Loading ...World of Warcraft - Crafting made redundant!
I’ve been playing or better say grinding away at WoW in my spare time for last year or so. I had played it for months then lost interest (surprised?) but have since taken it up again. Due to the siesta in gaming with it I’m not an uber high level 70 like most of the gamers that populate the servers but I feel I know some of the finer points in the game. My post is about the crafting that I find a bit frustrating at times in the game. And so I would like Blizzard to take a long hard look at the crafting system.
The game more or less runs on the loot given by monsters, crafters need some of it, adventurers need it for completing quests, and the entrepreneurs on the server can make a tidy living selling the stuff on the Auction house (The Ebay of WoW).
Some loot is extremely good and is used by the lucky finder, be it armour or weapons. Now we take a look at the blacksmith for example who makes this stuff. They cannot churn out good weapons and armour to keep up with the loot that is dropped by slain monsters, so essentially they are crafting only to bring up their skill. Hence grinding.
So for the first 50 lvls of your character’s crafting life you won’t make a living, you might sell a few items to the low levellers that are following you but no way is it good enough. Also the amount of materials and their scarcity is another thing. Just to find the Iron ore for example to make a certain sword is a few hours gaming in itself. Then when you compile all the materials you get one point towards you blacksmithing skill. How disappointing.
I have been told by other gamers (after much ranting on the general chat channels) that at the higher levels, blacksmithing is remarkable and it’s a sought after profession. This is something to aim for. But during your career as a crafter you should have some foothold in society and some outlet for your skills – not just crafting junk to get 1 point every few hours. This is why I think Blizzard should overhaul their crafting system. I can only speak for the blacksmithing profession which is one of the core skills because it can lead to weapons and armour. Also, I find most characters on the game are the “gatherer” professions. Skinners, Miners etc. These provide the Auction house with an array of materials that crafters can purchase or go out and gather themselves (Blacksmith / Miner - for example)
So right away there is a large discrepancy between gatherers and crafters. Crafters being in the minority, in my opinion, thanks to the game being heavy with good loot. I’m not saying get rid of the good loot. But new plans for weapons and armour could be introduced allowing the crafter to inject new designs of weaponry in the world and make their living seem less of a hardship.
In Star Wars Galaxies, the once loved MMORPG has since fallen from grace and now dies writhing in ashes, had a remarkable crafting system. From setting up mining devices to gather ore and materials the crafter could log off safe in the knowledge that there would be a pile of juicy ingredients ready for the next day of crafting. The crafters in SWG made items that the other characters actually NEEDED. Speeder bikes, houses, weapons, armour you name it. There was loot from monsters but that loot was used to make more intricate items which again a crafter was needed for. So crafting was a whole other profession and it was after all an actual character class.
In WoW though, in my opinion, crafters are an after thought. The game is all about going on quests finding lucky loot, and being a better adventurer because of it, then doing it all again to find better loot. Crafters are and always were second class citizens in WoW. Please correct me if I’m wrong! Maybe I’m missing the whole point.
Look at Runescape, a visually appalling but free on-your-browser-mmorpg. The crafting system in that game is massive. You can be anything from a Potter to Smithy, Chef to Farmer. And as a crafter you can make all those implements that the above professions need for their production. Example : Potters make pie dishes so Chef’s can bake pies in them.
The Crafting in WoW needs to be more prevalent, brought to the foreground of the game. If Blizzard intertwined the quest/loot heavy game that works so well for them with a crafting system that attracts the more strategic players you would have an unstoppable game.
Obviously they have a WoW juggernaut of sorts already and don’t need a crafting based game. But even after I quit SWG and runescape I still like to wander back in and craft up something!!
I’ll leave you with a fond memory from SWG. My character gave up the adventuring for crafting. I chose Architect as my profession and began building dwellings and civic structures for the many towns in the servers, it ended up I built my own town and invited guild members and newcomers alike to move in. This was amazing to me, I made use of the game without questing, but crafting.
Well I must say I’m intrigued. Will this generate yet another profession…….stand clear….i’m an online gamer!!!