Another way to look at it is there can be competing reward systems - playing in order to gain the reward of XP, or playing in order to gain the reward of a fun time playing your character.
Ideally, they are in synch and you feel equally rewarded for pursuing both, and can pursue both at the same time - playing your character in a fun way also gains you XP.
But sometimes they are not. Activities that generate the most XP are not as enjoyable as the activities you most want to pursue with your character - so now you have to decide. Short term benefit - play your character for fun, but get less XP and fall behind on whatever advancement schedule you consider desirable. Or do things that reward you with the most XP, but now playing your character feels more like a job and less like a fun activity.
One way to address this is to make sure to award XP for non combat activities that the players enjoy, so that there no competition between the reward systems.
Another way is to simply eliminate XP altogether and the reward is solely from playing your character and achieving whatever goals you decide are desirable - and you still get to level up as if you'd been gaining XP. This can become a problem if the players feel that the level advancement isn't frequent enough, or even if it is too frequent. Or if they just feel the need for XP's like a strung out junky needs their next fix.
Ideally, they are in synch and you feel equally rewarded for pursuing both, and can pursue both at the same time - playing your character in a fun way also gains you XP.
But sometimes they are not. Activities that generate the most XP are not as enjoyable as the activities you most want to pursue with your character - so now you have to decide. Short term benefit - play your character for fun, but get less XP and fall behind on whatever advancement schedule you consider desirable. Or do things that reward you with the most XP, but now playing your character feels more like a job and less like a fun activity.
One way to address this is to make sure to award XP for non combat activities that the players enjoy, so that there no competition between the reward systems.
Another way is to simply eliminate XP altogether and the reward is solely from playing your character and achieving whatever goals you decide are desirable - and you still get to level up as if you'd been gaining XP. This can become a problem if the players feel that the level advancement isn't frequent enough, or even if it is too frequent. Or if they just feel the need for XP's like a strung out junky needs their next fix.