The lights are on
City of Heroes contained one of the best additions to the MMO genre in years when it launched in 2004: the sidekick/exemplar system. Basically this meant that if your character was more than three levels lower or higher than that of your friends, you could temporarily level up/down to play with them. Now it sounds like World of Warcraft may be getting a similar system in their upcoming Cataclysm expansion pack.
Speaking in an interview with The Escapist, World of Warcraft lead systems designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street let slip the possibility of this new feature:
"Cataclysm may also eventually include a system that allows players to scale down their character's level in order to help newer players. The heirloom items unveiled in Wrath of the Lich King already scale with a character's level, so adjusting them to suit a downgraded character is already part of the design. Cataclysm will go one step further and replace individually purchased spell ranks with a scaleable system that allows a single ability to grow along with a character. Scaling down levels probably won't be possible when Cataclysm is released, but it's a feature that will be coming eventually and should help players of differing levels adventure together more easily."
I e-mailed Blizzard to ask for more information about this feature and received the following official response:
"That’s something we’ve talked about doing, but we don’t have any updates to share right now. Our focus at this time is on the content and feature set for Cataclysm and getting that expansion ready to ship."
Based on Street's initial wording and the Blizzard response, it sounds like they definitely want to get this feature in, but we may be waiting a while. Either way, this will go a long way toward improving playability. It also makes it easier for players to invite their friends; now they can promise they'll play with them without having to start alts.
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i'm so excited
As much as everyone loves this game do you think they will ever make a WoW 2?
I guess that is nice.
wow. that sounds cool but I hope theres a bigger pay off set for it in order to get me on board with this.
Great more things that include having friends in WoW. I play WoW, I have no friends.
It's a good idea, but would take a lot of thinking to implement, gotta scale gear down that it's reasonable and not overpowering. Hard work but might be worth it
Everyone I know is just switching their main to a Goblin, so it doesn't matter for me. lol.
My account was erroneously banned, so if I started playing again I'd be starting over anyway =p. Doesn't matter really, I'd stop playing once SWTOR comes, but I'm tempted to check out Cataclysm just for the solo game: it's comparable in fun factor to any normal RPG I've ever played.
I hope this feature come reality and not a other fool hope.
Too bad I'm buying SWTOR instead.
I don't really get into WoW.
That was always the trade off when you recruited a newbie. You got the bonus xp, but none of my friends played as muchas me, so it would be nice to keep moving on and then later be able to come back and play together again.
ffxi did this and called it "level sync." It did wonders for intigrating new players and giving old players a taste of the roots again. Always a good idea.
i dont get it how would lowering ur level allow u to help friends? i help friends because im 80
cool.
@Cody: I've been going over similar questions in my head...Is Cataclysm a half-step towards a true sequel? Is this a cheaper way of making a sequel? Is Cata a testing ground for feature ideas to include in their next MMO? They are changing the world and the way most classes play, so we can only wait and see what Blizzard has in store for the future.
@Joely: Since Cataclysm is a world changing event, many zones and characters have or will be going through texture and model changes. I have been participating since Friends & Family Alpha and everything looks sharper and cleaner.
@Chance: Then why comment on a WoW-related article? No offense meant at all. Are you posting because you are curious about how Blizzard is increasing the accessibility every expansion for new players?
that would be nice this summer while i leveled a character to 80 while my friend just commented how awesome his 80 was lol