The Layonara Community > General Discussion
Your opinion on "powergaming"
Vyris:
I think powergaming was best described as creating a character with the express intent of doing as much possible damage in the shortest amount of time, and also the practice I have seen on other places where people will weigh time spent vs difficulty of the monsters vs xp/coin gained, that to me is pure powergaming. Fringe aspects of this are also something I try to avoid, like swinging out of my way from Ft. Hope to Velensk to kill Ants because they are easy exp, It always makes me wonder when I see some solo person with a flaming blade that looks 'impossible' running around killing ants.
On the other hand, I've also taken part in 'laps' through areas, there are RP aspects to it as well, if you are with the right party, like a bunch of Dwarves trying to exterminate the giants from the Berhagens. But the simple fact is that though the RP might be the reason for us to be here, and something I genuinely enjoy, strive for and take part in 99% IC all the time. The game mechanics give us levels to designate progress, and we all strive for achievement.
I want to level for the following reasons:
1) More/better skills for my character, I want to be able to craft in my chosen field and RP the new possibilities that come with advancement.
2) I want to be more usefull to my party, and be better able to take care of myself. I want to be able to aid my companions when fighting does occur, and if there is nobody around that my character likes then I like to be able to gather CNR materials without fear of dying to skunks while collecting clay.
3) Higher level characters are more interesting. They are sought out, have a better idea of thier RP and characters goals and motivations, and they get to do a lot of fun things. Higher level characters are more active in the plot quests, which I think a lot of people with lower level characters are interested in, but intimidated by huge groups of higher level people, the low level folks are never (and I know there are exceptions) brought into the conversation much.
I have personally been on the recieving end of this before, when in a quest with higher level folks who are making suggestions... I would make a suggestion and it would get lost in someone elses, repeat the suggestion, have one person in a group of four tell you that it will be better to do it thier way with no discussion of any merits. Go with the high level suggestion and two people end up dead because the rest of us can't keep up with the combat that they can.
So yeah, I still don't have a character above level 9, so I don't think I qualify... but I can see why someone would want to pack on the levels in the early stages so you can participate in the advanced stages. RP is hard to maintain at times, and it is rewarding OUTSIDE the context of the game of NwN, but levels and advancement are the reward INSIDE the game, so without them Bidwick wouldn't really have as much respect for the fellow Ozymandius, Pandora would not be so attentive to learning something from the other mages she encounters and Berdin wouldn't be trying to raise peoples awareness of how important beating Blood is to them.
Bah, I am rambling now. I don't ever think we are going to all agree on what powergaming or power leveling are It's been my experience that if you encounter a group that doesn't fit your play style than avoid them... twice so far members of the group I didn't want to play with have left the world, and the remaining members have joined in the RP a lot more and are a lot of fun to RP with now.
Vyris remembers the last time this topic was broached and hope everyone stays civil.
Etinfall:
Shut up Vyris!!!!! Hows that for civil *evil grin* hehe just kidding, and Vy knows this.
So far all the comments on powergaming have been pretty close to what I believe. The making a character to be the toughest is in my mind powergaming.. Well unless your character rp's that. Ie a fighter wants to be the toughest because that is who they are,. A wizard wants to be powerful because that is a goal in a wizards life. That is a way to melding the nwn mechanics into the rp style.
Then there are, what I call purest rp'ers. Young master Tom. I think RikL even refuses to lvl him because of his rp, not sure but seems that way. Kudos to him. That is an actor if I have ever seen one. Ozy, who has like 4 hp's to his name, can you say wow? Granted he is very high lvl but not always. He had to rp that as he was growing. And he didn't get to be 20+ in a month or 2.
I see some people that are getting to be high lvl's and started after me and it used to bother me. But then I see some of those same players rp'ing the heck out of their chars too. SOME don't however. I think, or hope the point is to ACT. If you have a power hungry wizard than the other pc's should know that. Through rp'ing that way. Or if you have a fighter type that just wants to kill, then act that out. If you want to gain lvl's faster than everybody else, well rethink what you are trying to achieve here.
Sometimes a person just doesn't want to interact with others. That is ok in my mind. But that person needs to remember that this a community about rp'ing and using NWN to help that out. If you get to lvl 19 and want to go epic, well if the gm team doesnt even know your char it is going to be very difficult to get the go ahead. I have been in a non interactive mood and I will rp that my ranger needs to be alone in the forests. Or if my real life work schedule prevents me from playing I will rp that Cole has been in the forests thinking about things.
The problem with this post is that the people who comment are the ones who view powergaming as a bad thig. The so called powergamers will not care to comment. If you are concerned that you might be a powergamer then you probally are not one. Atleast not flagrently. If you are worried then take the extra time and force your chars personality out. Make m\\y char walk away thinking, "what a powerhungry wizard he/she is. I will need to watch my step around hin/her, as he/she might leave me out for dry if it gives him a chance at gaining more power." If my character says that it is not a bad thing for the PC. It shows that his/her rp is showing and I, as a player, am usually impressed.
as said before these are just our own thoughts on the subject. And I hope that it shows some that are worried that they might be powergaming that they arn't. As long as your pc's personality shows you are doing good.
Etinfall
Warheart:
Thanks all for good replies.. And etinfall, I'm not worried ;) ... I just wanted to hear (read in this case) what others think pwergaming are.. I RP my characters to the best of my capabilities and build them I feel they would.. But I have seen some extreme cases where just taking power attack feat is powergaming and I was pretty unsure how this server felt about it.
And to take it to that, this is the best server I have ever seen. Plenty to do than just killing monsters and allways players to interact with.. This is what I have been looking for.. So sorry if I brought up a harsh subject guys..'
Murgleys:
There are so many differing definitions for "powergamer", aren't there? The players who crunch the numbers and strive to make that perfect character I label as min-maxers. Powergamers can be and usually are min-maxers, as well as "hoarders", which are players who strive to do anything to have the best equipment, most money through any means possible, including cheating. Min-maxing, by definition, has to include "hoarding", to get the best possible stats.
Power-gamers, on the other hand, are people who can and often do ruin a good PnP session because of their lust for, ironically enough, more power. This "power" can come in many forms. As I said, most power-gamers are also min-maxers and/or hoarders. That special little item that'll raise your attribute by another point is power manifest. I had a terrific game PnP campaign of Desert of Desolation ruined because our cleric wanted to level up in an oasis but was denied by the dm since there was no way for him to train that level there. DoD has a little bit of time constraint and this guy wasn't satisfied with the dm's denial so decided his cleric would go back to the starting city to level up. Game over. Leveling up is another expression of power and if abused, like above, then you're powergaming. It so happens this guy was also a hoarder but not much of a min-maxer. He made creative enough characters but they were all greedy to the point of absurdity (and suicide). His roleplaying sucked pretty badly, too.
That's just my take on it. I agree with others though. If there is no justifiable way to rp something you've done, then you're abusing the true intent of the game and probably a bad rper to begin with.
Warheart:
Remember guys, this thread is your opinion.. I am confident in my abilities as a good RP'er, but as said before I have had many run ins with powergaming on other servers and I felt that I had to ask what this lovely community tought of it..
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