With skill based system you learn your friends and guildmates weaknesses so you learn how to work as a team. Instead of in a class based system where they define teamwork by making it so no one can fight very well. Who is to tell me that I have to play the way they think I should?
Think about skill based system where teamwork is more than just "this class beats that class so we also need this class character with us". Or "we need a rouge,warrior,mage,priest and hunter" Instead of depending on a class you can determine your party by how good each player is instead of what class they are.
Fighting styles can't simply be generalized into archer/warrior/mage/priest. Some people have broader interests than having to conform to predefined fighting styles.
Your mind is like a parachute, it's only useful when it's open. Don't forget, you can use the block function on trolls.
Class based system is about restraint, It does provide some balance, but thats just making things easy, a game should have to be designed, not just slapped together, classes are easy to make, its proven, theyve been done again and again
With skill based you can pick and choose what u want to do, you design your character.
Now i play anarchy online, and i love it to death and ive played most other mmos too AO has the only class system i can stand. This is because there are very few boundaries. So class system can be done correctly
Freedom is key, games like WoW suck because they limit you so much, i cant raise the dead and fight with a sword, its stupid.
I voted skill based, because that automatically has freedom, now if developers make a class based system with great freedom it is fine, and maybe even a little better,
but this is rare, and skill based games should be made more often.
Stats and items alone alone do not make an mmorpg. ANY single player offline rpg have these and some hybrids. Community is what makes or breaks an mmorpg.
Let's refute one statement made that the majority of wow players are hunters or shaman. http://www.warcraftrealms.com/census.php will give you a precise layout. Hunters and warriors make up the largest slice of characters levels 10-60 (and seen in the past 30 days) accounting for 32% of the 4.5 million character sample, with rogues following a close second (for a total of 47%). Shaman are the lowest represented class according to the census data making up for only 6% of the wow population. When in a debate you may want to get all your facts correct in order to make any of your argument sound.
Skill system is by far the best way to go. Freedom to choose what type of skills you want will determine your role. Class system keeps you in a perma-role. I voted for skill system and hope a mmo comes out with a skill system similiar to EVE and SWG. I was amazed at how much freedom i had in EVE in having a choice in learning hundreds of different skills to shape my character. SWG also had given you a chance to create your own template in what fits you best.
Thanks to SOE for ruining 1 of the very few mmo's who gave you freedom of choice. May they rott in hell for it.
agreed. Despite all the whiners complaining about skill-based being unbalanced, and never able to be fair, the same applies to class-based setups: you still have to balance the classes. Not to mention, that the best example of a skill based system was SWG, there were so many different template options that worked, yet ppl always cried FOTM. Even with the FOTM's that came and went, there were always many options to use, and it was up to the player to figure out what to use to suit your playstyle. For example, if defense stacking was a FOTM, why could I find no one with the same def stacking template I had?
Ppl cried about rifle/cm, yet our group tore thru them like butter. Why? Every template had a weakness, and if you knew how to offset it, that template was all of a sudden a disadvantage to them. The same works for any game that uses a skill-based system. It holds the user accountable to actually have some grain of thought as to what to build, and how to effectively use it. If they can't figure it out, they whine about imbalance and cry nerf - and that is the biggest problem with skill-based systems is that the developers actually listen to these wretched sobs, and go off "fixing" the purported imbalance, and a new bunch of people who were slighted by the nerf now cry about the changes. Nice cycle.
What's needed in skill-based systems is a group of devs that can resist the urge to 'balance', and take some time to really analyze the situation and determine if a real imbalance exists, or are the whiners incapable of figuring out how to use the skill set they have.
An aspect of this that is being overlooked is the fact of "mistakes". In a skill based system, its far easier for a casual gamer to "nerf" their own character by improperly selecting skills. Obviously we as Developers want to avoid players gimping themselves, due to poor choices.
This was experienced within Shadowbane, which offers a very flexible skill based system. It does prove that a balance can be had within a skill system, but also shows that many players can make mistakes easily, and think that they are not able to play the game well with their character.
