You are Commander Sheppard. The captain of the Normandy and the first human specter. You have saved the galaxy from the evil grip of Saren. Now you are tasked with stopping the Reapers. You must go through a suicide mission and lose the very people you care about to save the galaxy……wait I need to put 5 points into biotic shockwave first.

Old school RPGs used leveling up as a means to gauge player progression. In part, you couldn’t fight the larger, more difficult bosses until you had leveled up. “There’s a dragon, holy crap I cant fight him till I’m level 50”.  Yet, in most circumstances, what you do as a level 1 character is not very different than what you do as a level 50 character. Sure, you might have a few more abilities at your disposal, but the way you perceive the game world is still very much the same. Thrill and excitement are instantly dissipated through the gauging of stats and numbers.

So if I may impart a suggestion. Do away with the concept of leveling up or perceived progression. First you must give players a realistic world. A world where level gaps don’t exist. This invites the idea of risk and reward. Enemies don’t need patterns, and a glowing weak spot. What person in real life swings their shield three times than turns around and shows you their glowing core for 15 whole seconds, than goes back to swinging their shield?

“But where’s my level up? Where’s my stat bar and menu? Why don’t I have strength or dexterity anymore?” The 6-7 stat nomination of role-playing games has become stale. With the idea of realistic enemies, you can give way to player experience. That is what leveling up should be. Learning how to deal with an enemy, akin to a puzzle and getting better and faster at it. Using your knowledge/intelligence to deal with a situation, rather than depending arbitrary numbers and bits of data. So not only does your character get stronger, you as a player evolve in your way of thinking out of a situation.

For example; that enemy has a gun. I must use my intelligence and my cunning and not abilities 1-4 to get me out of this situation. You may opt to struggle for his weapon, until you beat him senseless. However you deal with the situation, the game would reward you with some form of helpful boost. So that this similar encounter 4 hours in, will seem easy due to your experience as a player in how to deal with it. In essence, your characters experience with different situations is what “levels” him up, and not random slaying of boars. So by the end you aren’t treated to the same frag-fest romp that is typical of every major game’s conclusion. Essentially making you into a badass both aesthetically in game and outside of it.

I will say that I love RPGs, but as someone who grew up playing Baldur’s Gate 2 and Fallout 2, the formula is starting to wear on me. If we are introducing the idea of player immersion, than we need to shift the way we view RPGs- the number crunches are no longer acceptable. Which sounds cooler? Killing 30 lvl 20 soldiers as a level 50 Warrior or beating the snot out of 30 guys while death is silently laughing at you?
 

(p.s. shameless plug,  you may find more of my crappy writing at http://Peggleisawesome.tumblr.com)