Just because it isn't a DekuMUD doesn't mean it isn't a MMO. Just because it's an Action Combat Game with a minimalist UI Focus doesn't mean it won't have progression or that it would be like Space Marine, or Gears of War with small matchmaking maps (there are others, but those two come to mind first), or that it won't have skill trees and PvE content along side the PvP. When you think Action Combat RPG, think of games like Mass Effect combat and skill trees which you can upgrade your character with passive skills which improve their combat. There are a few MMOs out there which have attempted at it while maintain traditional, such as Star Trek Online but they are not really good examples of this, a good example of it would be DC Universe Online, they are more or less a hybrid, a DekuMUD with simulated action combat controls, thing is when you try to use that system with action combat, it always comes off as clunky and feels unrealistic, no offense to the developers of that game, but that's my honest opinion of that. Thing is XP and leveling is just one direction in which game designers take to calculate progression, it's the most common example because people can easily associate with it, if or if not this game will use that system I don't honestly know. EVE Online doesn't use it, it's still a MMO, it uses training stages and the ability to unlock the use of increasingly more powerful equipment. I like it's progression system, it's a knowledge system, your character becomes more educated. You scale horizontally, you learn to use more things. It's still a MMO; Still an RPG. The player who starts at day one is the same as the player who had played for 10 years... except, the player who played for 10 years simply knows how to use more ships, equipment and weapons than the new player, they might have exclusive cosmetic items which the new player can't get, maybe the new player can get cosmetic items which the old player can't get, the old player has a lot more game currency, friends, in a powerful established guild in the game which owns a lot of things. That's how horizontal progression works. It's a realistic progression of time = progress. Rather than time = content, which is the leveling system, which in fact restricts content or denies access to parts of the game. It's a system which I personally believe doesn't work with every kind of RPG, just slapping it on a game because it is an RPG is in my opinion "Playing it Safe" or "Appeasing accepted standards" and it simply doesn't work with most games. It is only required in games which force you to follow a set out progression system in PvE content which is story driven or arc driven, such as in Pen and Paper games where it is story driven, or in Themepark RPG, Adventure, Linear RPG games. It is designed to restrict your progress in the game to seeing the content when the Game Master or Game Developers want you to see it. And make going ahead of your planned path to be more challenging, it focuses on the age of narrative of the Hero's Journey and getting progressively more powerful, most MMOs represent a persistent world where thousands of players participate in their own Hero's Journey and can go on adventures together. To tact this onto a game where the focus is not the Journey, but instead the fighting and adventuring alone, would be completely out of place. So sorry I don't think it will be that. Thing is when you try to judge something which hasn't really been done before to existing things which look similar which are not RPG games, it can be scary and also very confusing to understand. I say just have an open mind, I'm open minded about everything to do with video games and I give everything the benefit of the doubt. (even though I am not open minded about movies, yeah I'm weird that way)
I don't fear any of that what I was trying to get across is with WAR you done all the pvp zones you levelled up and gained renown for access to better armour and weapons. I personally don't like the whole "go there grab 10 of these and come back, then go to the same area and kill 20 of these and come back". I was hoping to see some form of progression where as you went further and deeper into the game your character got stronger and like Psyctooth had said a skill or talent tree where your can set up passive skills to make your character faster or stronger depending on what you wanted it to do
There won't be any questing in that way, so don't worry. To be frank very little is known in depth about the game. Many people think it's going to be more akin to the love child of Space Marine and Planetside 2, but until more info is released everything is subject to conjecture and change.
I think in a perfect leveling system your character would progressively get more toys to play with, not more powerful weapons/abilities. I recall the last night I played War. I was in a well rounded group or rr 75-80. We spotted a lone rr100 slayer and the slayer killed us all. We didnt even do any damage, the slayer being a glass cannon dps machines. What happened here is that the equipment dictated who was going to win this engagement and I was very put off by that model.
I for one will be thankful that there is no grind in this game. Psytooth has hit the nail on th head I feel
