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Player-controlled buildings and crafting back in the days
Xenovoyance
Member Posts: 4
Ever since back in the days when I played SWG I've been an mmorpg-crafter/gatherer. Every game I get into I tend to end up as a miner or in any other way a pebble and stone-collector. One thing I loved about the old SWG (pre-revamp) was that they acctually did things for my category of players too. I could run around with my mineral-scanner for hours looking for the perfect spot to set up my mineral-extractors. Yes, there were building one could set up so that I in person did not have to stand at one place for a week collecting iron.
I for one loved my buildings. I had extractors to pull the minerals from the ground and other buildings for storage, factories for crafting and houses for experimentation with items. In my opinion SWG had the best and perhaps witht that the most complex craftingsystem of all games I've seen. Many crafters have shared the same opinion with me many times after.
If we now look at current games and how they've solved the crafting bit.
Most developers tend to not allow players to set up buildings because that will change the way the world look. Isn't the player supposed to change the world of a game they play and pay? I want to leave my mark on the world and I'm most certain most will!
Complexity of crafting tend to get lower by every new game, I mean WoW. Common. Crafting is a matter of five clicks, all items get the same "quality" and the best gear can't even be crafted. Blizzard has clearly stated that they aren't intrested in crafters. They want a game that even a five-year-old can get everything out of and I'm sorry but I just don't think the vast majority of hardcore crafters is five-year-olds.
Finding and gather minerals and other trade-goods in most games today is to run into a rock with a huge chunck of iron from it, smash it with a hammer and: Tadaaa, you have 1 stone. A fact from life is that not all minerals share the same preferences. Here again, SWG had a huge plus with theire tradegoods having a number of statistics that made every different mineral good for different things. If I was to make a gun I needed materials who had good stats for a gun, not sturde steel I would make a shovel from. Also I don't see why I'm not allowed to build a mine in WoW when I find a good spot filled with minerals. Mines is a key-element of Warcraft, why aren't we allowed to build them? Is the world too small?
I don't know really my goal with this thread, perhaps I just want to know if I'm alone here at MMORPG.com in my opinions or if there's more crafters out there who feel like I do.
Best regards,
Xenovoyance
I for one loved my buildings. I had extractors to pull the minerals from the ground and other buildings for storage, factories for crafting and houses for experimentation with items. In my opinion SWG had the best and perhaps witht that the most complex craftingsystem of all games I've seen. Many crafters have shared the same opinion with me many times after.
If we now look at current games and how they've solved the crafting bit.
Most developers tend to not allow players to set up buildings because that will change the way the world look. Isn't the player supposed to change the world of a game they play and pay? I want to leave my mark on the world and I'm most certain most will!
Complexity of crafting tend to get lower by every new game, I mean WoW. Common. Crafting is a matter of five clicks, all items get the same "quality" and the best gear can't even be crafted. Blizzard has clearly stated that they aren't intrested in crafters. They want a game that even a five-year-old can get everything out of and I'm sorry but I just don't think the vast majority of hardcore crafters is five-year-olds.
Finding and gather minerals and other trade-goods in most games today is to run into a rock with a huge chunck of iron from it, smash it with a hammer and: Tadaaa, you have 1 stone. A fact from life is that not all minerals share the same preferences. Here again, SWG had a huge plus with theire tradegoods having a number of statistics that made every different mineral good for different things. If I was to make a gun I needed materials who had good stats for a gun, not sturde steel I would make a shovel from. Also I don't see why I'm not allowed to build a mine in WoW when I find a good spot filled with minerals. Mines is a key-element of Warcraft, why aren't we allowed to build them? Is the world too small?
I don't know really my goal with this thread, perhaps I just want to know if I'm alone here at MMORPG.com in my opinions or if there's more crafters out there who feel like I do.
