Learn by use worked fine in games like Dungeon Master and Darklands. But these are single player games, and only the same people who will grind easy XP for hours on end will jump up and down hours on end just to increase the Athletics skill, for example.
Multi-player games are of course another thing, since these games tend toreward encourage destructive gameplay anyway.
Personally I think it's a good thing that not every game has the same skills system, magic system etc. Any of the main systems (XP vs learn-by-use, Vancian magic vs mana pool, TB vs RT vs RTwP) work if done right. And any system can be "abused" by gamers who are more concerned about treating the game as a spreadsheet than a game.
Multi-player games are of course another thing, since these games tend to
Personally I think it's a good thing that not every game has the same skills system, magic system etc. Any of the main systems (XP vs learn-by-use, Vancian magic vs mana pool, TB vs RT vs RTwP) work if done right. And any system can be "abused" by gamers who are more concerned about treating the game as a spreadsheet than a game.
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