Board Thread:The Gatehouse/@comment-50.155.230.30-20140329020756/@comment-24480866-20140330014606

I'll be the odd one and throw my hat in for number one.

Thinking about Habit as a part of my life in the future, my big long-term goal after I've collected every pet and mount is to stack the "Start a New Adventure" badge as many times as I can. I thought it was a brilliant design choice to make that a stacking badge, and to make it so that the only way for someone who's reached 100 to stack it is to reach 100 again, because it creates a sort of prestige system. You can see how many times you've successfully scaled the mountain - that is, reached the level cap and reset.

With the level cap gone, so is the motivation to Start a New Adventure. Rebirthing no longer represents another attempt to complete Habit's ultimate challenge; it just becomes an arbitrary decision, one likely fueled by boredom. "Hmph. I'm level 593. It's been a while since levels actually meant something. Guess I'll rebirth, or whatever."

Which raises my other point - I want levels to mean something. I get that people like seeing their level increase, and want to retain the level up heal functionality. However, what makes HabitRPG special is that progressing actually has in-game implications. You get stronger. The way you interact with your tasks changes. I played another gamifying app before I found about Habit, but I ended up leaving it because leveling up meant nothing. Sure, my level number increased, but I didn't feel like I'd progressed in any way. There wasn't enough "game" to it. If I were to level up in Habit and see no change of any kind to my character, I think I'd start to feel the same way.

Again, though, I understand that some people truly are motivated simply by climbing to higher and higher levels, and I don't want to spoil their fun. However, de-valuing the Rebirth mechanic by removing the clear cut-off point would spoil some of mine.