A class system alleviates many of these fears developers have, and gives a player, of casual experiences, to develop a character within a finite amount of choices. These choices are exposed to the player, however, they do keep the player within a specific framework of choices, to not allow them mistakes that can not be easily corrected, or by training another skill within their class.
Personally, I think we will see some interesting hybrid systems in the future. I know its a personal goal of mine to give the players as much freedom of expression as possible, but also give the casual player enough guidence to their character type as can be had. I continue to stand by my previous statement, that I feel the games basis of play will also determine which system is best.
PVE = classes (designers can better design encounters for set classes and number of players)
PVP = skills (designers can better offer survivability to all class types)
Many games have combined the class/skill system. poorly but some have attempted none the less. I like games where i get to specifically pick my own skills such as eve-online. where also i like games where i pick a simple class and then choose from different power sets like in city of heros. I jsut wounder what if you maybe combined those 2 concepts. combined eve-online with city of heros (not the games themselves just the way you pick your charicter.
An example would be say i made a warrior. i have his basic stats and i understand what his general role is. now give me access to skills not just warrior skillz but a wide varity of skill sets and or skills that i can hand select for my warrior giving me the ability to truly outline how my warrior plays be it i turn him into a combination of 1 or many class's however in that idea make sure certain types of skills give me a bonus for using it. for instance a warrior wouldnt get a bonus on ranger skills but he would get a bonus on any of the warrior skillz he picked.
That wouldnt limit the charicter in terms of his class. he would simply be given the option of changing the way his particular class plays. Simply because you gave him the choice makes the total difference. Thats what the whole things about in the end isnt it? Choice. dont limit me. maybe give me a guidline but allow me to make my own decision in the end.
Class based systems are the remenants of older RPG's where roles were still being defined and the whole concept of an RPG was new in and of itself. Traditionally people coming into the genre needed a way to identify what their "hero" was - a noble warrior, dirty rogue or scholarly wizard?
As the genre evolves we are finding that the superior skill based RPG systems are being infused into the old form of character identification and definition to lend them more playability. Most RPG games now are actually skill based with a class facade, which is a good way to provide the benefits of both worlds.
Balance is an issue whether you are talking at the top level (classes) or bottom level (skills). In fact, the beauty of skill based systems is that you can compensate for a lack of balance more easily than in class based (i.e. if a Warrior is gimped in a class based RPG, well guess what?).
As RPG become more mainstream and people better understand them we'll find that class based systems give way to the better skill based systems - only serving as a way to group together related skills in a meaningful way as titles.
The theory that open skill system will result in a multitude of players all using the same skills is prededicated upon the premise that all games will be inherently imbalanced. Yes in most games with an open skill system there is usually a combination of skills and items that will prove to be a killer in combat. I would prefer however to be able to find and experiment with those combinations myself, rather than be dictated to as to what skills my character can learn. Why should I choose to be a healer or a warrior? Why cannot I choose to be a healer who can fight? Or a fighter who can heal?
In a game such as Ultima Online I found great diversity in characters. It is true that people who engaged in PvP almost exclusively did tend to be quite similar in their skills and abilities but they were not the entire population of the servers I played on. A good party in UO is made up of a diversity of skills and let's not forget that crafting skills are also an integral part of the game.
If I want my character to do nothing other than make items in the comfort of my own dwelling then why shouldn't I. Rather than WoW where it is only possible to advance by killing monsters I would like to be able to improve my skills in crafting by doing nothing more than crafting.
MMORPG's should be about the players and the players should have as much variety of choice as possible. If all you want to do is run around killing Mobs or other Players then perhaps having an open skill system is not important to you. If however you feel as I do, then you probably prefer to play games where the choice is yours.
