@philip6k: Feel free to enlighten me - it's possible I missed something.
This is why I say it's not the same:
In order to do normal damage to a mob in Destiny you had to match their light level. Gearscore is nothing like that. It is simply a measurement of the average quality of your gear and is used to gate content. So once you reach gear score 115 you can enter end game mission 27(not real just an example). The only thing that determines the amount of damage you do is your gears stats.
It is possible that I missed/misunderstood the 'light level' system and I welcome any correction.
@Pyrosa:Gear score is not a leveling system. It's something that was introduced years ago in WoW that denotes the average quality of a players gear and is often used these days as a measurement of a players end game activity (simply based on the quality of gear he's wearing). Typically this lets developers gate content for players who don't have good enough gear for said content. It doesn't dictate whether or not the players are any good at playing the game but at least they have a chance at making it through difficult content by meeting the minimum requirements.
One good thing about gear score is that it does not limit the ability for a developer to expand the games max level. It also provides a way for players who continue to play at end game to track their progress via what quality of gear they're wearing.
@normanislost: They are vastly different games in terms of quality, gameplay, and content.
For the features they mentioned, Gamespot could have used games like Diablo, Wow, Borderlands, etc... to make those same comparisons. Games that actually pulled off these mechanics well.
@snake8877: Gear score is not light level. It's just an average score based on the level of your gear. Typically it's used so that you know whether or not the people you're playing with have good enough gear to attempt an encounter (such as end game raiding in MMOs) and may be used to gate players with too low of a gear score from attempting said content.
It is not a leveling system. It's just an average number based on the quality of the loot you're wearing.
@normanislost: I'm fairly certain Item level isn't a leveling system - it's just a way of measuring how far you've progressed into the end game 'at that time' and a way of gating end game content from players who aren't ready (geared enough) for that content.
Based on the description in the article, it's like WoW's gear score system. Gamespot is on Destiny's nuts for some reason and trying to shoe horn every idea as being like something Destiny did.
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