The fellowship system is currently disabled, yes. In practice, it will allow friends to stay relatively the same level by forming a fellowship.
Here is what is said about the fellowship system in the
Official FAQ
Quote:
The general idea is that there are some people who have close friends they want to group with but also have different amounts of time they can commit to playing an MMOG. The Fellowship system is for these people to whom staying together is so important that they will sacrifice some of their own experience to give to these close friends so they *can* stay relatively together in terms of level. Bottom line for me is that as long as someone is earning the exp, I don't mind it shared in a controlled manner (e.g. mindful of potential exploits) and such that there's no 'free lunch'.
That said, I realize it's a controversial subject. We'll mess with it in beta and if it's something that just doesn't pan out, we'll pull it (though I have high hopes for it).
A group of friends would form a persistent social construct called a Fellowship. Then, say there were 3 in the Fellowship, but only 2 were logged on, a percentage of the exp earned by the 2 would go to the third such that his level was kept at or near his 2 friends. There's no free lunch, because the people online earning exp end up having to earn the exp for themselves and the offline person.
We plan on experimenting with this system (and other ideas involving offline advancement) in beta.
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