Poll: Do you like Crafting?

[RJ 17]

No, seriously...dah fuck with all the crafting? Seems every game that comes out these days has a "Crafting Mechanic." Yeah, in MineCraft that's the entire point: you start from absolutely nothing and build your way to a diamond-encrusted palace with 18 floors, a pool, a Creeper pen, and a brothel.

Fair enough, the entire point of that game is to build stuff. But what about the rest of the games? Why the fuck does Dead Space have a "Crafting Mechanic"? For that matter, every other game that has a Crafting Mechanic...what the hell? What happened to the days where you'd delve deep into a dungeon, fight an optional boss, and HOLY SHIT! I JUST GOT THE MOST POWERFUL WEAPON IN THE GAME!!!!!

Personally, I miss the good ol' days...the days where you had to earn the best gear in the game...not make it. What's the deal with all the crafting these days? "Oh sure, you could quest to get this awesome piece of armor...or you could craft this piece of armor that's 10 times better!"

Anyone else miss the days where you didn't craft the best gear in the game, but instead had to find/earn it?

 

[nomotog_v1legacy]

Some games I think over do it, but I don't mind it for the most part. It depend on the game and what it's trying to do. Like I thought it worked in dead space because it fit the character. (And it was rather fun to created new weapons.) Your still earning it just as sure as if you killed someone for it. I difference is more when you get the item right away or latter.

 

[Drathnoxis]

I want to say that I like crafting gear, but then I remember that I haven't actually played a game where crafting was any fun. It's almost always 'fill a checklist, instantly acquire item' and it's boring.

Crafting is a really good idea in theory. Making things in real life can be extremely rewarding, but I don't think I've ever seen this translate well to a game.

 

[nomotog_v1legacy]

I want to say that I like crafting gear, but then I remember that I haven't actually played a game where crafting was any fun. It's almost always 'fill a checklist, instantly acquire item' and it's boring.

Crafting is a really good idea in theory. Making things in real life can be extremely rewarding, but I don't think I've ever seen this translate well to a game.

Dead rising 2 is still the best crafting system ever.

 

[Kae]

I hate crafting to be honest, I find the whole gathering of materials to make other materials and then turn into a weapon or helmet or whatever to be extremely tedious, I honestly don't bother with it in most of the games I've played that had it unless it's necessary it'll be ignored, it's existence does not bother me though.

 

[Saetha]

I despise crafting. Or, I like games built around crafting - I've sunk many, many hours into the likes of Terraria and, c'mon, my avatar's from Don't Starve. Those games, crafting's the point, or a very major one at least, and it's fun for me because there're so many materials to acquire and crafting options to explore and just plain old shit to build.

But in, say, The Witcher? In Elder Scrolls? That sort of crafting I hate. Not only is finding crafting materials too often tedious and distracting from the main game. And the fact that all the best gear is found through crafting disappoints me. I feel like that god-tier infinity armor should be stuffed behind some overpowered boss fight, not just lying around in bits and pieces, waiting for me to find an anvil and hammer it together. I feel like this is even more egregious in the Witcher - a lot of the Witcher gear quests have some semblance of a story, why couldn't they have you find the Witcher in question who left all these schematics and just have you take their gear? That would've been so much cooler than scouring for random scraps of paper scattered across the map, and it would've gone with the overall game a lot better.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Having recently played Final Fantasy 10 again, and having tried to go for the Celestial Weapons... Yeah, I'm fine with crafting.

A lot of games that have this type of crafting often throw new and better gear your way at such a rate that it starts to lose its value anyway, even when disregarding the crafting. In games like The Witcher 3 and Skyrim you can't turn 90 degrees without tripping over a better sword or piece of armor. So even when I do beat the big unbeatable monster and get my new shiny, all-killing weapon, it'll usually get replaced by a slightly better one 30 minutes later.

 

[The Lunatic]

I enjoy crafting, but, I think crafting resources should come from dungeons and bosses and not "Click on this rock".

Far too many games make crafting the "Boring but safe option".

If you make powerful gear be crafted by boss drops and so on, you create a system where fighters can sell stuff on crafters can profit on turning that stuff into gear.

 

[ObserverStatus]

If you have to craft things to improve your crafting skill, no. If not, yes. It seems like every game developer and their moms these days think that their games need to have a crafting system because Minecraft has one and Minecraft is popular. But what they forget is that Minecraft's crafting system is only fun because it never forces you to make anything you don't want. Sitting around in Whiterun for hours making iron daggers isn't my idea of a good time.

 

[verdant monkai]

Anyone else miss the days where you didn't craft the best gear in the game, but instead had to find/earn it?

Not to be awkward old boy but when where those days? I can remember it as far back as the earlier final fantasy games.

Personally I like finding my gear. I wan't to play as an adventurer not some spod who sits about making leather gauntlets. I prefer the feeling of fighting through a cave infested with undead to find some enchanted gauntlets, as opposed to fighting through a cave infested with undead only to get a material to have to traipse back to town to find a crafting table to make into the gauntlets.

Crafting has its place but I'm not a fan of it playing a big part in fantasy rpg's.

 

[Kyle Winston]

My experiences with a crafting mechanic are limited and my thoughts on a crafting system are a bit split. I enjoy a simple crafting system if it is not mandatory. I love a crafting system that rewards players for utilizing its various mechanics to break the system. I loathe games that force a crafting system on you that is tedious and is just combine A and B to get C. Here are two examples.

