Levels and XP

[Huibai]

To pounce upon a passing comment:)

There are a lot of people not wanting to implement levels, or
experience points, or character classes.  I see that as that
you actually want to 'move on' as opposed to omit them.  You
don't want to quantify player A as 3 better than player B, or 
to limit player A to a predefined subset of abilities, or to say
that doing X for so long gives you Y points to spend on anything.
XP, levels, and classes in their current forms are rather black-
and-white.

I'm still using levels, but not as a goal for players or even as
a prediction of 'who will win'.  Experience points have quite a
few more flavors than just vanilla, but I still use them for the
skills updates in characters.  Classes are being done away
with and replaced by skills on player demand, (that would be
the coder-players in partic, I think).  We all want something
a little more refined than the generic system - we want a range
of choice beyond chocolate and vanilla.

So don't jump my boody when I mention levels and xp, for I
too am 'moving on' - just not by dropping everything.  Well, I
am dropping classes now - gonna try my hand at integrating
'skills' to replace classes altogether, instead of just being a
support group of variables.  My goodness, the effects you
people are having on me.