In both cases, the complete and utter application of either is bad. But it's much better to take a complete lack of restrictions and start adding a few, than to take an utter lack of freedom and start adding a few. Players want more freedom in their MMORPGs, I think this has been demonstrated time and again on all the message boards. However, they don't want total freedom either, and this too has been demonstrated.
A sense of realism is missing in the class based games. A mage can't even put on armor, when he should be able to, and gain the benefits at the cost of being able to effectively cast his spells. It makes more sense to take a skill based system and tell the mage about this, whereas in a class based system the game mechanics are all about telling you "you can't do that". In this sense, it's really about the application of the code.
But the one thing, despite any application of code, that a class based system can't get around by it's own design flaw, is that a character is locked into place. Changing the direction of a character means a "respec". While in a skill based system, if there's any restriction at all, there can be a more realistic approach, such as slowly losing ability in the unused skill.
Overall, I like the skill based system much better, because it offers the chance at much more freedom in a much more realistic way, if designed properly.
Bravo! Morrowind did it very well with % skilling and you could eventually master all the classes made available. Shame it never went mmorg as it was monstrously good to play. The religious implications and political setting with free to roam anywhere means this game had the template to rule mmorg!
Also good to see that most people are in favour of skill over class without completely removing the class concept!
To me both systems have merit. Class systems have the benefit of providing relatively set roles which helps new players who dont know anyone yet as well as the community as a whole and devs trying to create reasonably well balanced mobs. Skill based systems allow for customization and more opportunities for the rp part of mmorpg. My personal preference would be a hybrid developed to fit with the storyline of the game its in. Have enough classes to provide people some kind of loose identity and reward those who want to specialize while making most skills and abilities open to any who are willing to take the time to learn the prerequisites. To get away from levels you could have the classes give bonuses to appropriate abilities which could increase over time depending on how often you used those skills and abilities. As far as balance is concerned that has more to do with the details of how its implemented than the concepts used.
The other thing that would help any system be it class, skill, or a hybrid is an ingame respec option that is doable but not so easy that you are going to want to do it on a whim. SWG when it first came out and Horizons are both good examples of this.
My preference is a skill system - and the clue isn't to balance the skills
The clue is to make every skill distinct from the others, and make sure it has a useful application.
Farming, land management, baking, butchering, cooking... These skills are all useful in real life, and we need someone to use them. The more importance food is given in the game, the more those who choose these skills will benefit. However, the more people who choose these skills, the more crowded their market. Most people might find these skills boring, which would potentially make these skills very good for a few people.
Archery (possibly several skills), riding, running, stealth, stamina, melee (possibly several skills) will have application in combat, especially PvP. If runspeed is slightly modified by running skill, then you might escape an encounter, or catch up - provided that your stamina holds. Of course, heavier armour should increase stamina drain.
If you're a serious tank in heavy armour and an archer comes along, he might actually have what it takes to hit and run, and hit, and run - and when you finally decide to flee because noones around to help you, he pursues for a while. If he has a horse, you're done for.
Advice: Keep a horse about if you're slow by yourself, or keep quicker friends available.
In this setting, you could actually get in trouble for lacking diversity, either on your own, or in a group. If you had a fast one, or were accompanied by a couple of archers, then the scenario would have been different, even against 3 archers. (Your two would fire back while you advanced, and as long as the enemy were to fire upon you, they would be firing upon a sturdy man in solid armour while your archers retaliated. If they target your archers, the archers could probably stand down for a moment, whiel you caught up)
If the point of the game is to kill the predefined dragon, then people will veer towards dragonslayer potential in their skill selection.
The future: Adellion Common flaw in MMORPGs: The ability to die casually Advantages of Adellion: Dynamic world (affected by its inhabitants) Player-driven world (beasts won't be an endless supply of mighty swords, gold will come from mines, not dragonly dens) Player-driven world (Leadership is the privilege of a player, not an npc)
Skill based. You have more choices in a skill based system. As far as balance goes, every class based system tried to balance there game out but they have all failed. In a skilled based game you let the players balance there game out for you.
