Experience Rewards in RPG's (part 2)

A computer game called “Neverwinter Nights” was released by Bioware in 2002. This game took the table-top role-playing environment to the computer, where players could join games online and adventure together, act out their characters, and have a game master run the show behind the scenes in pre-programmed scenarios, some that the game master himself had designed. It was an innovative approach—allowing game masters to make their own adventures and conduct them in real-time for other players. Bioware occasionally released official adventures for download, and they did their best to respond to player feedback. One interesting experiment was an adventure that was programmed to avoid the customary experience point award system. Everyone was excited—finally, a game that focused on experience awards for something other than killing! However, at least in my opinion, this experiment failed. As I played through the adventure, I found myself weaving and dodging through all the monsters like I was driving through an obstacle course. Part of the fun of an RPG is combat, but without experience point rewards for it, there was no longer a reason for it at all. Experience points in that adventure were awarded for discoveries and achieving quest goals, but without combat rewards, the essence of an RPG was somehow lost and the game felt like a story-book, with lots of running between areas. Did Bioware completely miss the mark (they never went back to that formula for future releases, so I don't think I was the only one who disliked it), or was there something salvageable there?