The topic of “Class vs Skill Systems” is a very very very very very very very very very very very popular topic right now. 
The majority of the arguments against a skill based systems seem to boil down to “it’s harder” … harder to balance, harder to make fun, harder to preserve diversity, harder to explain to the player. I can believe that.
MMORPG designs have seemingly all been rushing to the same place. Minor variations persist for the present, but in general, most games seems to present the same broad systems.
It’s as if some massive force of gravity were inexorably drawing all towards some central crushing singularity of sameness.
It’s a shame, really. There are those of us players that would appreciate a quality MMORPG with a different mechanic. In fact, I believe there is a whole sub-culture of MMo’meless players, wandering in search of a new and fulfilling mechanic. You can find these refugees of the Diku world skulking on the forums of any game currently in development. There they espouse radical views calling for perm death, unrestricted PVP and story. They even speak the heresy of skill based character development. All in the vain hope of finding a land of milk and honey (or phat lewt and coin, as the case may be) in which to dwell.
I wonder, how big a niche these potential players might comprise, added all together?
There can only be one game at the gravitational centre of the universe. Travel too close, and you’ll only be drawn in, torn apart, and finally crushed. Don’t go there. It might take vast energy to escape the gravity-well that is a class-based system.
But you MMORPG designers and developers have tackled some pretty tough problems before.
By Tachevert August 29, 2006 - 8:46 am
What any sort of “increased freedom” game system always makes me worry about falls along a couple of lines. First, the different “skills” or what-have-you that you invest points in need some sort of balance, where investing 1 equal point (of whatever kind) ought to give the same feeling of advancement no matter where it is allocated; clearly, this doesn’t always happen. Worse, a lot of times, this imbalance leads to “de-optimization,” where there are many pointless avenues of investment but only a few that pay out — the freedom is illusory. (The SWG H-A-M system is a great example of this; it was a cool concept, but in the end, the Mind pool was king.)
Even even worserest, this imbalance can tend to force the “cookie-cutter” issue, where the open-ended system was intended to provide freedom. For instance, in the game Arcanum, your magical skills dwarfed the damage output of fighting, and even the “innate magic resistance” effects of being a technologist. (For the record, though, any game where you can talk your way past bosses is a pretty clever one in my books.)
The Flavor-of-the-Month style player will never leave us; the challenge I see is to provide a system wherein originality and character development are rewarding enough of themselves that players can remain entertained, regardless of absolute min-max power.
By Wizzel Cogcarrier Wizzleton IV September 2, 2006 - 8:51 pm
I finished up my thoughts on skill-based systems just a few minutes ago:
A Touch of Class