LogIn"Getting to level cap should be an accomplishment, not a blip."
Greg Street
Industry Veteran and award-winning game developer Greg Street recently shared his thoughts about making leveling for MMOs easier so players can enjoy the endgame without spending too much effort.
He started by giving a confirmative answer to a question that he got asked, calling the action of “streamlining the leveling experience” a “mistake.”
Street then talked about why developers should strive to create a great leveling experience for players, putting it as the reason why players fall in love with the genre and would willingly spend their time. In his opinion, “getting to level cap should be an accomplishment, not a blip.”
As a former lead systems designer for World of Warcraft, Street said that “the leveling should be challenging and require effort,” a principle he followed during his time working on WoW. After working at Blizzard for nearly six years, he joined Riot Games, where he served as the executive producer of League of Legends MMO for two years.
In November 2023, he launched Fantastic Pixel Castle Studio, a “new NetEase Games Global Studio.” His team is now working on an AAA MMO title called Ghost. Street’s tweets, in which he shared his thoughts, are about discussions for this upcoming title.
Street also considered the origins of the trend towards “convenience,” while highlighting the importance of achieving satisfaction as a crucial aspect of the gaming experience:
“This strange thing happened a decade or more ago where part of the strategy to overcome challenge started to include lobbying the developers to make everything more convenient. Satisfaction at accomplishments is a really powerful motivator.”
As an experienced designer whose career in the game industry started more than 25 years ago, Greg Street is known for valuing players’ feedback, as evidenced by the fact that he took to social media to ask the fans what they didn't want to see in League of Legends MMO.
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