It's possible to powerlevel a char to max stats and almost maxed weapon skill within two weeks, not to forget armor and magic - and you will still find the time to roleplay this char most of the time. Think it's impossible to get a char up in skills and stats that fast and still rp all the time? Well, I have done it, I had the time to PL him, I had the time to make up a RP story for him, to give him a history that explains why he is doing what he is doing and I had time to do quests with him too, at the same time I had the time to sometimes even play with Cebot. So you see, it is possible to train and rp, just remember that you do not need 200k to begin with, remember that you do not have to boringly stay in front of a gladiator to fight it, remember that they are gladiators and use tactics too, so think about tactics you could use to beat em when you are too weak.
Of course, how realistic is it that everyone is a super powerful magician-warrior with no weaknesses? It makes little sense ICly.
When playing PS (I usually play a more rp intensive game), I try (rather, tried) to roleplay my stats. As such, I was a relatively competent warrior, but nothing special, who had learned a few tricks in the various ways (basic spells) in order to suppliment his fighting. Mercenary, too.
Playing such is pointless when you have so many people with maxed stats roleplaying their stats--in any given situation, the person who spends little time powerleveling in comparison to roleplay will be made obsolete by the people who keep their skills maxed at all times. Obviously, they're more skilled then someone else, but it makes roleplay seem pointless, because there is little spot for those who do not become the l337-uber warrior mage smith that everyone else has become.
I also tried another mmorpg. it is like choosing a class, being totally restricted to that class until you have killed enough mobs to be lvl 10, then you can choose between 2 subclasses (archer: hunter / marksman) quests are boring as there is no real interaction with the npc, you just click on the npc with the BIG FAT ! above the head. and the best, I got told that most mmorpg's are like that. I know a lot have tried the same game and some have returned to PS, but why did they return? ps is soooo crappy according to what so many people say, yet the people come back after playing a finished comercial game for some time - a wild guess: most mmorpg's do not deserve the RP in the name and thats what people were missing? *shrugs* Welcome back everyone, btw 
It saddens me tho that some of my earlier PS friends have left. but who knows, hopefully they will come back one day too.
Things like that are meant to keep powerleveling and reality defying uber l337 warrior mage smiths from existing. A more open system would be nice in PS, where you can't master one skill except at the expense of others (for instance, if you spent all your time training in heavy armor, after a certain point your fighting in medium and light armor would be effected, because of habits that are good in heavy armor that aren't good in light or medium armor). A balance would have to be reached, of course (because there are feasible medium-heavy and light-medium armor mixes that make rp sense, such as chainmail armor but leather armor on the legs.). The same could be true for magic classes, weapons (related ones wouldn't suffer as much penalty, such as swords and daggers, but there are few swords you use like a battleaxe, polearm, or mace), and skills in general.
In the end there is nothing that can end powerleveling.
If you make it harder to powerlevel then to roleplay, people will roleplay more. However, few see any reason to without a punishment for not doing so or a reward for doing so.
A Mage would want to learn all the 6 ways of magic and master them
And they likely could, to a point--but realistically no mage that did equally well in all spell schools would be as good as one who specialized in one, simply because the one who is specializing would be able to put time into his or her specialty at the detriment of his other magical skills (particularly opposing ways), because of habit building and whatnot. It's the same in real life, with doctors: generalists are never as good as specialists in the specialist's field, but might be able to diagnose or pass along a patient to the appropriate specialist in a much better way.
there are 3 kinds of armor and a really good warrior would know how to use all 3 kinds
A really good warrior would know how to use all 3 kinds to a point, but specialization comes into play here: if one builds up the responses one has to make in heavy armor (blocking, using weight to their advantage, etc.), they would build bad habits for light armor (which relies much more on the person's ability to dodge and offers minimal protection, but is light and inexpensive).
A crafter would want to learn how to craft different things, for example they start with crafting knifes and daggers, become masters in that, but then want to craft axes and swords and shields (and armor, when it will be available) too and a really good blacksmith would want to master those areas too
Specialists > jack of all trades. However, a jack of all trades will be of more use to an organization that needs a variety of weapons that don't necessarily need to be top quality.
