Hmm... If an MMORPG has a flat rate for monthly access and server-side storage of character information, I have an idea that might be pretty good.

Let the griefers build their fighting prowess to godlike levels through goblin genocide, but don''t allow XP gained from murder to contribute to skills like lockpicking, diplomacy and alchemy.

Let players set their characters to study while they''re logged off. Not to train, to study. Your little guy goes into the library and sits down with "Jewel Polishing for Dummies", and when you come back from a weekend at your grandmother''s house, he''s raised two levels in jewel polishing. Next time you''re at a bar and some barrel-chested barbarian comes in with the contents of a troll''s hoard, say, "Hey, buddy, that''s a nice ruby. For half of its current value I''ll make it worth three times what anybody would pay for it now." When you go to bed, have your little guy work on goldsmithing, so next time you meet that satisfied customer, you can turn his handful of looted coins and emeralds into a necklace fit for enchantment by the wizard down the block. Voila! You''re a jeweler, and a damn good one at that. People will come to you to have their loot appraised and modified, and you can start making money.

Or maybe you like the more adventurous side of things. Well, sit down and crack a book about lockpicking and enchantment breaking, and next time some brave knight comes in and says "I need somebody to get me into the dragon''s lair so that I can rock his freaking world. There''s a bag of gold in it for whoever''s got the rocks to come along," you can raise your hand and head off, with a burly axe-wielder to take care of orcs you might meet on your way.

This would also allow people to customize their character to their style of play. People who only log on once a month can be master wizards, enchanting weapons and armor, and accompanying groups into areas where muscles can''t keep you alive.

Such specialization would encourage party-building, bring in a real risk of treachery and deception, and generally deepen the gameplay, making it more social. And isn''t that the point?

Maybe there would still be a problem with overpowered characters, but in this sort of evironment, there''s bound to be a lot of "Man, I wish I hadn''t wasted my time getting that lockpick skill" and "If only I had another few hours worth of enchanting, my blacksmithing could be freaking magical!" Perhaps a six-month lifespan would discourage ancient, incredibly powerful characters and give players numerous opportunities to reinvent themselves, without having to build up the nerve to abandon their last guy.

"What makes the current model so popular, even with its many flaws?"

The evolutionary history of the genre. MMORPGs came from cRPGs came from p&p RPGs. In p&pRPGs, combat is often the most developed mechanic because it''s the area that''s generally hardest to arbitrate in a manner that everyone agrees is fair - without clear conbat mechanics, you get players wanting to do things like "I decapitate 5 trolls with a single swing, backflip over the 6th and use it as a living shield against the goblin archers..." When cRPGs started being written, they built on the p&p experiences - borrowed the detailed combat systems, but not the AI intensive arbitration for other actions. Finally, MMORPGS, which have the potential for much less AI intensive interaction based systems tend to restrict themselves to the tried and tested combat-centric offline techniques rather than inventing new ways of doing things (which actually tend to go back a lot closer to the p&p roots of the genre)

Add to that that publishers and gamers tend, en masse, to be pretty conservative, and no-one''s willing to risk re-inventing the genre.

Not to mention that the clearest form of superiority is combat superiority. Comparing characters in an RPG is difficult, and if you want to find out who''s better, the obvious thing to do is make them fight. It''s pretty childish, a sort of a "My dad can beat up your dad" system, when in fact the value of an RPG character has about as much to do with combat prowess as the merits of a good father do. Or at least that''s the way I see it.