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[Column] General: Why Do You Craft?
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Crafting has never been one of my favorite things to do in MMOs. I spent an inordinate amount of time mining and engineering in vanilla World of Warcraft, and put about the same effort into Prospecting and Tinkering in The Lord of the Rings Online. There are probably a handful of other MMORPGs that I’m forgetting in which I’ve given crafting a college try, and I certainly at least dabble in different professions whenever I play a new game. Heck, I even (completely ridiculously) fully committed to Fable 2’s crafting minigame, and did my best to keep up with Alchemy and Smithing in Skyrim.
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Comments
My first First!
For most games, I craft to kill time and make a little extra gold/plat/whatever.
For WOW, I crafted because I'm a min-maxer and getting the best "profession only" stat boost fits in that ideal.
For games such as EQ2, FFXIV:AAR, and Archage (if I try it): I craft because the system rocks.
Raquelis in various games
Played: Everything
Playing: Nioh 2, Civ6
Wants: The World
Anticipating: Everquest Next Crowfall, Pantheon, Elden Ring
I suck at PVP.
I wouldn't even know where to start in theory crafting.
I have very poor reflex time so I am very bad at dungeons until I have done them a million times.
Crafting makes me somewhat helpful to my ever patient Guild
I wouldn't mind if crafting was the only way to acquire weapons, gear and consumables.
Imo, the downhill for MMOs started when (easy) quests begun to give gear.
My best times in MMOs have been those where i've farmed mats for a craftable or done repeatable quest for dozens of hours for a mount.
Crafting alone would be enough for me, even if there was nothing else to do in a game.
In early games where crafting took some effort, I often did it because it was an area of the game where I could be THE BEST literally with nobody else even close. Being the highest rank tailor in old everquest was something special.
I didn't do it because it was easy, I did it because it was hard.
I get tired of murder
I like building
I like levels of complexity (to a point of course)
I agree. ESO was on the right track with upgrading gear to Legendary. WoW is on the right track with randomly creating Perfect gems. I really want to be able to do things, though, like create legendary weapons, better than anything in the game. You might ever only create a single item, but you could name it, sell it, etc., etc. That would make crafting worthwhile.
Crazkanuk
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Azarelos - 90 Hunter - Emerald
Durnzig - 90 Paladin - Emerald
Demonicron - 90 Death Knight - Emerald Dream - US
Tankinpain - 90 Monk - Azjol-Nerub - US
Brindell - 90 Warrior - Emerald Dream - US
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The problem with most MMO's is that crafting is a bit pointless, you get the best gear from raids/bosses.
The only ones that get it right are the ones where crafted items are the best available, or even the only items available. SWG, pre ToA DAoC, EVE to name a few.
I actually like crafting but only if it's worth the time and effort. Most of the time it isn't.
I craft as another form of entertainment and something that I can easily do during play times that I expect to be constantly interrupted. The only other time I really do it is when the system is either fun or is required. For instance, I enjoyed Age of Wushu crafting for quite awhile, it was a little mini-game, although once it got boring after many times of doing it, I stopped.
However I really like it when crafting is the main way of getting gear. When it is actually useful items you get for it and the main way of attaining required items, that's when I get down and dirty with my crafting and absolutely love it.
My new game, Project: Gorgon, has a ton of crafting which I cant wait to start playing with and the game I am really waiting for, Albion Online, is all about crafting as it is the only way to progress your character by getting gear/house.
The more the crafting is intertwined with the gameplay the more I like it!
I find that I have enough excitement and drama in my life right now. I used to be a hardcore end game MMO guy. Now I like to quietly do my own thing and not worry about others or about being in the right spot or timing my rotation just right.
Crafting is like the CandyCrush of MMOs. It is repetitive, but many people like it. Why? I don't know... I can't stand a game like CandyCrush but I'll run around for hours in a MMO collecting mats just to craft stuff. Crafting is not demanding. As soon as I start raiding or PVPing I feel like I have to compete with the best. Then it gets competitive and intense. I'm just not into that right now.
I think part of it is seeing something concrete at the end of the work. My day job is long range projects measured in years and it is nice to see completion on things after only a short effort.
For me there's a distinction between playing a game for fun and playing it simply as a pastime - which in my case varies with mood - and usually in the same evening.
When I'm in "pastime" mood i don't want to do something fast or that requires a lot of concentration. My crafting time in EQ1 was also chatting time for that reason (something that EQ2's active crafting system prevented). Gathering /crafting in Ryzom was equally chilled and good for chatting at the same time.
When i'm in "game" mood i like to hit stuff.
So
"game" mood = activities that require concentration like combat or exploring dangerous zones
"pastime" mood = stationary uncomplicated activities like fishing or crafting that allow chatting or simply as a break from the constant combat
Secondly my favorite thing in mmorpgs has always been to start a character and craft their signature gear e.g. as a ranger type character it would usually be bow and leather armor , cooking and/or pets taming/training depending on the game. It's kind of a quiet role play thing i like to do.
