This has probably been discussed before, but I was just thinking about this.
If there was an MMO where everything you did and all of your success/failure within the game was based on how well you could perform with your character. For example, there was no gear and all of your stats would scale with your level. Raids would have multiple difficulty levels which would all be possible for any max level character, just that the easiest was for leisurely players and the hardest would require extreme min/maxing and awareness to succeed. I guess gear would be in the game, but purely for vanity and being able to customize the appearance of your characters. Mounts and other things for fun would mostly be the rewards or finishing raids and what not.
This obviously would be really boring to some as acquiring gear is a fun part of most games, and it's one of my personal favorite things about WoW is the massive amounts of gear you can get. That is what makes raiding and other things in games worth it is the loot to be had. I just think it would be cool to not be able to just outgear content and be required to do it with skill and practice.
Obviously my game model could use some work, but personally I would play a game with similar characteristics, but I would not play it as much. It would be more like a game that I would play through once and beat all of the encounters on the hardest settings and then not play for awhile.
Overall, I think it would be cool for awhile but the replayability and motivation to actually would be the biggest turn-offs to me personally.
Anyone have any thoughts or ways a game could be purely skill-based AND successful as well?
---------- Post added 2012-12-08 at 05:48 PM ----------
Wow! Fail on my part . . .
"Would you PLAY an entirely skill-based MMO?"
I apologize I am posting from my phone.