Class based has a lot more restrictions, so it will always be a character I kind of like, but at the same i'll be wishing I could use swords or heal or something as a hunter. Skill based would allow me to drop that bow/gun and keep my pet while doing the other two, without having to be completely gimped at it. On games like UO I could even retrain if I wanted to start thieving instead of healing. My character would be something i'd be completely happy with so I wouldn't have to make 4 or 5 of them. I had to choose skill based as a preference.
Class based progression is always more enjoyable for me though. Don't like having to stand around hitting a macro button for hours so I can get to the skills I actually want to use, maybe. Doing things like Spirit Speak on UO or Masking Scent on SWG. Will always prefer level based over that.
Frank Talks Alot Of Sense why the hell should we be told how to play a game and why the hell cant we make everything our own style in a game i think choosing your own skills from all the classes can make your character alot more unique than if they limit you to only your class skills it sucks i would like to see a change in the future
Not everyone who plays MMO's want to be in groups all the time. Some, like me, like to go do things solo. SWG allowed me to do that. Now I'm not saying everything in the game should have been solo-able, but it was nice that I didn't need 2-3 other people to just go out and hunt. And if I got sick of being the hunter, I could easily just switch prof's which of course you can't do in class based systems.
Due to some of the things I read I would like to say:
A skill based system doesn't have to be strictly do/gain. It is probably the most common model for skill based games. (Even Runescape has that, and Runescape... has levels of individual skills and overall levels - huh! And such a dull game too.)
You could take advancement offscreen, or partially offscreen, make it happen as "practice" hours. This might require that you eat fairly regularly, giving farmers (and further food producers) a purpose in the game. (Without food you don't have energy to practice your skills)
That would be setting the grind aside no matter what system it was. You could make this progress very slow and insignificant, but in no way time consuming, to create a game where you get to play, advance and be grind free. Levels / skills - this could be applied to both. I see it with skills, though, not levels.
(edit)
I disagree somewhat with the "why should I be told how to play the game" attitude, though. I am more at the "why should I play the game" position, where it is the developer's right to create a game and define it in as many aspects as desirable, and the privilege of a player to choose to play or keep away.
If I created a game because I wanted just that game, then I'd tell you how that game was, and explain how welcome you were to join and play if you liked that sort of gameplay.
The future: Adellion Common flaw in MMORPGs: The ability to die casually Advantages of Adellion: Dynamic world (affected by its inhabitants) Player-driven world (beasts won't be an endless supply of mighty swords, gold will come from mines, not dragonly dens) Player-driven world (Leadership is the privilege of a player, not an npc)
In Ultima Online Magery wasnt always the most uber choice. I had a dexxer and did quite well in PVP vs Mages. If you can make a nice balanced system then one skill set should dominate another. I had a character that had Blacksmith/Alchemy/Poisoning/Magery/Eval Int/Meditation/Mining. Sure I wasnt the most uber in a battle because I was more of a crafter but if my guild got into a fight I could help out with some spells or if I had archery I could sit back and fire off some shot. I loved having a character jack of all trades. It was great not being limited in my selection. Levels and Classes are just plain boring. Have skill points, make what you want, have it done in a month or 2 of grinding and then lets all get to playing and enjoying the game. It was great, once you had your skill set, you could concentrate on roleplaying and the content the game provided. You didnt have to worry about , oh no a new expansion , level 80-100, back to the grind again, screw that. I wont play games like that anymore.
Case-in-point: a somewhat popular game named Dungeon Siege labels your class by what skills you've chosen to pursue. Mix nature and Arcane magics and soon you'll be a Hedge Wizard. Mix swords and sorcery and you'll be a Battlemage before long.
Now here's another choice: Generalized Classes with Skills Independent From Class.
How would this work? Well, it would work a little like WoW, a little like EQ, a little like FFXI and a little like DDO (that is to say, 3.5 edition D&D rules).
