Last Friday, Blizzard announced new patch was in the works for one of their most popular co-op titles, ‘Overwatch.’ The news article, last updated two days ago, now announces the coming of a new leveling system.
The game has not officially introduced the feature, but some fans are already playing it by accessing the latest patch currently available for the Public Test Region (PTR), which allows players to try new features and give feedback.
The new leveling system, however, has drawn some angered reactions from fans as well as praise.
Many of them accuse Blizzard of pursuing this update for financial reasons since some are arguing it forces players to buy more in-game items via the online store.
Leveling changes explained: A matter of experience
The update initially looks to make changes to the amount of experience that a player needs to level up. The number needed to reach levels 2 to 13 will not change, but the amount of XP needed to get from 14 to level 100 will undergo a slight reduction.
On the other hand, any player that reaches level 100 (commonly called ‘prestiging,’ as they reach prestige in the game for this), will now have to earn 20,000 XP consistently to keep leveling up.
Blizzard will also eliminate the experience ‘reset’ that players experienced when they reached a hundred levels (something that continued on level 200, 300, and so on). Level 100 and beyond gamers will now keep their experience curve.
Why is Blizzard introducing these changes?
In Overwatch, experience comes in tiers (one every hundred levels).
The company explains it is very easy for players to get from level 1 to level 23 on each tier because every time a player hits a hundred digit level, their experience curve resets and they start to gain experience as quickly as they did when they were level 1.
Essentially, a player can get XP in the following periods, 1-23, 101-123, 201-223, and so on, fairly quickly because they start getting XP points as if they had just begun to play. Also, in Overwatch, every time a player levels up they get a box full of items and rewards.
This circumstance prompts many players to take advantage of this situation and stop playing after they reach level 100 (or level 200, or 300), waiting for a seasonal event to happen, where they can quickly level up 23 times and get twice the rewards.
Blizzard makes this changes to encourage people to play regularly and prevent these periods of binge-playing. By making all levels after 100 cost 20,000 XP points, they are making sure the game becomes a more stable environment with equal opportunities for all players.
Source: Overwatch