Guild Wars 2

seriously. it’s been a problem since, well, ever, but it’s a bigger problem now that you spend a bunch of levels not getting anything, and then BAM you have stuff to spend on. very important stuff. before, if you didn’t realize you leveled three times the past hour or two, it wouldn’t make that much of a difference. now, every arbitrary number of levels, you get a point (or two).

the same could be said for trait unlocking, though if you’re actively seeking a trait you’ll look for that icon on top of your map. for all purposes, when i say “level up” from now on, i’m referring to trait unlocks too.

but my point is, leveling in guild wars 2 has always been extremely underwhelming. there’s no fanfare, no big notification, just a sound that might as well be the wind or an attack, some white thing that 9/10 times you won’t notice, and a white, barely visible “level up” text that apppears on top of the screen and that i’m pretty sure i never really noticed when i leveled. make a level up look meaningful, make it noticeable.

i think the chinese client has a cool feature, in that when you level up you get this big menu showing everything you got (from stat increases to features, not that we have many level-gated features in our client). it makes you notice you leveled up, at least it does it more than now.

but what i think it really needs is visibility the moment it happens. leveling isn’t something that happens often, so you shouldn’t be afraid of it being “distracting”. hell, most skills in this game have more effects. make it eye-catching (and ear-catching), so that the instant it happens, i know i leveled up.

i’m bringing this up because i’ve been leveling a new character the past couple days (first one in forever), and i would usually only notice my level by the time i’m leaving the game. i’d have leveled up 5 times in the past couple hours, and only notice while logging out. if you decided your game needs leveling, then at least make it feel cool, rather than some random thing that you probably won’t notice until hours later.

TL;DR: leveling up goes unnoticed 9/10 times (that 1/10 time being when you level up after accepting a personal story reward and literally nothing else is happening). this is a big problem for a game that wants leveling to be a big part of the experience. make leveling up something that is instantly recognizable, and catches your attention.

Hmm…I always hear the ‘Level-Up’ sound effect. It is quite noticeable. Maybe adjust your sound options?

Really, when leveling-up you don’t notice your character raising their hand in the air, and the huge wave of white light that bursts from you, literally launching every enemy in your vicinity?

Because I notice it every single time. It’s very attention-catching. Especially when you finish a dungeon or something and it happens to 2-3 people at once.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Hmm…I always hear the ‘Level-Up’ sound effect. It is quite noticeable. Maybe adjust your sound options?

i know what the sound sounds like, i know it exists, but it gets lost in the middle of the chaos if you’re doing anything engaging to level up (say, fighting things). it’s easy to go unnoticed, and it lacks that big “AWESOME YOU LEVELED UP” feeling that every single RPG makes sure to have. it’s a complaint i used to hear often in the early days of release, and one that i agreed with, but never bothered to voice until now, especially after seeing china has a better level up than we do (as far as UI goes).

Well, if I am ‘lost in the middle of chaos’, it probably means I am lost in the middle of an intense fight, and (for me, anyway) I would most likely rather not have something so distracting as to make me lose focus on what I am currently striving to do.

Still, each to their own. =)

Kalarchis.8635:

Really, when leveling-up you don’t notice your character raising their hand in the air, and the huge wave of white light that bursts from you, literally launching every enemy in your vicinity?

This.
Did you play WS, by chance? Though it looks cool, I wouldn’t like a bunch of gigantic letters blocking my screen everytime I leveled up. Sure, it would be cool at first, but then it would become annoying.

Sure, there are times throughout my playtime that I haven’t noticed myself actually gaining a level. Sometimes enemies will be pushed back and I’m going wtf. Then it dawns on me, hmm, must have leveled.

For the most part though, I ’m taking in all of the information on my screen because I play with a ui/hud, so I see the bar and even anticipate gaining a level. I know there are players who play without the UI at all and may in fact gain a level and not know it if not paying attention.

With knowing that, from my perspective, this is the least of my worries. With all the things that should be coming to the game, this isn’t even on my radar. I personally would hope that more development time is being spent on game changers. I’d rather have new features and content, plain and simple.

non issue for me.

I dislike making a big show and dance about something as silly as a level-up. To make it more exciting, there would need to be more “crunch” (actual power gain) and not more “fluff” (fireworks and angel choirs). You get a skillpoint and that’s it, and most skills can’t even be purchased with a single point anyway. Traits are heavily backloaded in this game, and if you’re playing a new character you need to zigzag all across the world to get the ones you really want. Making level-ups even flashier than they are now while leaving them as shallow would feel patronizing IMO. Or in the words of a certain Bard, “much ado about nothing”.