If you want to use a sword as a mage, go right ahead. It'll cost ya to learn how to wield a sword without being a demi-god, like Gandalf, though. Should you wish to pick up healing as a warrior, you would be free to do that, but it would end up costing your character more than if you chose to become proficient with a second or third weapon type.
With an open-ended class system such as this, you'll come across a Rogue that can pick locks every bit as well as conjuring up illusions. The tradeoff is that such a Rogue will have spent his/her points in illusion making instead of say... combat evasion. That rogue could use the illusions to escape battle, performing the same function, but it would be a very different way of going about it.
Skills should be more meaningful than flavor, but definitely not so desirable/useful that choosing anything else would be fallacious. A sword-wielding mage's advantages should be situational, not game-defining.
Comments
With skill based system you learn your friends and guildmates weaknesses so you learn how to work as a team. Instead of in a class based system where they define teamwork by making it so no one can fight very well. Who is to tell me that I have to play the way they think I should?
Think about skill based system where teamwork is more than just "this class beats that class so we also need this class character with us". Or "we need a rouge,warrior,mage,priest and hunter" Instead of depending on a class you can determine your party by how good each player is instead of what class they are.
Fighting styles can't simply be generalized into archer/warrior/mage/priest. Some people have broader interests than having to conform to predefined fighting styles.
Your mind is like a parachute, it's only useful when it's open.
Don't forget, you can use the block function on trolls.
Class based system is about restraint,
It does provide some balance, but thats just making things easy,
a game should have to be designed, not just slapped together,
classes are easy to make, its proven, theyve been done again and again
With skill based you can pick and choose what u want to do,
you design your character.
Now i play anarchy online, and i love it to death
and ive played most other mmos too
AO has the only class system i can stand.
This is because there are very few boundaries.
So class system can be done correctly
Freedom is key, games like WoW suck
because they limit you so much,
i cant raise the dead and fight with a sword,
its stupid.
I voted skill based, because that automatically has freedom,
now if developers make a class based system with great freedom
it is fine, and maybe even a little better,
but this is rare,
and skill based games should be made more often.
Just another handsome boy graduate...
Stats and items alone alone do not make an mmorpg. ANY single player offline rpg have these and some hybrids. Community is what makes or breaks an mmorpg.
Let's refute one statement made that the majority of wow players are hunters or shaman. http://www.warcraftrealms.com/census.php will give you a precise layout. Hunters and warriors make up the largest slice of characters levels 10-60 (and seen in the past 30 days) accounting for 32% of the 4.5 million character sample, with rogues following a close second (for a total of 47%). Shaman are the lowest represented class according to the census data making up for only 6% of the wow population. When in a debate you may want to get all your facts correct in order to make any of your argument sound.
http://www.speedtest.net/result/7300033012
Skill system is by far the best way to go. Freedom to choose what type of skills you want will determine your role. Class system keeps you in a perma-role. I voted for skill system and hope a mmo comes out with a skill system similiar to EVE and SWG. I was amazed at how much freedom i had in EVE in having a choice in learning hundreds of different skills to shape my character. SWG also had given you a chance to create your own template in what fits you best.
Thanks to SOE for ruining 1 of the very few mmo's who gave you freedom of choice. May they rott in hell for it.
agreed. Despite all the whiners complaining about skill-based being unbalanced, and never able to be fair, the same applies to class-based setups: you still have to balance the classes. Not to mention, that the best example of a skill based system was SWG, there were so many different template options that worked, yet ppl always cried FOTM. Even with the FOTM's that came and went, there were always many options to use, and it was up to the player to figure out what to use to suit your playstyle. For example, if defense stacking was a FOTM, why could I find no one with the same def stacking template I had?
Ppl cried about rifle/cm, yet our group tore thru them like butter. Why? Every template had a weakness, and if you knew how to offset it, that template was all of a sudden a disadvantage to them. The same works for any game that uses a skill-based system. It holds the user accountable to actually have some grain of thought as to what to build, and how to effectively use it. If they can't figure it out, they whine about imbalance and cry nerf - and that is the biggest problem with skill-based systems is that the developers actually listen to these wretched sobs, and go off "fixing" the purported imbalance, and a new bunch of people who were slighted by the nerf now cry about the changes. Nice cycle.