So if a game doesn't have a "something else" to do when i'm bored of combat then i stop playing because i need a break from constant combat and also if the game has crafting but the gear you can craft doesn't keep pace with random drops. SWTOR is an example of the second as although the main game was fine the crafting didn't provide either a break or leveling gear.
(Neverwinter has the same problem as you have separate NPCs who do the crafting.)
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Most game crafting systems don't work for me because either
a) they are too active so I can't use them to chill or chat
or
b) too simplistic - i like simple mechanics but a complex tree of recipes
or
c) the gear you can create as you level is less good than the gear that drops randomly off wandering chickens so crafting your own gear as you level feels stupid
EQ1's crafting system suited me fine as although it was monotonous that was fine for when i was in a crafting mood and meant i could chat while doing it but at the same time recipe trees were very complex and detailed with a ton of different recipes using drops from different zones. My all-time fave mmo character was an EQ1 druid cook who i leveled by following the cooking recipes: starting with spider legs and ending up with drake meat or something.
Leveling that way also needs the mobs to give decent exp though or leveling gets too boring so trying to do this in WoW was too slow on top of the random mobs dropping better gear all the time anyway.
SWG was great for the kind of 2/3 combat/gathering, 1/3 crafting game play i like. Ryzom i loved the gathering part but not so much the crafting - forget why.
Rift is being pretty good for this so far. The mobs give more exp - not enough to completely avoid the main quests on its own but enough with rifts, crafting quests and the automatic carnage quests along the way - and so far the gear you can make as you level is not as good as the best you could get at that level (e.g. from planar vendors or pvp) but better than the random drops at the same level which is all i want.
Herald of innovation, Vanquisher of the old! - Awake a few hours almost everyday!
Boy: Why can't I talk to Him?
Mom: We don't talk to Priests.
As if it could exist, without being payed for.
F2P means you get what you paid for. Pay nothing, get nothing.
Even telemarketers wouldn't think that.
It costs money to play. Therefore P2W.
I've always hated crafting.
To me, it's not about creating something, it's about the tedium of collecting bits and bits that make more bits and then eventually you click a button and you get just another of the same item that others make.
So to me it's not about creating it's about collecting bits.
I'd love to see a crafting system that relied more upon experimentation, less "bits", and maybe some customization.
And sometimes these systems are assbackwards. You go to some crafting station and see that an item needs "tears of the dog". But no clue on how one goes about it. I'd rather see it the opposite. You craft and level your skill and then one day you find "tears of the dog" and you experiment to see what that does.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
The idea of crafting excites me. However, in most MMOs I've played, the crafting has bored me to tears. SWG was perhaps the only MMO crafting system that captured my attention.
So it wasn't until I discovered Minecraft that I actually found my ideal crafting game. No grinding. Freeform building. Progressive recipes that actually help the character. Crafting that actually helps you to enjoy the game.
Landmark/EQ Next could possibly be the MMO equivalent...we shall see.
First of all, I craft to be creative, to a point. I enjoy making things or improving what I have.
Secondly, it is something I enjoy that is not centered around killing things.
Lastly, the feeling of discovery as I get better and find new recipes I find enjoyable.
Like the columnist, I am highly disappointed in how crafting is handled in most MMOs. It is a chore. It is NOT fun. It serves little to no purpose.
Also like the columnist, I am an organized packrat. Usually over half of my carried inventory deals with crafting. I do not want to sell a lot of "loot" until I know if I'll need it for crafting or not. EQ taught me that lesson all to well
Crafting could be so much more than it is, but instead we get millions of shiny ways to kill things.
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
I have a problem with your thinking. First, why do you need the best available gear in the game, envy much? What skill does it take to craft, really? Pulease, lets be realistic here. Crafters should only really be able to maybe augment "The best gear", for someone that actually did something for it.
Well, I do agree that crafting systems in MMOs are nowhere near what they could be.
Often it is just a long grind so you in the end can make a few useful items or maybe earn a few pieces of eight.
Crafting really should be more about designing stuff, actually the only thing "Second life" and "APB" got right. Of course it should also be about finding a rare component and making it into something cool but not so much about running around the game and mine for hours and hours.
Some crafters seems to like EQ2 but it was one of the worst to me, crafted 100 tin greatswords I couldn't give away just to get one level, I swear that even the vendor I trash them too looked cynical....
Let us unlock skins and combine them together into something cool looking, getting effects and colors from certain mats instead of letting every lvl 60 crafted sword look just the same. Biowares old MO Neverwinter nights actually had this to some degree.And of course a dwarf should be able to unlock racial skins to craft as well as regular, so you could do a typical dwarf axe, or a more standard one.
Let us name the cooler items we craft, and let the name of the master making it stand in the description (or even better, let each smith have a mark that will be on the skin).
Real crafting actually is a lot about art.
But of course, crafting really also needs better mechanics than auction houses, we need player made stores like SWG had, there a crafter actually could get a lot of reputation and people had heard of him or her and could travel for to shop certain rare things.