[Gulnyr]

From the answers above, it's clear that to be better with a sword a character needs to practice with the sword, or to be better with the violin he needs to practice playing the violin. What about skills that aren't so obviously practiced, like listening or knowledge skills?

Listening is partly a natural ability that can't be learned, but also partly a skill that can be learned, which is why D&D Rangers get a bonus to Listen checks against their favored enemies; they've learned what to listen for through training and practice. How does a player have their character practice listening, though? If it's as simple as "listening happens," how is every character not going to be a great listener? The same could be said for running skills - how many adventuring characters aren't going to be amazing runners if the running skills only require use to develop?

The Lore skill in NWN is a shortcut of the P&P Knowledge skills all mashed into one. In P&P, the Knowledge skills represent what the character would (or might) know about a subject that the player wouldn't simply from not actually leading that character's life and living in his world. In Layonara, the Lore skill is used on quests sometimes as the same thing. It's a representation of what the character knows that we players have no way of knowing. Training in it is basically just points spent on the skill, with the occasional RP'd comment about studying or whatever. That won't work in the MMO, so how would knowledge skills be trained? Would characters need to spend time in a library reading? Do other skills have knowledge skills attached, or do they themselves act as the knowledge skills? For example, if a character practices alchemy, does she increase both her alchemy skill and her alchemy knowledge skill? Or does the alchemy skill count as the alchemy knowledge skill? How would knowledge of law or religion work? Or is knowledge simply left as a meta-skill, with the character knowing whatever the player knows?