Free To Play Weekly: Should There Be Level Caps In MMOs? Ep 165

you people mostly don't understand the concept of lvl cap...1) when a game is kinda old..ppl are caped to get balanced...so the newbies can catch up to them..when the game is too old, the way to help ppl not get bored is that they upgrade stuff and they add new stuff to make it less boring for the caped oens...it

umm you all miss the greatness of the idea. No Level cap meaning you are trully free to be what you want and for programing problem as mentioned in first post actually its pretty simple too solve. Make a generator for levels and monsters put it in a tower like structure with no top floor give random missions that are generated differently each time and call them challenges.
And thats it its challenging, interesting and involves end game of pve not just pvp.
For sake of argument I will give you all an example.
Imagine you reach max level got the best gear most powerful guild all thats left is too dominate pvp for your name too sink peoples mind but then guild members start too deviate too other games or simply become inactive because not every one likes pvp I for example find it boring
after couple matches and victories all you have left is repetitive and muddy feeling "I done this before", but with tower system developers can alway's come up with new monsters new challenges that will always keep you on your toes and does not requires extra purchase or 25 gigs of space.

Level cap is strictly design decision. The most common design is the have level cap based on content and raising level cap with each expansion. This allows for players to level up over the years but keeping it challenging in most current dungeons. Best example would be EverQuest and World of Warcraft. Level cap were raised with each expansion but just enough to keep the new content challenging. After few years of expansion, when you go back to old dungeons you could just stream roll through it while half asleep and usually boring.
Removing level cap means the developers have to spend awful lot of time purely focusing on content and challenges for higher levels in a very fast pace that leaves no time for any bug fixes or resolving issues. If they higher more coders. well, that will put a hole in their pocket and lose profit.
So, what else is there? PVP... seems any game I have come across that had no level cap always heavily leaned toward RvR/FvF/PvP. Why? Because the best challenge any high level player can get at current technological state (or lack of) is another player who can smack you around.
EVE Online has no levels, except skill level and that can get very boring in long run. Pretty much same with RF Online.
Now... question is... "Is EverQuest Next up to that challenge as they claim?" As they said, players don't level vertically but rather horizontally, meaning that there are NO levels per say like any standard MMO, but rather skill based and the challengers of getting those skills.
In my opinion overall. I think they should remove levels and level caps along with skill level bars. Let the player's skills in their character role determine if they do well in various situation (questing, PvE, Dungeon and Raids).

Level caps bring Limitation, Limitation brings Compatative play, Compatative play brings fun and a healthy environment. There is nothing fun about a Lv 90 grinding 20 years to reach that Level 365 Player that always 1 Shots you.. It results in ultimate boredom and players quitting, leaving only a dozen *Highest Leveled Players* to battle among themselves.

I think level caps are needed, if only so that most everyone is on the same level, for balance sake. While I do realize it feels great to be that person who dumped hundreds of hours into your character to make them Godlike, and thus you do in fact function almost like a God... anyone getting torn apart by said God gets bored fast and quits, and that's not fun.

Not to say I think SKILL LEVEL should be watered down. I think a game should be easy to access, but hard to truly master. This is why I like Guild wars 2 and Heroes of the Storm. Everyone is equal, but it still has customization, which leads to someone learning the finer points and becoming even better.

I I am for not having level caps. I think it continuously gives a player something to work for. Though there should have certain parameters in place that will scale a player’s level for zones, instances, pvp, and etc. At the same time be areas where there is no scale.

Tibia has no level cap, and its amazing the game have like 18 years online

all these games are great except neverwinter

Honestly, i just hope skyforge doesn't have a money limit like in SWTOR for free players. That bugged the crap out of me and even though I'm a preffered status player, i can barely buy anything worthwhile on the auction house

I feel a level cap is mandatory to help balance players and game play, without one hardcore players may have an edge. Also, It helps for players to easily recognize what areas they should be progressing through, because even though you may not have a cap, some monsters are sure to hit harder.