not accurate.

rephrase this argument to run like this:

“If you’re playing football and the other team actually has a quarterback, while you do not, and the other team has full protective gear, while you have none, are you going to whine about the constant injuries and inability to play properly?”

then you have a more valid analogy.

First and foremost, we must define skill. Else, any arguments about its involvement are futile. From dictionary.com, let’s use the first definition: ‘the ability, coming from one’s knowledge, practice, aptitude, etc., to do something well.’

Is there any skill involved in an MMO, according to the above definition?

In an MMO, communication generally plays a significant role. It is instrumental to finding and maintaining groups, guilds, and friends. Communication is certainly an ability. Furthermore, the effectiveness of communication depends upon an individual’s knowledge and aptitude. Someone knowledgeable about the game will be familiar with acronyms, other players’ viewpoints, locations, etc. A socially apt player may find and implement communicative methods of influencing and manipulating other players… so aptitude is involved as well. Therefore, communication is a skill a player may use and improve during the course of the game.

I propose that similar arguments can be made for the skills of navigation, strategy, tactics, organization, etc.

Now, the problem is that the many skills used are not often recognized or rewarded in a way that is immediately obvious to onlookers. I think this is where some people become frustrated and confused… they want credit for their evolving skills. The credit may be there, but they overlook it… it can come in the form of a compliment from a fellow player (‘Nice job healing… I really thought we were going to wipe!’), for example. Or the credit may not be there at all… but this should not prevent the player from recognizing his or her own improving skills.

So what I think most people are trying to say when they make the silly claim that ‘MMOs take no skill,’ is that ‘MMOs do not tangibly reward you for skill.’

Will PvP in an MMO be determined largely by skill or by time? Time, certainly… but that does NOT mean there is no skill involved in playing an MMO. It’s just not as obvious as in other genres.

In most MMOs time trumps skill, every single time. Have two level 70s duel in WoW. Now the winner rerolls a level 1 character. How long until the winner is able to beat the loser again? The PvP in a majority of MMOs boils down to character vs character with the items and level of the characters dictating the chances to win before the play even starts.

In a fair game if two characters of the same class dueled it shouldn’t matter if they swapped characters and dueled again (allow any respec or customization they prefer.) That is most certainly not the case.

As mentioned Guild Wars is the example of this style of game where Skill trumps time. You have a minimum investment to gain access (or you can just buy fast access now) and have to spend no time leveling to do PvP. I can instantly roll any character I way and be ready to PvP on a level playing field. I can take someone brand new to the game and equip them to be fighting on a fair level with other players before they finish learning the basics of the game.

Your quarterback example is also terrible. The other team having a better quarterback is skill. An example closer to the reality of MMOs would be that for every year your football team has played you start with one more point. So if your team existed for 5 years and the other team existed for twenty the game would start 5-20.

The “MMOs take no skill” is exaggerated, but accurate. When time trumps skill to a large degree what does skill matter. Does it matter how good you are when you are on a level 1 character in WoW and watching 70s raid your race’s city?

Also let’s not forget that in a MMO there are other skills that are just as important to master: time management, information management, social management, financial management etc.

I do agree that for the most part WoW is a game that requires very little traditional skill from it’s players which speaks to it’s immense popularity. The solo game where you can go all the way to the level cap lacks any form of challenge whatsoever which is a shame.

As far as the time vs. skill argument, time is the great equalizer that enables lesser skilled people to compete with the new twitch FPS gamer generation. Still I think PVP is very flawed in WoW. I rarely participate in it and just loathe it.

Robert Sirlin authored a great essay on the time vs. skill issue in WoW for Gamasutra which is well worth checking out.

http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20060222/sirlin_01.shtml

P.S. I can’t seem to get spacing for my paragraphs

Gear=time investment, and if that’s to be the determining factor (agreeing that practice time will make one better), there’s already a critical imbalance when it comes to skill. Going with the football analogy again, if gear is the key (thanks to time grinding rep or raiding), play between teams on, say, a battleground, will be akin to the Raiders freshmen playing my local high school team.

Regarding an MMO with heavy PvP, what of Guild Wars? Or more to the point, what of the now-defunct Fury? Fury was purely PvP. Guild Wars is both PvE and PvP, but it has a much different focus from WoW or WAR, as well as a different business model. GW catches some flak for not being a “true MMO”, whatever that means, but it has some of the best skill-testing PvP out there.

I’m all for leveraging the demand for good PvP. I’d rather it move to the CS or TF2 model where the matches are free to play, and skill is the deciding factor.