Massively points out a nicely written piece on Kotaku about a gamer who “powerlevels” a character. The story is presented in three parts:
Powerleveling is a type of service, generally considered against the rules, for massively multiplayer online (MMO) games. Many MMOs involve gaining levels as a character progresses through quests of the game. Certain games have a specialized section that is only accessible after reaching the higher levels.
Getting to that point, however, can take weeks to months of repetitive game play. Especially, for those who have played a game’s lower levels before, this process can become boring as there is little new to be learned. Meanwhile, there may be an interesting character class a player would like to explore in the higher levels.
In these cases, some consider hiring a powerleveling service. They are a group of people who work around the clock to get the character up to the higher levels. However, doing so is most often against the terms of agreement in playing a game.
The story on Kotaku is about the travails of someone going through a process of doing something against authority and praying not to get caught in order to get something while forgoing one’s own real needs. The recognition of this behavior as problematic took time and not without its travails.
As I’ve mentioned numerous times before, gaming can have its benefits. However, this is a well-written account of a pitfall.