What's needed in skill-based systems is a group of devs that can resist the urge to 'balance', and take some time to really analyze the situation and determine if a real imbalance exists, or are the whiners incapable of figuring out how to use the skill set they have.
An aspect of this that is being overlooked is the fact of "mistakes". In a skill based system, its far easier for a casual gamer to "nerf" their own character by improperly selecting skills. Obviously we as Developers want to avoid players gimping themselves, due to poor choices.
This was experienced within Shadowbane, which offers a very flexible skill based system. It does prove that a balance can be had within a skill system, but also shows that many players can make mistakes easily, and think that they are not able to play the game well with their character.
A class system alleviates many of these fears developers have, and gives a player, of casual experiences, to develop a character within a finite amount of choices. These choices are exposed to the player, however, they do keep the player within a specific framework of choices, to not allow them mistakes that can not be easily corrected, or by training another skill within their class.
Personally, I think we will see some interesting hybrid systems in the future. I know its a personal goal of mine to give the players as much freedom of expression as possible, but also give the casual player enough guidence to their character type as can be had. I continue to stand by my previous statement, that I feel the games basis of play will also determine which system is best.
PVE = classes (designers can better design encounters for set classes and number of players)
PVP = skills (designers can better offer survivability to all class types)
double post, sorry about that
Many games have combined the class/skill system. poorly but some have attempted none the less. I like games where i get to specifically pick my own skills such as eve-online. where also i like games where i pick a simple class and then choose from different power sets like in city of heros. I jsut wounder what if you maybe combined those 2 concepts. combined eve-online with city of heros (not the games themselves just the way you pick your charicter.
An example would be say i made a warrior. i have his basic stats and i understand what his general role is. now give me access to skills not just warrior skillz but a wide varity of skill sets and or skills that i can hand select for my warrior giving me the ability to truly outline how my warrior plays be it i turn him into a combination of 1 or many class's however in that idea make sure certain types of skills give me a bonus for using it. for instance a warrior wouldnt get a bonus on ranger skills but he would get a bonus on any of the warrior skillz he picked.
That wouldnt limit the charicter in terms of his class. he would simply be given the option of changing the way his particular class plays. Simply because you gave him the choice makes the total difference. Thats what the whole things about in the end isnt it? Choice. dont limit me. maybe give me a guidline but allow me to make my own decision in the end.
Class based systems are the remenants of older RPG's where roles were still being defined and the whole concept of an RPG was new in and of itself. Traditionally people coming into the genre needed a way to identify what their "hero" was - a noble warrior, dirty rogue or scholarly wizard?
As the genre evolves we are finding that the superior skill based RPG systems are being infused into the old form of character identification and definition to lend them more playability. Most RPG games now are actually skill based with a class facade, which is a good way to provide the benefits of both worlds.
Balance is an issue whether you are talking at the top level (classes) or bottom level (skills). In fact, the beauty of skill based systems is that you can compensate for a lack of balance more easily than in class based (i.e. if a Warrior is gimped in a class based RPG, well guess what?).
As RPG become more mainstream and people better understand them we'll find that class based systems give way to the better skill based systems - only serving as a way to group together related skills in a meaningful way as titles.
The theory that open skill system will result in a multitude of players all using the same skills is prededicated upon the premise that all games will be inherently imbalanced. Yes in most games with an open skill system there is usually a combination of skills and items that will prove to be a killer in combat. I would prefer however to be able to find and experiment with those combinations myself, rather than be dictated to as to what skills my character can learn. Why should I choose to be a healer or a warrior? Why cannot I choose to be a healer who can fight? Or a fighter who can heal?
