@Zloth;, I see your reasoning, I just don't think that it's a fun way to design games. For starters, you don't need to have just A, B and C. You can have A1-A5 for example, giving you plenty of choices. The vast majority won't replay a 80 hour game several times I believe? What scaling takes away (for me) is the thrill of exploring areas way above your level and equipment, and perhaps even more so the sense of finally being able to tackle certain areas or monsters head on. If I can kill Dragon at level 3, where's the sense of danger after that?
If you want examples of open world games that didn't have scaling but still didn't feel railroaded (to me anyway), The MM series, Wizardry and PB (Gothic and Elex especially) games come to mind. Of course most of those games have other flaws instead, but in the end I much rather play in a world where I have to adapt, than in a world that adapts to me. That's the biggest immersion breaker that exists in my view.
Again though, I think PoE2 got it right by adding the options of full scaling, only scaling up, and no scaling at all. Then you and I can both get what we prefer. I don't know of any other games that have done that.
If you want examples of open world games that didn't have scaling but still didn't feel railroaded (to me anyway), The MM series, Wizardry and PB (Gothic and Elex especially) games come to mind. Of course most of those games have other flaws instead, but in the end I much rather play in a world where I have to adapt, than in a world that adapts to me. That's the biggest immersion breaker that exists in my view.
Again though, I think PoE2 got it right by adding the options of full scaling, only scaling up, and no scaling at all. Then you and I can both get what we prefer. I don't know of any other games that have done that.
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