Levels vs skills: the great MMO debate

Essential linkage: A great article on the pros and cons of the two MMO progression paths.

When it comes to MMOs, there are two main types of character progression - leveling, whereby character power is related to your game level, or skill-based systems, where your level in particular skills is the relevant indicator. Leveling is probably the more recognised of methods these days, thanks to games like World of Warcraft and Everquest, but there's still a lot of debate over which method delivers the best gaming experience.

The MMO experts over at Ten Ton Hammer have gotten into the debate themselves, and in pretty cool style, too. Their newest article, The Dilemma of Level v Skill, is a pretty fascinating read:

But at Ten Ton Hammer we like to do things with a bit more discussion in mind. As we've done in the majority of our premium articles to date, we went straight to the game developers and to you - the gaming public - to hear what you had to say on the age old dilemma. Specifically, we asked the gaming developers six questions specifically pointing at the future of skill-based games, the sudden resurgence in games focused on individual skill advancement, and their thoughts on whether skill-based games could ever overtake titles with level-based progression systems.

If you're at all interested in RPGs or MMOs it's well worth pointing your browser at.