After playing almost all of the MMOs out there throughout the years, the one thing that has always bothered me is how uninspired and boring crafting is in WOW. There’s a ton of players doing it as you can see them standing around craft areas but you can’t see their characters actually creating something. You and I know all they’re doing is adding how many of whatever item they want to make and clicking craft it..that’s it. This is an MMO, it’s supposed to be a living world, and in these MMOs not every everyone wants to raid, or sit in dungeon ques. There’s a lot of people who’d love to just be a master craftsman. Sure you can easily do that but it’s not immersive at all. I wish the devs would spend some time making crafting fun. Some of you older gamers probably remember mining in UO, dragging the ore back, smelting it into ingots, and then heading to to forge to craft. You could actually see your character swinging the hammer, etc. How about EQ2? You had to actually counter issues while crafting and if you didn’t you’d make an inferior products. Another is Elder Scrolls online. I added this last because even though it’s a craft 6 now and click to make game, at least you can see your character in the “scene” crafting. He’s hitting the anvil, he’s stirring the cooking pot, he’s mixing potions. FFIV is pretty good as well but truth is I didn’t enjoy the game enough to get into crafting deeper. Now all I’ve got a text wall in my face! All I’m saying is, I’m tired of MMOs making crafting boring. It should be a fully thought out mini game within the game. While I craft an amazing item I want to see my character doing it, I want to hear the anvil sing or the sound of disenchanting something and it’s magic strands being broken down into components. I want to have to do something interactive wise, that takes that item to grandmaster level of craftsman ship and that I can feel proud of having made it. Clicking make 6 because I have the mats on me and hitting make now isn’t cutting it. Does anyone else feel the same way?
Not really. The problem with that is you either need it too effect the outcome, or it’s busy work. And if I’m creating 100 bolts, on don’t want to play a mini game every time. Nor when commissioning crafters do i want to get a lower quality result because he was bad at a mini game.
I can understand the impulse to do something like that. It’s cool for a little bit but after the 10th potion, the mini-game gets old, no matter how interesting you found it on the first one.
I played FFXIV and got really into crafting. They have an intricate mini-game, skills, and an entire set of gear. The mini-game is fun. When you are low level, you are just gambling every step…it’s actually nerve-wracking. BUT. Your goal in FFXIV crafting is to get to the point where you no longer need to do the mini-game. You out-gear it so that you can macro all the steps.
And once you get to that point where you no longer need the mini-game, you just sit around waiting for the macro to complete. It’s kind of tedious.
I’d be interested in a more involved crafting set up, but:
- If there is a mini-game then it has to be done only once (or rarely) and not repeatedly every time I want to make a potion, bolt, or alloy.
- People are already complaining about the current setup being “too complicated”…
- If there is anything resembling a puzzle, no matter how simple you think it is, there are people that are going to struggle with it. And the question is, should they have to struggle to make a health potion?
So these are things you’d have to think about when making a crafting system in wow. I encourage you to develop your ideas and write further about them.
I see what you guys are talking about and I do understand what you’re saying. I guess ultimately I’d just like to feel like I’m crafting not just looking at a pop up window with words. Even something as simple as Elder Scrolls Online crafting immersion. I think it’s cool actually seeing my character working and crafting. So cutting out any mini games, I think I just miss the sounds and sights of actual crafting.
I agree, they could definitely work on the animations. Some of the animations and sounds look so goofy they don’t look anything like what you’re supposedly doing in game.
No other game comes close to the crafting here. People actually buy your stuff.
Not sure on mini-games, but unique animations for professions would be great