General Discussion

I miss the days where you knew the names of the best blacksmiths, had a rune to their locations and people would line up around the block, filling their orders. I miss having people line up around the local alchemist at 2pm on saturday, because they knew that one guy who sold awesome healing pots at super cheap prices while handing out runes for 2 hours would arrive.

I miss relationships with the crafters and traders. I miss the days of North Freeport or the Commons Tunnels where groups of people would "gather" and trade goods, thus not only making the economy in the game flexible but virtually non-exploitable and very interpersonal. I miss the days in North Brit in UO where that favorite blacksmith, who saw your name coming around the corner, knew EXACTLY your favorite weapons and armor, had sets already made and gave you the usual discounted price. Here you go Chiram, full set of black plate plus a nice warhammer you dirty armor-breaking armsman you!. He would hand you the full set, layed out nicely in the backpack plus that nice warhammer with a rune to his shop just to let you know that he is open for you. THAT is what a good tradeskill system is.

Todays games seems over saturated with tradeskill users. Not just that, but in most games the tradeskillers seem to do it for themselves and what armor they can make for themselves ( bind on pickup creations). Its not about building up a craftsman reputation or fighting the other 8 local blacksmiths for price cuts. Auction houses remove virtually all communications with the crafters and seem to lack on the value of crafters. Currently only Guilds seem to grasp the true value of crafters, that is if they are in a raiding guild.

Any thoughts?

Ahh..the Commons Tunnels..that brings me back!

As crafting has evolved over time it has become quite popular. In its popularity there really isnt any way for a particular crafter to stand out. Some of the things that brought this about include

1. Craftnig is made very easy now. IN most games toil and hardship are stripped away and generally the hardest thing about a craft is aquiring new patterns.

2. Crafting is profitable...and is commonly known as such. So many people who want to make gold within a game are crafting.

3. Many guilds now support their own crafters. So no longer will you have the freelance mentality of opening up a storefront. You et your requests in guild chat and often dont even advertise your a crafter to the outside world.

Those are just some thoughts that come to mind, IM sure there are other reasons

Torrential

What you describe is probably what most players want, something to build community.

I remember in AC there was one town that everyone went to to trade. You would basically stand there and shout your wears. So many people would be there that you would be ported out from time to time because AC had a system that if to many people were in one spot people got teleported out side the mob. After Turbine created a shopping mall where you could set up a bot to sell your wears in a well organized way the community died a bit and that city, wish I could remember the name, only saw the occasional passing adventurer come thru.

Todays MMOs dont play into this, they are simple XP machines built to maximize leveling and restricting community to smaller clans or guilds. MMOs are now built on the model of "organized fun". Trade chat that goes to all the server and crafting based on auction houses, along with the item whoring  and tiered loot, have made buying face to face obsolete.

I love you guys, and thats why I love this site. so many people understand lol. I grew up on what you all speak of...I was 13 years old playing Asheron's Call, followed by EQ, i remember Arwic, before the shadow destroyed it(AC) i remember the Common Tunnels by freeport. and now im old and turning 22 on April 22'nd 2008 lol....

and to the OP. I miss that to, I HATEHAETAEHT Crafting and had guildies do it for me lol, but with the BoP Crap, im forced to craft sometimes...

building up reputation and no soulbound on any item and trading alot, still happens in lineage2:)

although this does seem cheesy and is probably overglorifying the "good old days" quite a lot.  I wholeheartedly agree!

Some crafters where famous in ac and ac2 going to town find that one crafter that could make a great weapon for you if you had all the mats for it, yes i miss that:(.

 But still alot of this still happens in lineage2 nice thing about buying or making a weapon in these games was it stayed sometimes for longtime in game swapping from one owner to other buying a weapon for x amount and sell it with profit or at least same price:)

Originally posted by Dedthom

What you describe is probably what most players want, something to build community. - Actually, no, that's not what most player's want, which is why its not found in games much today.

Todays MMOs dont play into this, they are simple XP machines built to maximize leveling and restricting community to smaller clans or guilds. MMOs are now built on the model of "organized fun". Trade chat that goes to all the server and crafting based on auction houses, along with the item whoring  and tiered loot, have made buying face to face obsolete. - Fortunately.

OK, I'll be the dark cloud in this thread.  I've been playing MMO's for a reasonable amount of time, and my early games were Lineage 1/2, Shadowbane and DAOC.

In most of them, they didn't have auction houses, wares had to be sold by shouting in a trade channel (or global) and you had to chase all around looking for a crafter at times. 

Also, in many games, you needed to craft to really make a decent living, as adventuring just didn't return the same payout, so I felt "compelled" to craft, even though I despised it.

All of this added up to one thing for me.  It took me away from the activities I enjoyed doing, exploring, killing mobs, killing other players and gathering materials.

I always used to wish that there was a way to get gear in an auction house, and when I first ran into it in WOW I felt it was the most brilliant thing ever. (yes, I know they weren't first with the concept)

At last, I was no longer had to stand around trying to buy and sell wares (in fact, I turn off trade channels today), nor do I feel compelled to craft (love that about EVE), and in fact, I didn't have to waste a minute on activities that I didn't want to do.

And you know what?  There's lots more folks like me than the people waxing nostalgic in this thread, hence you get today's games, with crafting a shadow of its former self.

I suppose there's a market for a game that has heavy crafting, but until more players prefer it to adventure, its going to be relegate to a minor role.

Originally posted by Kyleran

 

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