Posted: 07/04/11 Earn experience points over time. Earn multipliers to earn faster.

Truth be told, experience points are one of the great gaming mechanics. It's simple, it's to the point, it's effective, and it's fun. But, I thought to myself, what if experience points weren't something you actively obtained? What if you just gained them over time no matter what, and you controlled how quickly or how slowly you gained them?

The basic premise here is that you gain one experience point ever second as a base level. At the worst case, you could leave your console on all night and gain a new level. Just sitting there, you gain experience. However, by performing certain actions, you can gain experience multipliers. If it takes you eight hours to earn a level with a 1x multiplier, it will take you one hour to earn it with an 8x multiplier.

Each battle you are victorious in, you gain a minimal increase to your multiplier, like 0.05x. After thirteen battles, you would have a multiplier of 1.65x. Roughly, it would take twenty battles to increase your multiplier. Fighting more difficult monsters increases your multiplier more.

Failing in battle - dying - will reduce your multiplier down to the previous whole number. So if you start with a 3.45x multiplier and die, you will be moved back to a 3x. Die again (assuming you haven't won any battles in the meantime) and you drop to 2x.

You can't just sit in a corner once you have a decent multiplier, as it slowly drops over time. Maintaining a multiplier should not be difficult as long as you are out there fighting monsters of equal or higher levels. Perhaps players don't earn experience in towns or other non-combat areas, and in areas where they do earn experience, the possibility of being attacked is always present.

I don't think this approach is really all that much better than the traditional approach. It's just different. The way I expect things to work out, players who need the most help will spend the longest time in a particular level range, while the ones who have mastered their abilities will level up faster. It might work best in a PvP environment, though perhaps reversed. The better a player is, the slower they level up?