In a game such as Ultima Online I found great diversity in characters. It is true that people who engaged in PvP almost exclusively did tend to be quite similar in their skills and abilities but they were not the entire population of the servers I played on. A good party in UO is made up of a diversity of skills and let's not forget that crafting skills are also an integral part of the game.
If I want my character to do nothing other than make items in the comfort of my own dwelling then why shouldn't I. Rather than WoW where it is only possible to advance by killing monsters I would like to be able to improve my skills in crafting by doing nothing more than crafting.
MMORPG's should be about the players and the players should have as much variety of choice as possible. If all you want to do is run around killing Mobs or other Players then perhaps having an open skill system is not important to you. If however you feel as I do, then you probably prefer to play games where the choice is yours.
all I have to say is DARKFALL
skill based .... so wait for it, beta test it, play it and see if it rules the MMORPG universe.
Skill system.
Project entropia has great one. Too bad the game itself is bad and a casino too.
You could easily turn this around and say that
A) Class based systems offer lack of freedom
In both cases, the complete and utter application of either is bad. But it's much better to take a complete lack of restrictions and start adding a few, than to take an utter lack of freedom and start adding a few. Players want more freedom in their MMORPGs, I think this has been demonstrated time and again on all the message boards. However, they don't want total freedom either, and this too has been demonstrated.
A sense of realism is missing in the class based games. A mage can't even put on armor, when he should be able to, and gain the benefits at the cost of being able to effectively cast his spells. It makes more sense to take a skill based system and tell the mage about this, whereas in a class based system the game mechanics are all about telling you "you can't do that". In this sense, it's really about the application of the code.
But the one thing, despite any application of code, that a class based system can't get around by it's own design flaw, is that a character is locked into place. Changing the direction of a character means a "respec". While in a skill based system, if there's any restriction at all, there can be a more realistic approach, such as slowly losing ability in the unused skill.
Overall, I like the skill based system much better, because it offers the chance at much more freedom in a much more realistic way, if designed properly.
Once upon a time....
Bravo! Morrowind did it very well with % skilling and you could eventually master all the classes made available. Shame it never went mmorg as it was monstrously good to play. The religious implications and political setting with free to roam anywhere means this game had the template to rule mmorg!
Also good to see that most people are in favour of skill over class without completely removing the class concept!
The other thing that would help any system be it class, skill, or a hybrid is an ingame respec option that is doable but not so easy that you are going to want to do it on a whim. SWG when it first came out and Horizons are both good examples of this.
My preference is a skill system - and the clue isn't to balance the skills
The clue is to make every skill distinct from the others, and make sure it has a useful application.
Farming, land management, baking, butchering, cooking... These skills are all useful in real life, and we need someone to use them. The more importance food is given in the game, the more those who choose these skills will benefit. However, the more people who choose these skills, the more crowded their market. Most people might find these skills boring, which would potentially make these skills very good for a few people.
Archery (possibly several skills), riding, running, stealth, stamina, melee (possibly several skills) will have application in combat, especially PvP. If runspeed is slightly modified by running skill, then you might escape an encounter, or catch up - provided that your stamina holds. Of course, heavier armour should increase stamina drain.
If you're a serious tank in heavy armour and an archer comes along, he might actually have what it takes to hit and run, and hit, and run - and when you finally decide to flee because noones around to help you, he pursues for a while. If he has a horse, you're done for.
Advice: Keep a horse about if you're slow by yourself, or keep quicker friends available.
In this setting, you could actually get in trouble for lacking diversity, either on your own, or in a group. If you had a fast one, or were accompanied by a couple of archers, then the scenario would have been different, even against 3 archers. (Your two would fire back while you advanced, and as long as the enemy were to fire upon you, they would be firing upon a sturdy man in solid armour while your archers retaliated. If they target your archers, the archers could probably stand down for a moment, whiel you caught up)
If the point of the game is to kill the predefined dragon, then people will veer towards dragonslayer potential in their skill selection.
