People don't seem to grasp the fact that you ca get rid of levels and still make a game both 'role playing' and no player skill based.
You would still have the skill levels in the background, but instead of being (as i said) level 75 at swords you would be considered an expert,maybe an expert would be from anywhere between 65-75. Same goes for every attribute etc. It justfits in so muc btter with the principle of you get better by doing.
As some-one said scaling could still be implemented, i am sure in the background you could have a level, made from looking at you skills, this would be used for scaling.
As for Player =/= Character, I am worred that you really think i have shot 100 people in the head, my characterr might have, but I certainly never have.
I know it will be accused of being dumbed down etc. but that is just a get out claus for disagreeing, afterall i could say that having a number to accuratly tell you exactly how good something is seems pretty dumbed down to me. Of course I am used the leveling system, so it won't bother me in the slightest if it is never changed, i just thought that the OP was laughed off too easily by too many people without really thinkng about how it could be achieved.