MMORPG.com's Scott Jennings turns his sights this week on turning raw data into processed data for fun and profit. Well, profit, anyway.
A topic that doesn’t really get discussed much regarding MMOs is that of crafting, or the art of taking parts you get from other parts and clicking a widget and having something theoretically valuable pop out, like candy. Maybe. Also, a line should move from left to right at some point.
I’m only being a touch sarcastic here. Crafting has traditionally been one of the most tedious parts of MMO gameplay, and there are actually some fairly good reasons why.
First off, why does crafting even exist in MMOs? Like most other things in MMOs, there are different reasons for different people.
- Because some players want to be budding capitalists and run a profit from taking raw materials and turning them into candy. These are what I’ll call the merchants. To them the buying, selling and trading of the crafting game *is* their game. It’s why they play.
- Because some players want candy and may happen to have raw materials laying around. These are the hobbyists. They don’t really want a profit from what they do. They just want candy.
- Because some players are members of guilds or other large groups of players and have been designated as responsible for supplying players with whatever consumable items the group needs to play the high-end game. These are the quartermasters. They see crafting as a means to an end - making their team 3% more efficient.
Read Crafting Gameplay.