Best regards,
Xenovoyance
--
Vanguard: Active|EvE: Semi|Entropia: Semi|WoW: Quit|Guild Wars:Quit|EQ2: Quit|SWG: Quit|Diablo I/II: Quit
Comments
Like you said, anything made in WoW will have the exact same stats whether person X or person Y makes it. There's no difference. But in SWG, where you extracted your minerals from on Naboo as opposed to Tatooine could make or break the sale of your item. I loved running from point A to point B when SWG first came out and seeing all these different machines working. It was truly a player driven economy. There were things to compete with, and I'm sure crafters took it to heart when their items were shelved for the new up-and-coming crafters items. Thus creating a new reason to play for the crafter. To find that rich mineral deposit and make the best weapons.
I miss SWG so much. Haha.
I fear that currently we're heading into crafterless mmorpgs, since gamemakers seem to think everybody just want to fight fight fight (+ it's easier to them just skip complex profession-system completely).
I would love to setup my own shop and craft things that other players actually need.
Yeah, SWG pre-NGE was my first real experience with crafting in an MMO or any other multiplayer game, and I have to say it was fun even when most of my stuff was sub-par, especially if I can sell it for cheaper than the same schmuck.
That's why I loved SWG, from the house to your holster was all player made. It really made the game come alive. 
-- Bridget
yes I agree, it's sad that MMO's are becoming increasingly simple and excessively streamlined. I miss the good old days of Ultima Online where I could build my house and crafting actually took a bit of skill and know-how, it wasn't just a grind.. it was exciting to go out into the wilderness looking for the best place to mine or skin animals etc, it was IMMERSIVE. Now all you have to do is mix and match a couple of materials and hit 'create item'.. what's the point? in Wow crafting is just useless, except maybe for cooking and enchanting.. it essentially adds nothing to the game since the gear you get off mobs and instances is consistently better then crafted items. Also the fact that you can't build your own house is a big problem for me, where does my character live? I like to roleplay sometimes and I like to think that my character has a place in the world he lives in and can actually make a difference instead of being just another generic hunter, warrior etc.
I hope that all MMO's don't go down the path of the Korean genre where all you do is grind mobs all day long like a mindless drone, in my opinion an online roleplaying game has to be mostly about roleplaying! we have the technology to create immersive, realistic worlds but the developers shy away from the possibilty of this and take the easy road, it's just so disappointing.
Have played:
UO, WOW, COH/V, EQ2
Currently playing:
Age of Conan (EU)
I know what you mean, that is one of the reasons that i quited wow, i miss the crafting back in swg, the long survey runs, sampling & looking for the best quality mineral. As much as time wasting that sounded like it was fun as later you'll be able to craft things.
Artisan was one of the most fun professions, i remember when i was able to make bikes, i made my 1st swoop and i was very happy hehe, i made landspeeders for few friends and started selling bikes, back then bikes were a new thing in swg. All the hard work in collecting the minerals, crafting and then later selling or using your goods worth it as you see the result of all that work.
Atm i'm playing EvE and the crafting is almost the same as swg interms of complexity, the mining is not the same but it was never the same in any other game
.
Nice to know that there are ppl out there that have the same interest as i do :P
/agree
My only hope right now is Vanguard. Imho only game in the near future that could take me back to the SWG days of crafting.
EVE is the last game where you can setup a system like this. A little different from SWG, but the same in many ways. (Called POSs or Player Owned Stations)
I understand what you're saying though. The REAL problem with today's MMOs is that the developers don't want you to change the world, like you said. They are merely giving you a game you can play with others. The oldies and hardcore crowd doesn't want a freaking game, we want a virtual world we can absorb ourselves into and become apart of and OMG actually CHANGE!
They don't want you to change the world, because that would be too hard and time consuming, diverting from what the masses want to see. The masses, that come from WoW, do not care about changing the world, they do not care about socializing, they do not care about being a king; all they are looking for is a competition, who can spend more hours doing the same thing over and over than the next person. But, what these devs don't understand is that they can have the best of both worlds, if they just put a little thought into it. But, then again that's considered "risky" and it costs money to think, so they just copy what works and regurgitate it with a different name and graphics.
Don't get your hopes up. Open beta will be released soon and you will see.A Work in Progress.
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