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[Column] General: 5 of the Best Crafting Systems in MMOs
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
For a lot of people, logging on to their favorite MMO isn’t about raiding, or PvP, or dungeon runs – it’s about creating great items and contributing to the backbone of an MMOs economy. I’ve never personally been a huge proponent of crafting in MMOs, but there is undoubtedly a certain type of players that loves the art of creation and trading. This list will focus on 5 games that have or had great crafting systems, but they may not be specifically focused on crafting as a primary and necessary mechanic.
Read more of David Jagneaux's The List: 5 of the Best Crafting Systems in MMOs.
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Comments
Is this list based on the feedback of many or the opinion of the writer?
Curious. ty
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In a year this list will be very different...
Archeage, Landmark, H1Z1, to name but a few.
Everquest 2's crafting was meh, the crafted gear was bettered by dungeon loot in whatever tier you were in, the crafting mini game could be beaten by pressing 3 over and over, house items were nice, but that's more a reflection on the housing system rather than crafting.
Only crafted stuff that was worthwhile was the augmentations, but the introduction of that screwed with the in game economy.
Where did this list come from? I hope not the writer, since he says in his opening paragraph that he's not a huge proponent of crafting in mmos.
Anyway, my personal top 5 (in no particular order)
Vanguard
FFXIV
SWG
Ryzom
UO
Personally I cannot think of a worse crafting system than Final Fantasy IV has. It is the major reason I don't play the game and I love to craft. EQ II is another crafting system I do not like and again why I stopped playing that game too.
Just because it uses arcade action to craft should make it less desirable not more!
As to the rest of the list looks to me like someone who never ever crafts and had to write an article about it.
First off theme parks should never qualify, the economy never revolves around crafting. The only non theme park on the list is SWG, that pretty much tells me you have no clue what crafting is all about.
I think Wushu has my favorite profession/crafting system. Something like 17 professions all with mini games. Everything from blacksmith to weiqi player.
I'm starting to dig eso's crafting too. It's quite a bit more than your run of the mill WoW system.
"best!!!" "top!!"
should probably rename the article
"5 games i like that have crafting in them because we had a deadline due"
Those games, among others, were left out for a multitude of reasons, but suffice it to say that this list is far from exhaustive.
this is just sloppy, and writing about why they don't count/do count would probably have been a better article lol
Death is nothing to us, since when we are, Death has not come, and when death has come, we are not.
EQ2 puts almost every game on this list to shame. Its amazing to me it's nowhere to be found on the list. You actually had to pay attention in EQ2 to make good stuff not just click the craft button.
I played GW2 and the fact the crafting in that game made the list is pretty laughable, it's as cookie cutter as cookie cutter can be.
Agreed
Four of those are in my Top 10, but FFXIV... for the reasons given for its inclusion, MMOs like UO, Asheron's Call and Vanguard have far better crafting systems.
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all thoses game all together dont get even close to Eve Online in term of crafting. I would have like to see Ultima Online there too but well..!!!
Also if you put a game like Mortal Online, i would imagine Minecraft, Wurm Online or 7 days to die should be at least mentionned.
SWG
UO
Horizons
Vanguard
EVE
Those are the best crafting systems, maybe not the best games (Horizons was a dud). Those games revolved around a player driven economy, unlike themepark MMOs like GW2 or FFXIV....
If you don't have UO on there, you live wrong at this point in time. If you're too young to have played it and crafted...then you still lived incorrectly.
I'm sorry for your loss.
I do agree with FFXIV and SWG but... GW2? Really? Does the gushing know no bounds here? GW2 easily has the most cumbersome, worthless (from a profit standpoint) crafting system in the entire genre. EQ2 should of replaced GW2's cookie cutter awfulness imo.
I have no idea about Fallen Earth either, but since I don't know we'll say that it's awesome too
Currently Playing: ESO and FFXIV
Have played: You name it
If you mention rose tinted glasses, you better be referring to Mitch Hedberg.
My list would be
SWG #1
then I'd leave 2-5 blank because I've never played another mmo that actually let you build the best items. Crafting systems that let you build lvling junk only to be replaced by raid gear are a waste of time.
Well personally I prefer FFXIV's over EQ2's ( I did love EQ2's though, played that game for several years and it was very in depth.) But yea, why have FFXIV and not EQ2? And GW2 makes no sense from any standpoint.
Currently Playing: ESO and FFXIV
Have played: You name it
If you mention rose tinted glasses, you better be referring to Mitch Hedberg.
agree - neither should be in a top 5 crafting mmo list
EQ2 fan sites
I find the articles title and content do not match at all. The title doesnt say "The most meaningful crafted items", yet throughout the article the author justifies his picks by what impact crafting has on the economy or how useful the crafted items were to gameplay. The article is called "Best crafting Systems" but almost all of the picks were the exact same system of click and build.
Vanguard had a very robust crafting system, in which you had to use multiple key presses and stategies to get the right result. Even wearing crafting armor and your crafting level was separate from your combat level. It was much like what FFXIV tried to do, but did it first, and did it better.
Everquest 2 also had a unique crafting system. In later expansions the worth of the items became nearly nonexistant, but it doesnt change the fact that the system was very involved, required the player to react to different events and actually try to reach higher quality levels. Your crafting level was again separate from your combat level, and was one of the first MMOs to let you be a pure crafter. You can be a level 1 Assassin but a level 90 Carpenter. There is also crafting gear here too, although in the higher levels it doesnt offer much bonus to the crafter.
FreeRealms easily had one of the best crafting systems I have seen in any MMO. Many may disagree with me, but Im willing to bet the majority of players never even knew what it was, just because it was in a "kids game". Even gathering resources involved a minigame, not just simply point and click, and the crafting a very involved minigame, including such things as slicing and pouring and other very involved actions from the player.
Final Fantasy 14 was fine being included in this, and many would say Star Wars Galaxies does as well. But in all honestly, anything with point and click crafting has no place on a "crafting systems" top list. This includes even upcoming ArcheAge referenced in the article as well, as thats the same system used there. One click crafting systems plague the genre, and offer nothing new or innovative. They are designed for the type of player who doesnt like actually crafting, but needs to do it because it offers some of the best items in the game.
TL;DR Meaningful crafted items, or crafting that impacts the games economy are NOT the same thing as "Best Crafting Systems". No one-click crafting system should ever be included in a "Top" list for crafting. Author needs to get out more and expand his horizons or at least knowledge on what "crafting systems" are offered in the genre.
FFXI's was more complex and EVERYTHING aside fro ma few npc tells had to be discovered.The ONLY thing FFXI's system lacked was housing items to which i give full props to EQ2 and it's housing system.
If not for the massive amount of cheating"RMT" crafting would have played a HUGE role in the game economy ,more so than any other game.
A perfect example of other games NOT being good is in FFXI you actually had to craft your ammo and equip it,MOST games don't even have ammo crafting nor ammo either,makes you wonder how lame a game is not having any ammo yet is firing arrows and bullets.
Food:Yes Food mattered more in FFXI than again any other game,from accuracy to boosts for any class and yes it mattered IN COMBAT ,not out of combat,although there was some out of combat benefit as well.
I will have to say i enjoyed EQ2's original design but problem is EVERY player is a min maxxer meaning any craft that is not the highest tier was not wanted,i think SOE could have fixed that while not nerfing the whole system.
BTW i did play quite a bit of FE and really only tried it because i heard of the crafting.It was not as good as sounds on paper but overall was ok.
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