The Daily Grind: Should crafting be risky?
In certain MMOs like EverQuest II, you can whiff profession combines -- which is to say you can fail to craft an object if your skill isn't high enough. We've even heard tales of people bombing them so badly at the highest levels that they wind up nearly killing you on top of destroying pricey materials. In other games like World of Warcraft, your tradeskill combines are guaranteed to work every time. There's also no mechanic in "specialization" that opens up the ability to make slightly better gear than a non-specialized person -- in WoW, you either are able to do that tradeskill, or you aren't.
Some of the hardcore crafters out there enjoy the element of risk for the trade-off of being able to make slightly better items if you've practiced that trade a lot. Others like the knowledge that you're guaranteed to make at least as good an item as everyone else with your expensive materials. This morning we'd like to ask you where you stand? Do you think that crafting should have an element of risk, wherein you can lose materials but may wind up with slightly better items on a particularly good combine? Or do you prefer the model that WoW uses, that guarantees that you'll wind up with an item, exactly the same as everyone else's item, without the fear of losing materials or taking damage?
