What is the name of the genre?

[Dibens]

Hi everyone, I am trying to find a name for a genre (or is it subgenre?), to be able to find more games of that type. It can be rarely found, but mostly it can be found in RPG games. In this genre (or subgenre) your character most likely does not have a class and all your skills develop depending on how you play. For example, if I am using an axe, my skill for axes grows, if I am getting punched in the face a lot, my stamina (or vitality) grows. If I am using some type of magic, my intellect and spells become better.
I know, most of the MMORPGs are using that type of skill upgrading, but I am searching for singleplayer RPGs that are using this type of character upgrade. A perfect example of that kind of game would be Dungeon Siege, where your character skills and magic upgrades depending on your weapon and your magic. Something a bit similar can be found at Fable: The Lost Chapters. At Fable you get experience depending on how you killed your enemy (Melee, ranged or magic), which allow you to upgrade the skills for a combat style you are using the most. Another game, that uses this type of skill upgrade is Mount and Blade, where your weapon skills are getting better depending on how much you use the type of weapon. Unfortunately, most of the skills at mount and blade can only be upgraded by leveling up, so this is a bit less type of game I am searching for...
Unfortunatelly, non of these games mention what kind of subgenre that might be, which makes it difficult to find these type of games.
So, if you know any keyword, that would help me to find these type of games, please write it. If you know games, that have similar gameplay, please, write the down. But keep in mind, that I do not like the system of leveling up and I really hate skill trees ...
Thank you in advance ^^

[ReBoot]

Learning by doing is a good term.

[Kargor]

Originally posted by DemoRew:

Hi everyone, I am trying to find a name for a genre (or is it subgenre?), to be able to find more games of that type. It can be rarely found, but mostly it can be found in RPG games. In this genre (or subgenre) your character most likely does not have a class and all your skills develop depending on how you play. For example, if I am using an axe, my skill for axes grows, if I am getting punched in the face a lot, my stamina (or vitality) grows. If I am using some type of magic, my intellect and spells become better.

Unfortuntately, both class-less systems, as well as systems that just level the skill that you're using, are not very popular for some reason.

[Dibens]

Originally posted by Kargor:

Originally posted by DemoRew:

Hi everyone, I am trying to find a name for a genre (or is it subgenre?), to be able to find more games of that type. It can be rarely found, but mostly it can be found in RPG games. In this genre (or subgenre) your character most likely does not have a class and all your skills develop depending on how you play. For example, if I am using an axe, my skill for axes grows, if I am getting punched in the face a lot, my stamina (or vitality) grows. If I am using some type of magic, my intellect and spells become better.

Unfortuntately, both class-less systems, as well as systems that just level the skill that you're using, are not very popular for some reason.

I know, it's such a shame :( I really like this system more

[KAYETAN]

[Darren]

Skyrim uses a learn by doing system where all your skills level by you doing things (wear heavy armour and get hit your heavy armour skill increases, use different kinds of magic it increases) but there is still some skill tree bits (i.e. as your magic skills increase you can pick new spells) you can reach max skill in everything just by doing so I don't know if that would qualify as one you would like or not.

[Necrius]

I don't think there's a proper name for such mechanic.

[Noobz]

♥♥♥♥♥

[ZanyScum]

There is no genre for it. You could try a new thread with a SHORT question for games with that mechanism.

You asked for singleplayer, Skyrim has already been mentioned, Mount&Blade you knew about, you could try Kenshi.

And I can't resist to remind you of Ultima Online, there is now a free to play (= demo) version, so there is no reason to not try it.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Closest name I can think of is skill leveling or skill grinding, because skill grinding is sometimes needed to level up skills in case you're still underleveled on those skills.

FWIW, this sometimes happens in JRPGs too, most notably Final Fantasy II (J).

It more commonly shows up as a "use skills to level them up" where skill effectiveness is still tied to a level of some sort, just not charcter level. This happens in Secret of Mana for example, as well as games with RPG elements such as Castlevania Portrait of Ruin.

[////]

Originally posted by DemoRew:

Originally posted by Kargor:

Unfortuntately, both class-less systems, as well as systems that just level the skill that you're using, are not very popular for some reason.

I know, it's such a shame :( I really like this system more

it's not very popular way of game designing because it's a huge pain to balance such games. all the possibilities must be thought out very carefully to prevent players from "ruining their builds", and everything must be filled with activities and choices to make game not boring and linear. even if done properly, in the end majority of players won't even notice all the work put into balance... i would say, such games are not possible to develop by small teams, probably that's why they are not so popular in indie scene...

and it's not really a genre or subgenre. in rp games it's called character progression/leveling systems.

[sePL80]

They should be called ElderScrollsLike or DungeonSiegeLike.

[Kartoffelsuppe]

Final Fantasy 2 uses such a system but I also heard its not a good game.

[︻ 一 Regi Gardocki]

the genre is called evolution

[Meneluma]

I'd say Elder Scrolls Morrowind would be the game for you, it emphasizes on that aspect a great deal more than Skyrim. It actually has the whole level up and stats thing work like in tabletop D&D to great degree.

But trust me, that system becomes quite burdensome, like some skills progress at different rates, like generally athletics being slow to level regarless of the lots of sprinting in the open world you do and certain skills like acrobatics get very little actual use to train them on, and having high acrobatics enabling you to get to higher places in select areas is pretty useful, meaning you end up being forced to do the silly nonsense of holding the jump button and just bunnyhop going from A to B instead of walking or sprinting.

And esentially once you have some gold you can actually just buy those skills up to max level from vendors if you have their governing stats high enough.