Actually, i do find this very satisfying, both in real life and in games. To be able to grow and learn to master a previously unbeatable challange is one of the most satisfying things to me.
Both running a marathon and speaking a new language isn't a matter of trying very hard (elite challenge), you really have to train and get better and better until you can finally do it - then train more to do it well. If you just started martial arts, you can defeat almost nobody - and it is very satisfying to experience the gradual change towards mastery.
The common complaint that level scaling = a lack of progression really makes little sense to me, though. The only sense of progression that's lost is the one where Monster-A used to be able to one-shot me, but can now be one-shot
by me instead. As those are both ends of a spectrum I don't find appealing (particularly the latter), I don't mourn their loss.
However, for players to claim that's the sole means of progression is crazy. When advancing through a game, I feel like I'm making progress through a story or adventure. As new areas of the game world become available to me, I feel a sense of progression.
In terms of character progression, even with level scaling I can tell when my current equipment is falling behind the curve and better gear needs to be obtained. Thus, improving my equipment provides me with a sense of progression. I can't just sit there and hoard character points that are rewarded to me or else (once again) I'll start falling behind the curve in terms of character power. And, again, spending them allows me to improve my character, which provides me with a sense of progression. As new skills and abilities open up, I feel a sense of progression, especially when those abilities become key to moving through future challenges.
I don't need to be able to one-shot a trivial monster to shout
"Yes! Now that's a sense of progression!". I'm just not that petty in my gaming. I can appreciate a sense of progression that goes deeper than that. I don't know why so many players on this forum seem to focus so much on whether they can bully an encounter (or be bullied by it). Are people turning to their gaming for payback to real-life problems, where they're not happy with a game unless they can soundly dominate the AI competition or something? I just don't get that. Who knows, maybe my desire for more challenges in games is a sign that I'm not being challenged enough in the real world. I'm sure someone can have fun analyzing all this.
I think basic encounters should be scaled, and bosses shouldn't. That way, the player could still have challenge, whi輙e still having a sense of scale.
Moreover, scaling doesn't prevent a sense of amelioration, either in skills, stuff, etc. Scaling can be tied to character level, but not tied to gear or skills.
I am for scaling.
Yes, part of the problem is that people hear "level scaling" and they seem to make the mistake that it can only be handled one way (and they tend to pull from the worst possible implementation of level scaling they've ever seen). And that's simply not accurate.
For example, a common complaint that comes up in these discussions is the desire to run into something that is too powerful, so you can then come back later and "experience a feeling of growth" when you finally beat it. Level scaling can be implemented in a way that allows this. Encounters can have a minimum level that only scales upwards (not downwards) to match the player's party. Thus, you maintain the "this area is too dangerous for you" feeling that seems to be popular, while not allowing content to become trivial.
Unfortunately, there are always players out there who will argue that they want to be able to lay their face on a keyboard and roll it around until everything on the screen is dead. They like trivial encounters. I just can't get behind that, because (to me) that's wasted content where I'm simply going through the motions. Especially in a turn-based game where trivial battles take nearly as long as challenging ones, minus the whole "I've been challenged" feeling.
Oh im quite finished with it. I wasnt arguing which is better - because there is nothing to argue about ads faras that is concerned. I just dismantled some fallacious false arguments that were used as if god given truth that just fell from the sky.
What you've done is create a nest of insulting comments that are so ridiculous, I can't even bother to respond to them. But, keep on patting yourself on the back if that makes you feel like you accomplished something beyond trolling.
