Points, Levels & Progress
Users on 10FastFingers earn points and progress through levels based on the time spent in various modes, with each second contributing to their total score. We use an exponential level scaling system, ensuring that higher levels require increasingly more effort to achieve.
Today I would like to give a short overview over our leveling system. This is still a work in progress so feel free to provide feedback or share your ideas on discord.
Levels and Points
Levels and Points are based on how much time the user has spent in the various modes, with each second invested awarding one point. A Typing Test lasts 60 seconds, so the score for a TT is 60. Accuracy/WPM, etc., are not factored into the point calculation.
Why does an advanced typing test gain the same amount of points? Because otherwise it would "force" certain users to use a mode they don't enjoy (creating less flow than the standard test). We need a better mode to make more challenging words appealing to users, helping them improve in the process (Idea: Pacemaker Mode - you start by typing the TOP 50 words and the difficulty increases gradually during the test giving you harder words over time, it ends once you fall below a certain pace).
Level Scaling:
An exponential scaling system ensures that each level requires more time and points to reach than the previous one.
Level-Up Formula:
Points for Level N = 100 × (N^2)
- Level 1: 100 points
- Level 2: 400 points
- Level 3: 900 points
- Level 4: 1,600 points
- Level 5: 2,500 points
- Level 10: 10,000 points
- Level 20: 40,000 points
- Level 50: 250,000 points
- Level 100: 1,000,000 points
This steadily increases the effort required to reach new levels, rewarding long-term users without making it too easy to climb the ranks.
To reach Level 100, a user must spend 11.57 days actively engaged on the site. Users who complete 16,666 tests will reach Level 100. Currently, only 65 users, based on the number of tests completed, would reach Level 100 (excluding competitions/TP, etc.).
User Exterminator has completed 160,830 tests, which would earn him 9,649,800 points and unlock Level 310 (October 10th, 2024).
Text Practice Mode Points Calculation
Since the Text Practice Mode involves typing texts of varying lengths, the points are calculated based on the number of characters.
Characters are evaluated based on the keystrokes required to type them (e.g., 'a' = 1, 'B' = 2, etc.), and then summed up. This is especially useful for more complex languages like Chinese and Japanese. Only correctly typed characters are counted towards the score, so typing the word “House” correctly yields 6 points. This total is then either simply divided by 10 (or another value) or multiplied by a factor based on WPM, for example:
- < 40 WPM (x0.1)
- 40–100 WPM (x0.15)
100 WPM (x0.2)
Faster typists gain an advantage, but the factor could be adjusted to ensure it's not overly weighted in favor of speed, we just have to make sure that users are still incentivized to complete the text as fast as possible to gain the maximum amount of points for their speed. These values are still a work in progress and will probably change in the future.
Levels & Permissions
The more activity a user has (tests, competitions, multiplayer, etc.), the higher their User Level. A higher User Level grants more permissions (e.g., the ability to add links to profile descriptions) and more influence (e.g., a report from a higher-level user carries more weight) but also decreases the amount of ads that are displayed.
