General Discussion

Why does every mmo that releases now thinks that in order to be successful you need to have classes? It is just stupid; classes limit customizability and cause you to reroll when you decide that you don’t want to play that class anymore. If you don’t want to reroll you will just quit the game all together and I doubt developers want that. It limits pvp to a rock paper scissors match. Take pvp in WoW for example if you play a warrior and see a mage it doesn’t matter if you have more skill and better gear you will still lose just because the class is made to kill you. And if the classes aren’t fair at release (they never are) the developers have to take time to nerf some classes and buff others, time that could be used to add more content to the game. I think Oblivion and Morrowind are perfect examples on how a no class game can work. If you don’t like the way you built your character you can just use a different type of weapon/armor/magic.  You should make your own destiny instead have the developers hold your hand the entire game.

/end rant

Ultima online, best mmorpg i've played, held my interest at least 2 years longer then WoW 

UO and EVE are the only mmo's that I know that don't have classes. Neither one has been a market faliure.

Originally posted by GrayPixie

Why does every mmo that releases now thinks that in order to be successful you need to have classes? It is just stupid; classes limit customizability and cause you to reroll when you decide that you don’t want to play that class anymore. If you don’t want to reroll you will just quit the game all together and I doubt developers want that. It limits pvp to a rock paper scissors match. Take pvp in WoW for example if you play a warrior and see a mage it doesn’t matter if you have more skill and better gear you will still lose just because the class is made to kill you. And if the classes aren’t fair at release (they never are) the developers have to take time to nerf some classes and buff others, time that could be used to add more content to the game. I think Oblivion and Morrowind are perfect examples on how a no class game can work. If you don’t like the way you built your character you can just use a different type of weapon/armor/magic.  You should make your own destiny instead have the developers hold your hand the entire game.

/end rant

Isn't it amazing that what is so apparent to anyone with half a brain hasn't been realized by the big corporations?

No problem with classes but I hate levels because they make all the content in the world below your level completly useless and make it so youc an't play with friends at different levels from the get go. Games like EVE and SWG (pre cu) however you can/could and that's what I really loved about them.

i dont mind classes too much.  i think however things need to be changed.  an option to do some quests to change your class (FFXI had something like that) or simply adding more stuff to classes (to make them more varied) would be a welcome change.

It really surprises me that the people who say "Why won't somebody make a skill based MMORPG?" when the answer to that is quite obvious.

I mean, did you never wonder WHY MMORPG's became so popular AFTER the skill system was thrown away?

The reason why so many mmorpg development companies are using a class system over a skill system is because it's more accessible. Having so many skills to advance makes the game unnecessary complicated for both the player and the developer. Balancing a skill system is a lot harder than balancing classes because you have to take a nearly unlimited amount of possibilities into consideration, and players are going to be confused what stat to raise, how to raise them and how to build an effective character. Too many choices is like having no choice, which is why the system was abandoned, and just look at which MMORPG's are the most popular: It's not the skill based ones, thats for sure.

Classes are not an issue in current games, they would actually suck more if they weren't class based.  (edit: from referance to the ops post).

Mabinogi doesn't have classes.

For example, you can be a magic wielding swordsman.

Go play Mabinogi.

Originally posted by RZetlin

Mabinogi doesn't have classes.

For example, you can be a magic wielding swordsman.

Go play Mabinogi.

Anyone glancing at it looking for a skill based game and is willing to pay a monthly fee will just shrug that game off.