Level Up! A Look at Progress & Power in Video Games

While I’m not a fan of level grinding, I think a certain amount of leveling up when it’s integrated intelligently can just be awesome. In most “leveling up” games, the characters themselves gain experience points (which is collected by defeating enemies) and then the characters level up, which lands them skills, more hit points, and among other things depending on the game. In fact this “leveling up” is almost always relatable to the base genre of RPGs. However it’s not limited to RPGs as the most recent game I’ve played, Resident Evil 5 enables you to upgrade your weapons with money instead of experience points. Different variables, same concept, and this concept of progress in a video game is addicting, emotional, competitive.

My first role playing game as a child was Pokémon. Pokémon is such a fine example of a game with great leveling up. Not only was Pokémon a lot simpler than other RPGs, as the leveling up is much more visual and easier to notice. For example, when you reach a certain level in Pokémon, your monster will begin to evolve and through this visual representation of change and the bettering of the characters does it become addicting. Not only does Pokémon present characters to level up, it presents a system in which to collect the character, which depending on how the player approaches the game may make the player begin to meta level up by “catching ‘em all.”

It plays into the human emotion of our hunger for power and for those brief gameplay moments, our real world selves feel empowered and feel as if we too are gaining levels. While this all may sound cheesy, it’s all too real feeling, because why else would we play? We begin to talk about this to our friends, family, and co-workers. We discuss these games with one another and we talk about our levels and how good we our at the game. We aren’t really being narcissistic and I know that I’m not one to really be full of myself, but a certain satisfaction exists in letting others know that we’re a little better than them.

We play video games to have fun, and to experience them, but naturally we also play them to beat them, to finish them, and to compete with others. The competition is deeply seeded within the player and the video game, whether or not we are competing against a computer opponent or a human being, the feeling of winning and the desire to do it is incredibly strong. While video games are slowly branching out into more independent and advant garde genres, one thing that never disappears is the game element of progress.

This progress is essential to video games and it’s the growth in the player, the desire for power, and the connection to the growth of the characters and the game world that makes most video games a more visceral than intellectual experience.

Whether you’re leveling up or beating levels, one thing is for sure, you’re not doing it because someone told you to, you’re doing it because you have a desire to.