Inspired by SWTOR fans on Twitter I’ve started playing League of Legends, DOTA clone or what people now call a MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) game. It is a competitive PvP game where you completely rely on your teammates to win a match and it is a gathering of the worst type of gamers in the world – caps lock, nerd rage, griefing, intoxicated, noob calling type that plays these kind of games since Warcraft III. Why would I subject myself to something like that you might ask. The magic that makes me sit down every day and play a few games is the existence of levels in this game. Whenever you play a match, whether you win or lose, you get a small amount of XP which goes towards leveling your “account”. Higher the level, more things get unlocked for your characters to use. The carrot at the end of the stick is level 30 and who knows what wondrous things await me once I reach that fabled place called end game. Ranked matches? My personal army of hot babes? Cookies?
 
Whatever awaits at the end of the rainbow we are compelled to fill that XP bar. This is so noticeable that almost every game company out there is now making their games in such a way that unlocking something through some form of leveling is present in their games. We have shooters with levels and better guns, we have logic games setup that way. Facebook casual games are mini MMOs these days. Even Gandalf the Grey leveled up to Gandalf the White once he killed that Balrog in Moria. I predict with the next incarnation of Windows we’ll probably see a new version of Solitaire with leveling and RPG elements.
  Click here to read more thoughts on the leveling game and how SWTOR will handle it