Let me first start out by saying that realism as a model for game design is highly limited in its capacity to show us what is fun. Not all of us are pansy RPers interested in simulations and realistic characters =). IMO, invading a Lich fortress is about a thousand times more fun than any sort of crafting, trading or political system.
It's important to note that classes are fundamentally geared towards games, not simulations. They provide an easy way to quantify your party and your own skills in the context of the game world. This quantification is well-established in gaming history: You do not see chess players spending skill points on their Rook to allow them to move diagonally. The only possible way one would want a class in a simulation is if you wanted to simulate the life of a prototype, and most designers that choose to merely simulate real life don't like that.
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