I never played Oblivion, but as far as I knew the complaints about level scaling with that game in particular revolved around the fact that (because the monsters grew in power with the player) the game could become increasingly difficult every time a player made a mistake while developing their character. If a player didn't do some planning ahead, they could find themselves eventually becoming stuck.
Yet the complaints here in this thread make it sound like level scaling = boring.. which I absolutely don't understand, unless the definition of fun has changed to being able to soundly stomp the competition. As reaching that state lacks anything resembling an actual challenge, it's the furthest thing from fun (for me personally).
Also, I find character development in of itself to be entertaining, and despite what some are implying here there is typically far more to that than simply placing one extra level between you and your opponent. I've never played a game (with or without level scaling) where I happened upon opponents my level and groaned in disappointment because they weren't low enough to be facerolled.
Skyrim (which I did play) had some level scaling, but it worked very poorly. The first time a dragon caught me out in the open, the fight was heart-poundingly difficult - like hiding behind a boulder trying to get enough mana back for another heal while dragonfire folded around the rocks edges kind of difficult. Unfortunately, after packing on several levels, dragons now come up to me and it's swing-swing-dead for them. It is so completely disappointing to be that overpowered compared to everything else, and I will probably never finish Skyrim because of it.
Considering Divinity : OS is big on freedoms (and, supposedly, so are the players supporting it), I would think people would be happy with the ability to roam around in any direction and encounter adventure. But when players keep getting instructed by the community to "level up some first by doing quests in town" and then "exit through a specific gate to build up your strength before trying other directions".. that doesn't sound like too much freedom of choice to me. Level scaling (properly implemented) would have made that kind of freedom possible, however.
And, yes, I still wonder how all these random levels characters we end up with (as we all play the game differently) will be handled by both player generated content and developer created expansion packs (if there are any). Because it seems to me that with the current setup we're all going to have to keep creating new characters every time we play a new adventure. Because, without level scaling, a "module" creator has to fill it with content designed for very specific levels.
And that restriction (on both ends) kind of stinks.
