I really couldn't care less about crafting in video games. Anyone else feel the same way?

[Dandark]

Im fine with it in some games but it can be painfully obvious it was just forced to be thrown in by the publisher sometimes.

I am usually happy to be able to customize and upgrade my weapons and armour but it gets so annoying having to filter through all the ingredients and junk I pick up that's all related to crafting my own weapons. It gets even worse in games like Kingdom of Amular where you get new stuff as you scale so I know that I am just going to be dumping anything I make in a few levels anyway.

I can't be bothered with maxing out "smithing" skills and finding super special ingredients to make my own stuff most of the time. Customization for existing weapons and armour is great but for the most part I prefer to not have crafting in my games.

 

[Soxafloppin]

Typically I just go online to look for cool weapons you can create, I don't really care for the trial and error method!

 

[Rblade]

it depends, if it's to simple and therefor doesn't provide any items of value there is no point. I like how they did it in WoW, make you really work for it but also make if provide actual good stuff.

In that game it really gave you that feeling of hunting and scraping and saving to finally after weeks and weeks craft that purple that has been taunting you in the menu.

 

[In Search of Username]

Sometimes I like it. Obviously it adds a lot to games like Minecraft and Terraria, and is part of the fun. In other games it just gets in the way and stops me enjoying the game though. It completely ruined The Old Republic for me and made Guild Wars 2 considerably less fun. As for in singleplayer RPGs, yeah it's a nice addition so long as it doesn't get in the way or force you to do it. Fallout does it pretty nicely.

 

[Bruenin]

My favorite crafting system definitely has to be Dark Cloud 2 or as it's European name, Dark Chronicle. You take a camera and take pictures of random objects, you can combine these objects into inventions you can use. Everything from standard parts to a new gas tank for your giant fighting robot can be made. You also take pictures of enemies while they're doing flourishes and such and can redeem these. If you really want to, some boss flourishes can be crafted as they count as ideas towards an invention.

I think crafting systems just need a bit more work, not that they are inherently bad.

 

[MammothBlade]

Ok, sure, you don't like it. That's just your personality, no offence.

I enjoy crafting when it's fulfilling. Crafting common items is boring and repetitive, unless these are items not readily available. I'd like it if weapons were more modular, so you could craft parts of them, then combine them into one. Guild wars 2 does that to some extent, but I'd like to take it further. For something like a sword, that would mean crafting the hilt and the blade.. for guns, more complex. I like salvaging vehicles too.

 

[CannibalCorpses]

Crafting is *awesome*. Skyrim crafting not so much since it's a pain in the ass to grind it to the point it's actually useful.

Make the correct potion and you only need to craft 1 item to get your crafting skills to full.

What really annoys me about crafting in games is that often you can't craft the best items and still have to go out and hunt the dungeons or you need special components that can only be found at the bottom of arse-rape dungeon of eternal boredom. They might aswell just put the sword/mace/rubber chicken of impossible overpoweredness somewhere in the game to be found like normal and have done with it. Crafting is something to do for people who have nothing to do and since nearly all humans are born with genetalia they should go play with them instead...might make the miserable fuckers smile

 

[Bluestorm83]

Personally, I despise forced crafting. Any single player game where you have to build and augment your weapons is just adding busywork. I remember the first time Crafting was required for me in a single player RPG. It was Final Fantasy VIII. Here I am, working for some kind of Freelance Terrorists for Peace organization (think about it!) and I need to gather up 8 Titanium Screws from killing JellyBlots and a new Handle Hand from a Kumquat Dragon and then The Blade Of Ow, Fuck, This Is Sharp from a Ghost Butler. I mean, what? Can't my damn international bosses just give me a new confusing swordgun???

In an MMORPG, I forgive it more. Not completely, but more. But it's never done right. Crafting there should be an alternate path to gear, requiring just as much time and or effort. But it always seems to go the path of being something you have to do to get bonus stats to be able to progress on the next boss. I would have LOVED to make a character whose class was simply "Blacksmith." He'd have no combat stats, but instead build his abilities to make better armor and weapons. Maybe I could get him into some kind of a Raid Assist Group, where instead of direct combat he'd go into the raid after the fighting team clears it, gathers any ore or discarded weaponry, and then forges new things to help that team for next week. Or maybe he makes new things and sells them. I'd have loved to have my own blacksmith shop in a city somewhere.

Instead, my main paladin logs in once a day to make a "Once A Day" bar of whatever magic metal they have these days, then logs out, because I'm not interested in grinding through Normal and then Heroic raids of a place that I've already cleared a thousand times on LFR and then once with my Flex Team just to get it done.

It's sad. Crafting was supposed to be a fun thing in our offtime. Now it's just another chore.

