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A short musing for open discussion: Radical thinking on levels.

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Thomas:
Remove levels?

But what about all the players and clans that spent hour after hour in the old system to grind out achievements and hit max level in all of their classes? You can't just toss out that badge of honor they gained to show how great of players they are at everything. How else are they going to show off their superiority?


With the irony of the thread out of the way, levels can be a bit of an issue. Players are judged by their level because it's the fastest method of judging a player's experience and relative skill. It's not always a good estimate, but it's generally pretty ok. If you replace that with match count, it's not going to change anything. Players with low match counts will still be the black sheep, and players with high match counts are going to flaunt it as much as players flaunt their levels now (ie: some players say 'listen to me, I'm a higher level' or something to that respect; others don't. It won't change anything.)

Lanliss:
All of this could be removed all together. No way to tell someone's level, thus stopping the flaunting of them. If you want someone to retain a badge of honor you could have literal badges made for these players, something to remind them of the glory days, when the badges used to mean something. (you might have been making a joke, I don't know. I do know some people will worry about this.)

Sarabelle Marlowe:
Hmm, this be a tricky topic.  I think most of you know my feelings on newer players (and for sake of the lobby, I wont say it all again and sing "why can't we be friends").

 To be perfectly blunt, I don't think removing levels or any way to tell will help because those that value elitism will still use any way they can to show off.

You'd have to take away badges, take away unique costumes, remove the ability to even look at a profile to see anything. And even then, it wouldn't work. They'll say what levels and accomplishments they have and why you better listen anyway.

And, if you notice, people are finding other ways to show someone is good at something. Be it showing games played, the number of commendations, only your title...it's still showing a form of rank.

Anything at all will still put a value on being good at something, even if that something is being polite. And some people will use that as a reason to listen to them then someone else. I'm not saying it's a bad idea, its just that when it come right down to it,  you can't make rules and settings to stop judgement. People will find ways. I mean, I've seen people get judged simply on the way their voice sounds. Removing levels isn't going to fix against that kind of mentality.

And honestly, having levels gives people something to shoot for. People will grind "I need level x before bed!" And giving away gifts and costumes and decals for it keeps people playing.

What we can do is foster a positive community and reach out for those that need to learn. Play by example. Actually, seeing discussions like this are a good thing, being it shows that the community cares.

Lanliss:
I know this might spark a bit of a flame, but there is an easy solution to this. People need to stop using their levels as a reason people should listen to them. I think the best way would be to have more matches per game. This would allow a "test game" so to speak, allowing people to really see why they should listen to someone, instead of just needing to go on faith and a set of numbers, be it level or matches played. I understand that some people might have the reaction "I have levels, I will tell people what to do if I want. They should listen to me anyway because I am better than them." but please understand that I am just talking, and mean no offense.

Omniraptor:
Yes, titles instead of levels would be really sweet, simultaneously more and less intimidating than numbers. And it would mesh well with old-fashioned analog feel of the game.

In the tf2 forums, I once saw a pyro was saying how they wear gibus for pubstomping. When a pub soldier sees pyro with gibus, he will be more agressive/careless than if he sees pyro with sweet hat, and the pyro gets easy reflects :D

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