power creep

plural power creeps · alternative powercreep

1. uncountableusuallycollectible games; roleplaying games; collectible games; roleplaying gamesvideo gamesThe situation where successive updates or expansions to a game introduce more powerful units or abilities, leaving the older ones underpowered.

   It does seem that over time the base damage a starting characted^([sic]) can do has inflated, but a good GM can usual put an end to the munchkin power creep.

   1992 May 8, Donald A Bachman <donald@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu>, “Re: SRUN: MAges, what to do? (Was Cyberware &...)”, in rec.games.frp (Usenet), via Google Groups, archived from the original on 25 Mar 2026

   2 more examples

   And that’s to say nothing of the sweeping round of nerfs seemingly deployed to mitigate the potential power creep of players investing as heavily as possible into a meta build’s target stats.

   2025 November 28, Phil Savage, “Ticket to Grind”, in PC Gamer, number 414, via EBSCOhost, →ISSN, pages 74, 77

   Different Legends have seen a power creep in the past few seasons. However, there are some who have been left behind in the meta race, and as the seasons progress, their pick rates have seemingly declined over time.

   2026 March 25, Jay Sarma, “All Legend changes in Apex Legends Season 28 Split 2”, in Sportskeeda, Mumbai, Maharashtra: Nazara Technologies, →OCLC, archived from the original on 25 Mar 2026

present singular third person power creeps · participle present power creeping · participle past power crept · past power crept · participle past power creeped · past power creeped · alternative power-creep · alternative powercreep

1. transitivecollectible games; roleplaying games; collectible games; roleplaying gamesvideo gamesTo affect by power creep.

   Sure enough, the text also teases the return of the weapon in an upcoming dungeon. Honestly, we're so power crept these days it will probably need a buff to see play.

   2024 September 9, Tim Clark, “[Destiny 2 is abandoning big annual expansions and linear campaigns in favour of more frequent releases that are 'mysterious, weird, and not afraid to try new things'] Hot take: Tim Clark”, in PC Gamer, Bath, Somerset: Future plc, archived from the original on 09 Sep 2024

   3 more examples

   The power creep is more prominent in the DPS segment, as almost every future unit is designed to overshadow the existing characters. For instance, Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae has power crept almost every DPS in the game with his fluid gameplay and massive damage output with both F2P and frugal builds.

   2023 October 6, Akash Paul, “Is Honkai Star Rail power creeping units too fast?”, in Sportskeeda, Mumbai, Maharashtra: Nazara Technologies, →OCLC, archived from the original on 25 Mar 2026

   Ultimate Team is actually a lot more flexible overall this year, stripping away the irritating Position Change cards and introducing Evolutions, which allow you to still eke value out of a crappier player that’s already been power crept by the game’s meta.

   2023 October 19, Sammy Barker, “EA Sports FC 24 Review (PS5)”, in Push Square, London: Gamer Network, archived from the original on 19 Oct 2023

   Perhaps you’re running a Commander deck or playing a Cube that has a need for redundant copies of similar effects, so the cards that got power crept aren’t completely dead, but as far as new releases go, it’d be pretty puzzling to ever see Altar's Reap again when we know Village Rites and Deadly Dispute exist.

   2024 March 8, Timothy Zaccagnino, “Power Creep in MTG – What is it and How Does it Happen?”, in Draftsim, archived from the original on 25 Dec 2024