The future: Adellion
Common flaw in MMORPGs: The ability to die casually
Advantages of Adellion: Dynamic world (affected by its inhabitants)
Player-driven world (beasts won't be an endless supply of mighty swords, gold will come from mines, not dragonly dens)
Player-driven world (Leadership is the privilege of a player, not an npc)
Class based has a lot more restrictions, so it will always be a character I kind of like, but at the same i'll be wishing I could use swords or heal or something as a hunter. Skill based would allow me to drop that bow/gun and keep my pet while doing the other two, without having to be completely gimped at it. On games like UO I could even retrain if I wanted to start thieving instead of healing. My character would be something i'd be completely happy with so I wouldn't have to make 4 or 5 of them. I had to choose skill based as a preference.
Class based progression is always more enjoyable for me though. Don't like having to stand around hitting a macro button for hours so I can get to the skills I actually want to use, maybe. Doing things like Spirit Speak on UO or Masking Scent on SWG. Will always prefer level based over that.
Skill based - SWG hybrid way was great!
Not everyone who plays MMO's want to be in groups all the time. Some, like me, like to go do things solo. SWG allowed me to do that. Now I'm not saying everything in the game should have been solo-able, but it was nice that I didn't need 2-3 other people to just go out and hunt. And if I got sick of being the hunter, I could easily just switch prof's which of course you can't do in class based systems.
Due to some of the things I read I would like to say:
A skill based system doesn't have to be strictly do/gain. It is probably the most common model for skill based games. (Even Runescape has that, and Runescape... has levels of individual skills and overall levels - huh! And such a dull game too.)
You could take advancement offscreen, or partially offscreen, make it happen as "practice" hours. This might require that you eat fairly regularly, giving farmers (and further food producers) a purpose in the game. (Without food you don't have energy to practice your skills)
That would be setting the grind aside no matter what system it was. You could make this progress very slow and insignificant, but in no way time consuming, to create a game where you get to play, advance and be grind free. Levels / skills - this could be applied to both. I see it with skills, though, not levels.
(edit)
I disagree somewhat with the "why should I be told how to play the game" attitude, though. I am more at the "why should I play the game" position, where it is the developer's right to create a game and define it in as many aspects as desirable, and the privilege of a player to choose to play or keep away.
If I created a game because I wanted just that game, then I'd tell you how that game was, and explain how welcome you were to join and play if you liked that sort of gameplay.
The future: Adellion
Common flaw in MMORPGs: The ability to die casually
Advantages of Adellion: Dynamic world (affected by its inhabitants)
Player-driven world (beasts won't be an endless supply of mighty swords, gold will come from mines, not dragonly dens)
Player-driven world (Leadership is the privilege of a player, not an npc)
Why limit the choices to class OR skill-based?
Make another choice: Skill-based Classes.
Case-in-point: a somewhat popular game named Dungeon Siege labels your class by what skills you've chosen to pursue. Mix nature and Arcane magics and soon you'll be a Hedge Wizard. Mix swords and sorcery and you'll be a Battlemage before long.
Now here's another choice: Generalized Classes with Skills Independent From Class.
How would this work? Well, it would work a little like WoW, a little like EQ, a little like FFXI and a little like DDO (that is to say, 3.5 edition D&D rules).
If you want to use a sword as a mage, go right ahead. It'll cost ya to learn how to wield a sword without being a demi-god, like Gandalf, though. Should you wish to pick up healing as a warrior, you would be free to do that, but it would end up costing your character more than if you chose to become proficient with a second or third weapon type.
With an open-ended class system such as this, you'll come across a Rogue that can pick locks every bit as well as conjuring up illusions. The tradeoff is that such a Rogue will have spent his/her points in illusion making instead of say... combat evasion. That rogue could use the illusions to escape battle, performing the same function, but it would be a very different way of going about it.
Skills should be more meaningful than flavor, but definitely not so desirable/useful that choosing anything else would be fallacious. A sword-wielding mage's advantages should be situational, not game-defining.