[Game Design] No Levels?

I've seen this concept thrown out in the game design notes in enough games now to warrant a post about it. I started tracking development of The Repopulation (TR) again after many months. There is a post there about the concept of no levels. To me the concept of no levels does not apply to that game's design. TR staff claim that there are no levels, just "progress your character through the 75+ skills we have and the 100s of abilities offered."

Levels are just one way to represent character progression. Whether it's the typical experience level used in so many games or, solely, the gaining of new skills and skill levels as proposed in TR. Notice, the word "level" is still used. Levels are levels no matter how you use them. How would one even represent character progression within a "no level" design??? Possibly through the accumulation of equipment, wealth, etc?

In the end, gamers will still relate to those skill levels as levels, just like gamers have done since the old Alternative Advancement (AA) levels in Everquest and all the way up to present with Rift's introduction of Planar Attunement (PA) levels. How many times have you seen people talking in global chat channels about "LFM L50 mages with 300+ AA" or similar? Enough to prove my point I'm sure.

I'm struggling trying to figure out where designers have gotten the idea that the introduction of some elusive no level design is an essential component of the sandbox game design. Humans are significance junkies. We feel the overwhelming desire to assign significance to everything we can. I believe that any so-called No Level game design will ultimately fail because that design fails to give the human customer a tangle means for them to quantify one of our basic psychological human needs; the need for Esteem (see Manslow's hieracrchy of needs). Levels act a goal and attaining those goals produces the feeling of achievement and self-esteem. When other lower level players interact with higher level players, goals are created consciously and subconsciously which continue to drive the process. This creates a never ending cycle of achievement and goal setting.

No Levels is a No-Go.