Ah, the Power Gamer. Simultainiously the most hated, and respected section of the Online player base. Chances are you've met a few, or are one yourself. More often than not you've felt their effects in the game world. Has that mob you wanted so badly been camped for the past 6 hours by the same party? Did the devs just make every skill take twice as many experience points to achieve? See a guy run by at level 100 within two days of release? Ahhh, yes, then you may know the true, heart felt adoration that the non-power gaming public feels for these most noble of player types.Let's delve into this world of joy and take a look at the Power Gamer.

Up, up and away

Grind. Burn. Cycle. Are these words familiar? They should be. These are now common lingo in the MMO community for actions which are largely associated with Power Gaming. In essence, the act of doing something over and over again, for many hours to achieve a new skill, level, or item. On a larger scale, this is how an entire game is played to a Power Gamer. Every aspect of gameplay must be maxed out as soon as possible. It's not unusual to see people online, continuously, for days it would seem. The goal? To do it all. When you see a Power Player, know that he's going to go all the way before you've even had a chance to blink.

General Relativity and you

In an Online Game it doesn't take very much time at all for the player base to divide. Casual gamers will still be at level crap when the Power Gamers have maxed their characters out. This has more effects than you might think on the overall game. These players will have amassed an incredible amount of money, power, and knowledge on the game. An economy of scale often developes. Items will go for ungodly high prices that no casual player can afford, but are considered a pittance to the typical Power Player. Spawn Points are camped continuously - thus preventing your average player from getting that rare item. Large Scale conflicts and pvp are completely skewed by the Power Gamer's presence. It will be their war, with the casual gamers as nothing but cannon fodder. Not even being able to so much as get a single blow in before being nuked into a smelly puddle of flesh by your friendly neighborhood level 100 wizard is typical.

Would you like more pandering with your fries, Sir?

Developers, despite their PR campaigns which claim otherwise, always lean toward the Power leveling Player base. Power Gamers are also the most vocal of the community. Casual players are, by definition, not going to be too horribly active in the community. Thus, this sets up a dynamic where most of the input Devs get is skewed towards the High end of the Players in their community. What do the devs hear? The game is too easy, there aren't enough features, and why can't I write my name in 50 foot letters across the sky? More often than not, the Devs will oblige by upping the overall difficulty of the game tremendously. Often, games are built from the ground up with Power Gamer's in mind, without the devs being aware.

This has to do with a fundamental problem relating to game production. At a certain point, an MMO is going to reach the stage where it needs to be in Alpha and Beta testing. Exposure to the player base is supposed to allow the devs to get feedback on how the game is doing. Unfortunately, a 'casual' gamer is very unlikely to participate in any kind of a beta test. Only the Power Gamers are going to be able to find the time and energy to be in on a testing phase. Hence, games from the beginning get thrown over to the extreme side of the spectrum as Devs get their input and adjust their title accordingly.

Life: An obvious question.

Do Power Gamers have a life? The sheer amount of time these individuals have to invest in a game just to achieve their egotistical goals is staggering. The simple fact of the matter is that these people don't have a life. Period. At least, not in the sense that you would think of it. The game is their life. Their Reality. The flip side: There are good sides to the Power community. Often they are the ones who are quickest to discover game bugs, and get the devs to fix them. Power Gamers usually force the Devs to add more features, or patch up otherwise incomplete game systems. Even though it may take the average player a year or two just to reach the point where they can enjoy such additions, it is appreciated. Economy-wise, it is sometimes even possible that the Power Gamers will help ye old noob. Some players grind out so much equipment that it becomes easily affordable to the less financially well off players. Sometimes, a generous player will give whole sets of valuable equipment away at random to a needy player.

Finally, Power Gamers are mostly a curse to the casual player, but have their saving graces. Overall, there is one final thing that makes the Power Player a great individual. This is that they will be gone from your favorite game as fast as they came and trashed it. The basic system is that these individuals will burn through a game's features quickly, get bored, and simply move on to the next great game. This cycle will repeat itself endlessly. As casual gamers, we can only hope that the Power Gamer's get in, do whatever it is they want, and then leave as fast as possible.