be focusing on.

 

[imaloony]

Sadly, we need them. Otherwise we'll end up with characters so powerful that the game loses all point.

 

[KimberlyGoreHound]

In single player games, they're alright. As long as the cap isn't obscenel low (and I've never played a game in which this was the case), I've got no issues. In MMO's, ie: WoW, it's totally necessary. WoW wouldn't work if people could just grind their way to being able to three-man IceCrown Citadel (actually, I guess because of diminishing returns on enemies, that wouldn't really work). It needs the level cap to make full use of its endgame content.

 

[Marsell]

Disgaea 2 has a level cap of 9999

 

[Daipire]

I could never grind without a visible target. A sort of "If i do all this work... maybe then..."

 

[Brandon237]

I don't like limits, unless its something impossible to ever reach and just there for aesthetic purposes.

The scary thing is that with levels under 999, I still might reach them. If the game is free flow then I try to get the highest level as early as possible. Caps should just not be allowed. I want the ability to reach infinity and beyond.

 

[Indecipherable]

Spoiler: Wanna hear a secret?

I've never actually gotten to the maximum level in any game, ever.
Even Fallout 3.

I guess you didn't do 1/10th of the content of Fallout 3 then. Maybe even 1/50th of it. You must be missing out... or have some kind of strange sense of non-powergaming entitlement superiority. Either way...

Level caps are a number, and as long as the content and continual development of your character is fun, then keep them going. When they aren't fun anymore, and there's nothing to add, it's time to stop adding levels.