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IGE On Why Power-Leveling Is Like Day Care
simoniker writes "In a rare interview with the COO of MMO item-selling giant IGE at Gamasutra, topics discussed include the ownership of in-game items, why gold selling can be a "great business opportunity" for Chinese suppliers, and why power-leveling (paying other players to increase your character stats) is something IGE will be moving into." From the article: "Clarke also noted that, in pure economic terms, paying people to level your character is 'a market which tends toward commoditization.' Of course, those handing over their character have 'a high degree of sensitivity' to what's happening to their virtual avatar — the COO quipped: 'It's almost like day care... you'd be amazed how much they check in.'"
Powerleveling isn't necessarily paying someone else to buff your stats, but rather using "unlimited resources" to gain exp and thus levels faster.
For example, to buy a load of mana potions to be able to spam your strongest spells early on and repeatedly, at prohibitive costs for a standard character of that level.
Some people make calculations as to the exact best way to level, "normally" and by powerleveling. Knowing which mob has a good respawn rate compared to how much time it takes to kill it compared to how much exp you gain from it.
Surely sometimes the fastest way to level includes different players who party with you so you get some of their earned exp.
The point still stands that games that force you to grind are probably not that fun, but rather just addictive.
^_^
Powerlevel services, huh?
You'll get a level 60 character you have no clue how to play, and you'll have trouble finding a party to go to any instances after you gain a reputation for being an idiot who wipes your party. That is, if you can find a group in the first place. Likely, people won't party with you since they've seen your character running around in a bot-like manner and an inability to speak English. Your character will likely already have a bad reputation, in other words, because people who have seen your character will assume you're a botter/gold farmer.
You'll also probably be in crappy level 45 greens that are not befitting of any Level 60 character. You can be guaranteed that any lucky blue or purple BoE drops acquired by your character would have been sold off by the guy running your account, along with most of your money. You won't have any BoPs from instances in many cases, and even if your character had managed to get them, they probably would have been sharded and again... sold for money by the gold farmer running your account.
A good player can get a character from 1-60 within 3 months for their first character, 1 month for alts. That's for a normal person with a full-time job. A good, smart level 60 player can get 4/8 Tier 1 epics nowadays within a month after that. A good, smart level 60 player can earn a lot of gold from a couple 5 man runs a week. There is no need to pay some gold farmer to power level your character, and certainly no need to buy money from IGE or similar slimeball organizations.