Eat Sleep Play’s David Jaffe has hit out at multiplayer XP and leveling up systems, labelling them the videogame equivalent of preservatives in food and believes the feature could risk damaging the core product "on a fundamental level."
“It seems there are LOTS of peps who want leveling up and unlocking for the new Twisted Metal. Fair enough. We may do this (still deciding aspects of that system)," Jaffe said on Twitlonger.
"BUT for me I find it very interesting that key reasons people bring up for wanting it are things like ‘so I don’t get bored’, ‘pushes me to keep playing beyond the first month’".
"It’s almost like the game equivalent of preservatives for food designed to keep the game from going bad after just a few weeks,” he continued, adding, "But just like food, it doesn’t seem to matter if these preserving agents fuck up the core product or takes something away from the core product."
On the flip side, Jaffe said that he fully understands why punters love the feature, as well as believing it to be good business. "In the case of games the fun inherent in the core design can get diluted and/or reduced as a player is taking his mind off the core game and staying focused on the meta goal of acquiring rank and goodies and such."
"I get 100% why people love it and I get how it’s good business in many ways to include it. Just trying to decide if it ends up hurting the core game at a fundamental level,” he concluded.