There's a lot of MMOs out there, many of which use linear class systems that gain specific abilities each level. And I guess that works, but everyone is doing that. So on my own, without any inspiration at all(well maybe I played Star Wars Galaxies back before the NGE), I came up with a different type of system that I think could work with a bit of tweaking. Tell me what you think.

So you have these skills that compartmentalize the various abilities you can use in a game. Let's use one called "block" as an example. Now, block lets you mitigate damage with a shield or, less effectively, with a weapon. This seems like it could be a useful skill that anyone would want to take, so let's just give it to everybody. In fact, let's give every skill to everyone. "But how will one character be different from any other?" you might ask. Well let me tell you. Since everyone has every skill, you have to have some limiting factors to avoid homogeneity. I propose a threefold approach to this.

First, rather than investing points into a skill, only have them increase as you use them. So sure, anyone can block, but the people who will be best at it will be those that engage in a playstyle that requires or even revolves around blocking. We'll call it... umm... okay, I can't think of anything. We'll just call it shielding for now. There's probably a better term for that. Spellcasters will get better at magicka related skills, thieves and assassin types will get better at sneaky type skills and so on. You can even mix things up if you want to play a character that, for instance, uses illusion magic in conjunction with thievery to become some magical sneak-thief... thing. I'll think of a name for that play style later.

Now that may not be enough to create diversity, because what's to stop someone from just standing in front of a monster with a shield until they skill up and then just play some other non-defense type of class. Well how about instead of hard defined classes, we allow players to pick major and minor skills that grow faster than normal. You could even still have "classes", but as templates for those that aren't sure what skills would work well together for the type of character they wanted to play.

Finally, there is the small problem with this system. If all it takes to max out a skill is time, then eventually everyone will be good at everything if they so choose. Well I propose a radical system I like to call a level hat. Or something. The gist is that you can get a maximum level of skill gains before your character basically puts on a hat and says "I'm done." That would prevent maxing out every skill. To further limit things, you could put hats on skill tiers as well. So, for example, your major skills could progress all the way to 100, the minor skills to 75, and the miscellaneous skills would put their hat on at 50. This would make your major/minor skill choices meaningful, and by end game your play style would fully define your character.

If you wanted to specialize anything you could go with an advantage/disadvantage system, or maybe a positive only system made up of skill related perks, but that's a different discussion really.