Marvel's Avengers is reworking its XP curve to make it take longer to gain levels after 25.

Crystal Dynamics is pitching this as a solution to the [made up] problem that people level too fast and are having trouble handling all the skill points the game throws at you.

Having played quite a bit of the game I can tell you that this makes no sense. Leveling isn't particularly fast, especially if you switch characters a bunch, and the skills are all super easy to understand and integrate. I'd say it actually takes too long to get enough skill points to make characters somewhat fun to play.

Furthermore it only affects characters from level 25 onward, when you already have a good handle on the character and their various skills. It's just a transparent lie.

They also encourage people to get to level 50 before the relaunch if they want, which...

Anyway my only two thoughts about the actual reason would be:

1) They think that they can get people to stick with the game longer if they draw out the grind, which is possible I guess, though it won't make the game 'better' in any way since there still isn't enough to do to justify that grind.

2) They are going FTP and are going to sell XP boosters and this is laying the groundwork for that.

I think 2 is the most probable explanation. Given where this game is right now FTP makes a lot of sense. First you get the last batch of premium buyers with the next gen version and then some time in the summer you flip the FTP switch (long enough that the previous buyers don't burn down your headquarters) and start doing more FTP stuff rather than the current "just cosmetic" version of the stuff.

Will it work? I think FTP is pretty much the only move left at this point. The license will make people curious and you might get enough of a player base to juice some more cash from the game, as well as maybe getting that critical mass of players that you don't have currently. I just wish they weren't screwing up the XP curve to do it, if that's the plan.

Oof. From what I've heard, more time to level wasn't what this game needed.

Marvel Heroes died so Marvel's Avengers could crawl out of its deep dark hole and pass you an XP boost to make you happy.

@lapsariangiraff: As someone who completed the story of the game and some of the end game stuff I can tell you it most assuredly was not.

When this change happens there will be 8 characters available with more allegedly coming and the game encourages you to play with all of them, so it's not like people are maxing out levels on every character (or on the only character they play.)

The weirdest part is that they claim it's for "new players" to help them adjust to the game...but it doesn't kick in until level 25.

By the time you are level 25 you are adjusted to the game! You've put in at least 10 to 12 hours if I recall, especially if you're swapping characters between missions.

The game is not that complicated. It's a beat 'em up!

This is going to kill what’s left of the endgame. If I’m partying up with friends and we all spent this extended period of time leveling up the same hero then we’re screwed because all the other heroes will be under leveled, and you can’t double up on heroes in a party. If anything, they should be making the climb to max level less onerous, not more.

Maybe they're trying to drive away the last 5 players so they can shut down the servers and not have to pay for the AWS instance?

This game won’t last. I’m willing to bet money by end of year 2021 they will end support.

It's a bizarre choice, presented bizarrely, for sure. The game isn't lacking proper onboarding or whatever their stated rationale is, it's lacking content.

The weirdest part to me is that they reccomend you hop in now to level faster....like it feels like they are acknowledging the fact that this is not a player friendly change.

Which also makes it feel like it's an executive move to decide "people are leaving the game because they're leveling too fast!" And not "people aren't playing our game because the multiplayer aspect of it never felt fully fleshed out and performance on all consoles makes it buggy as all hell."

It's really confusing because, to me, the characters don't even start to feel like the heroes you know until level 25 because so many skills are locked behind level caps. Like if they got rid of the level requirements within the skill tree, this might make more sense to me since you could pick and choose as you go, actually creating the hero to fit your playstyle. With the launch setup, it felt like for the majority of the game I was just using the skill point on whatever skill just unlocked at that level (until 20 or so... When everything else unlocks)

Preparation for free to play.

@bigsocrates - Just how long / what does it take to level a character? Asking as I have no idea. Are we talking about a pure XP grind, level 1 to max level? Reclaim the Tier bell from the Big Baddie every 10 levels to ring in a Tier increase? Make certain you ransack/collect the correct Rainbow Crystals or no Tier increase? Obviously presumes an experienced and knowledgeable player, but I would bet it wouldn't be too far off for a new player.

Only going on 2nd hand info, but after hearing Greg Miller during a KFGD news segment over this news, this seems like something the entirety of the active player community will react with 'WTF?! FIXES NOTHING' and will alienate what player base they have. And with the recent fire of the Anthem Next news...