I recently levelcapped another character in Guild Wars 2, my Asura Guardian, and yet as soon as she dinged, some of the spark of playing her went out, and I wanted to play another character who would continue accruing experience. It’s a weird sensation, especially for someone who usually hates level-oriented games, because we’re so used to the idea that “the game starts at the cap” thanks to themeparks like World of Warcraft. But in this particular case, I just don’t see myself playing her much now that she’s essentially done — I have several other characters I like more for playing at cap. And that made me sad.
I used to bump into this same let-down in City of Heroes. I would sometimes intentionally stop leveling hard in the mid-30s (the spot where you’d secured most of your core class-defining skills), just so that I’d have a lot of characters to pick from to play who would still accrue meaningful experience. When I got beloved characters to the cap, I just wound up not wanting to play them, even though I could easily sidekick down. I just hated knowing I was doing that rather than playing an alt who’d get experience, knowing that I could be broadening my account better on another character. I could never shake that feeling of “waste.”
Am I alone in this weird, counterproductive hang-up? Are you ever sad when you levelcap a character in an MMORPG?
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