Tales of Graces has a crafting system called "dualizing." You just take two items and combine them for a third item that is either a piece of equipment or a usable item or a new crafting item. It is not integral to the game and very possible to run through it without dualizing once, but I find it an enjoyable distraction.

On the opposite end of the spectrum there is the Atelier series, where crafting has always been a cornerstone, but I am speaking from experiences specifically from Atelier Ayesha. You can follow a recipe by combining up to 4 different items to get a new one, but if you are smart (or look up a guide), you can cleverly use different items and skills you gain from leveling your crafting to build incredibly powerful items. In that game, it is not hard to stumble across powerful equipment. The real challenge is creating items that give said equipment powerful, game-breaking attributes. It is catharsis to whack an enemy not only for serious damage, but also hit it for every element in the game AND apply every debuff it is not immune to. And regenerate health every turn.

 

[FPLOON]

Crafting? Maybe... Synthesizing? YES! Are they the same thing? They could be, I guess...

Other than that, the Monster Hunter games are the best crafting games I've played so far, so there's that...

 

[Maximum Bert]

Obviously like all things it depends on the game but as a general rule no I do not like crafting and a game built around it is unlikely to engage me (such as Minecraft).

I just usually find it tedious to be honest. I recently played FFXIV for 4 months and did not craft a single thing because I hated doing it. Overall however it is not something I despise in most games its just something that does not interest me.

 

[someguy1231]

Depends on the game. World of Warcraft, Skyrim, and The Witcher 3 all had crafting systems I enjoyed. Materials are easy to find and usually not that complicated. Plus, from a role-playing perspective, using a weapon or armor that I made myself rather than stumbled upon makes me feel more like I've "earned" it, so to speak.

 

[Silence]

Really depends. Sometimes I can get into it, sometimes not. Witcher 3 does a decent job, and I think in other RPGs I'm also fine with it, if it is implemented well.

Dead Space 3? It puts me off the game completely. It brings the game to a halt, and that's not something you want in an ACTION or Horror game.

But I think I still have to find a game where the crafting is made really enjoyable.

 

[Remus]

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, for all its flaws, had an excellent crafting system. The process of crafting had a chance for errors that could decrease your item's quality or destroy it completely as well as improvements to increase the quality grade. If you didn't use the correct tools to fix an error or to add quality, you were screwed. Boats, while something of a trophy item, were fun to build and added to the game's atmosphere. Plus they were handy for giving guildies rides to and from raid locations.

 

[Lucane]

To OP: So do you only like weapons/gear found in dungeons and bosses? or you don't like dime a dozen items so you want them to be the very best and rare?

Cause in some older games the best weapons were found in caves,mountains, forests and etc. while other times you'd finish a "quest" and be rewarded with an item/weapon you couldn't buy which in a sense is somewhat like crafting as in you did one thing to go to another place to collect the reward later.

Are you certain you don't just miss the part where "Dungeon gear" had good stats AND a special rare effect like revive upon death once per battle or 10% instant death entering a non-battle? because crafted gear can have those stats if the developer decided to such varied effect but they'd likely tie the effects to the materials adding a bit of story to the weapons creation. Instead of being a Shadow-flame Axe you found behind the Fire-fall(waterfall made of flowing fire) in a hell-scape somewhere.

Though I do think crafting can just be outright ridiculous in some cases whether the item drops are rare or semi-rare on normal mobs and you just need a lot of it or being something you need to collect throughout the game and not even know what they are naturally without a external guide or being an excessive pack-rat hoarder. FFIX's Zidane's weapons I'm looking at you.

 

[NPC009]

I love crafting! Well, sometimes, anyway. It really depends on the crafting. In any case, it has to involve more than getting everything on the grocery list and pressing a button to complete the item.

The Atelier series offers great examples of how crafting should be done. You obtain materials both through gathering and defeating enemies. Recipes rarely require specific items and instead need various types. For instance, if the recipe requires water, you could use pretty much anything from the water you got from the well to an expensive dew drop you got from the Tree of Life. You quality of the item depends on the ingredients used. And it's not just the quality you can manipulate, by adding the right ingredients and/or using the right techniques you can add special attributes.

These games usually have four big crafting goals for the perfectionists:
1. Bomb
2. Elixer
3. Weapons
4. Equipment (armour/accessoiries)
But you can get by with doing a good job in one or two categories. Making the best bomb ever is a popular strategy for taking down (final) bosses, but I prefer to make awesome armour and laugh when their attacks do 1 damage.

Basically, these are games in which you can Tony Stark it up, but instead of looking like some badass metal man you walk around as animu girls wearing the most adorable outfits (and it's great!):

Spoiler

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

I prefer The Witcher 2 and 3's systems.

You have to go on globe trotting quests to find the recipes for best armour and weapons in the game, as well as finding master blacksmiths and armour smiths.

You still craft it, but it requires exploration nonetheless. Add to the fact that each Witcher armour has a small story behind it and you really do get an appreciation for value when you finally end up looking like a badass.

If I have to think of the worst possible execution of either system, it'd be Dragon Age Inquisition. There is no point to look for armour where with the right materials, you can just craft the best armour and weapons in the game. The worst part is that it's just min/maxing at that point and that it's effectively just the standard armour (visually speaking).

It is incredibly boring imo.