Lost Pages of Taborea: One crafter's obsession

Let me start this week off by telling you a little story of one crafter's obsession, of how he feels about crafting in MMOs, and what he hopes and dreams for.

I love crafting. I want more of it. Whenever I loaded up Runes of Magic, it was the first thing I got my grubby virtual hands on. Now, I know there are a lot of people who will say they like crafting, but I'm here to separate us even further by telling you what I really think about when I want more crafting.

I see lots of threads on the forums about how many people want crafting in RoM. There's a lot of conversation over how much work it should require and how much it should pay off. I feel disconnected from a lot of those players. I feel that we aren't truly like-minded. My brain doesn't run in the same direction. What the heck am I babbling about? Read on to find out.

When I see threads on how crafting takes a long time or how it takes a lot of materials to craft a recipe in RoM, I get a little skeptical, because I want crafting. I want something to do. If I relate it to raiders, I would say that I -- as a crafter -- want more crafting and things to do with crafting in the same manner that raiders want more and not less.

If I were someone who primarily loved raiding and fighting, I might be inclined to look at crafting as a side activity. I wouldn't want it to get in the way of raiding, but I would like it to be more fun. The result might then be that I want to reduce the amount of mats needed and increase the rewards. Seeing as how my favorite aspect of RoM is not raids or PvP, I couldn't bear to have it that way.

I want more materials that need to be collected. I want more gameplay geared toward mixing, refining, and creating recipes. And I want more overall variety and deeper crafting gameplay that I can use to play gold-merchant with. I don't want to click on one resource node and -- BAM -- construct a sword any more than a raider would want to go into a dungeon that consisted of one room with one boss that could be killed in one hit. That wouldn't be fun to me.

I'm not a raider who likes crafting but thinks it should aid my other real endeavors. Crafting never keeps me from doing something else, because it's the one thing -- first and foremost -- that I want to do. Sure, I might dabble in dungeons and everything an MMO has to offer, but crafting is usually at the top of the list for me.

When I think about potions or other items being unbalanced, it's not in relation to raiding or to how one item aids me over another while I'm fighting a boss. Sure, that matters, and sometimes it will be one of my main priorities, but sometimes it won't be. I'm thinking about crafting in relation to the whole economy, not just how it helps my fighting or raiding. My opinions sometimes favor something that makes no sense to many players, not because I didn't think it through but because I didn't hold it up to raiding or consider some other favored part of the game the most important factor.

There's still always going to be balancing issues in the same way classes need to be balanced, but overall I like the crafting system in RoM. It doesn't bother me too much that it takes a ton of materials to craft one recipe, because gathering and refining is part of the obsession. It also fits into RoM's crafting system, which allows anyone to learn all the professions. It's one reason that I actually objected to the one-click gathering method that RoM switched to a while ago. A lot of players wanted to chat while they gathered or they felt it took too long. In a way, maybe it did, and that's why I wasn't terribly heart-broken after the change, but still, to me, that's like saying, "I don't want to have to kill trash mobs in a dungeon.... just let me enter the instance and instantly be at the boss." That takes away the actual gameplay that is part of being a crafter or merchant.

It's only my opinion, but I think independent sandbox MMOs are on the rise in part because they found a way to provide PvE, PvP and crafting in a very fun player-driven manner. EVE Online would be my prime example. EVE has a very rich and robust crafting system. Has its subscription numbers ever dipped in the time it's been running?

I'm not a futurist, analyst or even an MMO veteran, but I have always believed any MMO needs at least two things to be successful and fun: a craftng system and an auction house. There are terrific arguments for PvE, questing, dungeons and more, but at the core of it all, what all that other stuff stands on is a virtual world where the players can make stuff and then buy and sell that stuff with other players.

So it took me that whole post to tell you how I feel as a crafter going into RoM. By now it should be no surprise to you that I really hope for more crafting-related updates soon, and not just in the way other players might want them. I don't just want more powerful potions or other rewards for doing the same amount of gameplay. I want a worthwhile system that can aid and boost the economy and the entire game, something that will provide me with the tools to have near-unlimited gameplay with multiple addons springing up to help me do it. And before anyone says it: No, I don't want something just like World of Warcraft. Yes, I would like the economy to be big enough, varied enough, and robust enough to allow addons to spring up the way they have in WoW, but I don't just want what WoW has. If that were truly the only thing I wanted, I'd just go play WoW, but I don't for many other reasons, many of which you can read about in past episodes of Lost Pages of Taborea -- and many more reasons you will no doubt see in the future.

I've mentioned the disenchant skill before, but I really hope Runewaker makes it usable soon. I'd love to be able to disenchant and break down many of the existing materials into other, new materials for crafting. Introducing more items that are more valuable and actually work hand-in-hand with dungeon-drops would be a good start too. There are many avenues crafting in RoM could take. No matter what direction the devs ultimately choose, I hope it's a worthwhile system that can provide players with enough fun on its own, not just a system that is nothing more than a quick upgrade meant to fill gaps in gear-drops. It should work with other systems but be able to stand on its own two feet.

Each Monday, Jeremy Stratton delivers Lost Pages of Taborea, a column filled with guides, news, and opinions for Runes of Magic. Whether it's a community roundup for new players or an in-depth look at the Rogue/Priest combo, you'll find it all here. Send your questions to jeremy@massively.com.