 

[Bluestorm83]

*Edit*

Sorry, it double posted due to lag. Love that internet, yeah?

 

[Dalisclock]

I've been playing far cry 3 and I have to say that I kind of like the system it uses. There's a reason to use it, it's not too hard to find the ingrediants and it feels justified by the setting. The only thing that kind of bothers me is that types of things feel arbitrary. "Wait, why could I make a small holster out of a dog but I need to kill three tigers to make a larger one? Could I just kill a few more dogs(or pigs)?"

 

[Zenn3k]

I enjoy crafting if its worthwhile.

Often in MMO's crafting it totally worthless. Why make gear that'll never be worn by ANYONE? All world drops are better, all boss drops are better, all EVERYTHING is better. In most MMO's if you devoted equal time to both your trade skill and your leveling, you'd still likely use at MOST?25% of what you can make, and even then you are only using it because you are devoting time into crafting instead of just leveling past it.

Crafting need to be end-game viable and desired to be worthwhile. This is why potion makers and things end up being the only worthwhile trade skills in these games, because they are the only end-game viable items that get any use?and they have to be constantly refilled.

Most games do crafting terrible, I don't see why they even include it in some games if its just totally pointless.

 

[oversoon]

In games like Skyrim I totally agree. I like small simple crafting like in some survival-horror games where you combine items to make better items, but in games where it is actually made a large focus it tends to annoy me.

 

[BlackIronGuardian]

I totally get it. Sometimes feel a little bad, though, when I find these really deep crafting systems that people clearly spent time on in a game and then I just completely ignore them. It's easier to just hit stuff with the sharp things.

 

[Tsun Tzu]

I'm not really a fan of crafting either, OP.

It genuinely feels too much like work, for the most part, if we're talking about RPGs and MMOs in particular. When the process is simple/streamlined and the gathering mechanic is more of a secondary or tertiary addition to the regular gameplay (like killing X monsters you'd be killing anyway nets you resources to build Y item) then it becomes bearable and, perhaps, kind of nice.

The grind is what I hate. About a decade of MMOs has really soured me on the concept.

 

[Stu35]

Original Post Snip

I agree.

Using Skyrim as the example, I disliked the idea of having to go hunting for animals to make into leather, or mines to find ores/ingots. I especially disliked the whole "enchanting" system. All of which struck me as a needless time-sink.

I have no drama whatsoever with those who do enjoy these activities of course, and nor do I bemoan the developers for putting them in there, because honestly I do think it does add a little depth to the game - it's nice to know that, in Skyrim, if I wanted, I could put my armour and weapons to one side and take up a job as a blacksmith.

I just don't want to. I want to go into deep places and kill undead and learn dragon shouts and such. Then climb to high places and kill dragons, and learn dragon shouts, and such.

Of course, in many ways, Skyrim actually does it okay - You're going to be killing wolves anyway, and whilst exploring deep places for undead you might come across some ingots.

I reject outright games relying on the harvesting however. Those games I simply don't buy, because 'grinding' is not something I play video games for.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Crafting is very annoying. I prefer to be able to customize without a tedious crafting system. Make it simple and make it based on chance based on stats. Want a apply fire damage to your sword get a fire item and apply it if it fails you lose one or both items or they become components to customize with. The higher the skill the higher change to apply whatever and allow stacking based on skill level.

 

[kasperbbs]

I'm not bothered by it, most of the time it's optional anyway, in skyrim's case you can ignore it and spend perk points on combat or whatever. The only game that actually made me feel that my crafted crap was actually worth while was an MMO. It's a lot more interesting when you have to follow the markets tendencies and can swindle people into buying your overpriced junk that you made from 1/4 of the price or the crafts might fail and you can be left with empty pockets.

 

[scorptatious]

I don't remember doing much crafting in Skyrim, so I can't say much about the system there.

I do like the crafting system in Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate though, at least from what I've played so far.

Thanks to farms, I only really need to find certain plants, shrooms, or bugs at least once, have my farms use it to grow more of them so I would always have crafting material on hand. It's a pretty nice system IMO.

Of course, I would still need to get stuff like pelts, claws, ect. for making armor and weapons the hard way, killing/capturing monsters. But hey, that's the game's main feature, and it's fun, so I don't feel like getting the materials I need is tedious.

Plus, as far as I know, you can't buy Mega Potions in the game at least not at the point I'm at, so it feels rewarding when I craft a bunch myself in preparation for a hunt.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

I'm the same as you. I don't find fun in crafting outside of games meant for it (like Minecraft) so I'd much rather just be able to buy ingredients from a mine then take it back to an arcane blacksmith and let him do all the work. I don't really want to level up something as boring as smithing...

Crafting mechanics seem to be creeping into a lot of games these days though.