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I’ve been thinking about the original topic of this thread. Of course I have my opinions about both sides of the coin but they’re just that, my opinion. I’ve been trying to figure out a way to help come up with an in game solution that couldn’t be broken by the so-called ‘power levelers’ but I cant seem to find one...
Not allowing people to become masters of all trades would be a good first step to keeping powerleveling from being exceptionally effective (as it means that they will have to make choices, decisions, etc.).
For the here and now we could maybe start a thread where once a week (real time) characters are nominated for good role-playing. Simply add the character name you thought was well played to the thread (maybe even add a copy of your PC log showing an example of what you liked). Those PC’s that get X amount of votes get something like PP, tria, maybe some type of badge added to the character’s profile. There would have to be rules of course, like the obvious, you can’t nominate your own PC. Maybe also have a rule where you can’t vote for members of the same guild or guilds that you belong to <(this would be hard to monitor though). Maybe somebody better at this than me could expand on it and make it work somehow. I’m thinking it isn’t for Dev’s to work on, it’s to help in-game role-playing here and now. Give an incentive to help coax players into role-play.
Ok, Dev’s may need to add any bonuses to the character (PP, tria, etc.). 
(I've mentioned this before, but I'm going to shamelessly do it again)
Or we could have the GMs give bonuses for good rp outside of GM events (perhaps a bonus that gives xp towards progression points, perhaps trias (although that'd seem stranger OOCly, but as progression points are already not IC knowledge..) as the IG or OOC clock ticks) for rp. And of course, have an official policy that requires that players do not complain about the GM team in public as far as RPing bonuses, and if favoritism is suspected, to report it in a special form only viewable by the dev team.
Oh, and ask the GMs to watch for those without bonuses before giving more to those who are already getting them, of course. And if someone is just mindlessly mining away or mindlessly killing monsters, have the game system suspend it (making the assumption that they are already getting xp from the monsters/gold and don't need an extra bonus).
Pros: More people will roleplay and less will power level, especially if the system goes on--even more so if it becomes a better source of xp to keep IC and roleplay with others then mindlessly kill things. The main "powerleveling" trend would go away, instead favoring those who either want to make money (from drops or from gold) or level up in a skill. You would still be getting the practice necessary for leveling, of course, but progression points would build up without the need to go fight and kill lots and lots of things.
Cons: There will be numerous initial complaints about GM favoritism and how the dev team are going to mess up again (of course, this is Planeshift, what else do you expect
). Could theoretically be exploited by powerlevelers, but only if they were good rpers (The main idea is to balance it so that a -good- rper gets almost as much progression points xp as a powerleveler would, but has more fun). Monster xp would have to be dropped a bit (or a lot) in order to keep that from being a viable means or creating a huge excess of PP, which could cause a huge money sink and really mess up the economy. It doesn't fix the power-moneymaking problem (as just having trias appear in your inventory would be OOC). One more duty for the GM team.
Solutions to some of the cons: Say that the GM team will endeavor to keep it fair, and also say that it isn't open for discussion (this creates the con of deleting a lot of forum topics). Set up very clear levels of roleplay and explain them to the GM team and the players. Set up a way to give someone roleplay kudos (forum board simply for congratulating other players on their roleplay), which could serve as a way to keep track of people who should be watched because of good roleplay (esp. if they have a low rating in the first place). There would be a lot of complaints about the xp drop in monsters and how you can't level as fast, make it clear that it's a necessary transition period. Another solution for money obviously would have to be found (weekly gladiatorial competitions, poetry contests, and the like? Mining would remain an option, of course, as would hunting monsters--it just wouldn't be great for xp.). The GM team could likely adjust, and new members could be added if necessary.
The best time for such a system to be implemented would be right after a wipe, of course, so that everyone is starting on an even footing in regards to experience, so that complaints of "now it's hard" wouldn't be as common--it would be hard for everyone, not just players who hadn't already maxed their stats and accumulated huge amounts of PP.
