Guild Wars 2 Has The Best Crafting in an MMO Yet, and Here's Why

[sifter132]

I'm not convinced that the SWG craft system was the be-all-end-all.

A major problem with such in-depth craft systems is that they split characters up between crafters and non-crafters.

Right on...I think the truly 'best crafting ever' will be a system that is both simple and hardcore. Where you can keep it simple if you want, or you can sink countless hours into it with discovery, experimentation etc. To me the GW2 seems more on the hardcore side, and I'm sure many people will ignore it. It would interest me to see which game featured the most crafting participation of any MMO to date.

Oh and might as well add...I'm still not convinced GW2's system will be awesome. We tend to see these type of articles before a lot of new MMO releases eg. SWTOR you can use your companions ZOMG, LOTRO crafting will feature x,y,z ZOMG, Age of Conan can do this with crafting ZOMG. I'm a bit sick of the hype to be honest - so a thumbs down to the 'best crafting in an MMO yet' headline...It's normal crafting with the odd tweak or 2, nothing to blow my load over IMHO.

[Mythor]

A major problem with such in-depth craft systems is that they split characters up between crafters and non-crafters.

I like to play a character who crafts her own gear, and then uses said gear to explore the world. It actually gives me a lot of satisfaction to use gear in the world that I've made myself.

You could do this in SWG, at least before they changed the class system.

Not being able to do it all on the one character is kinda irrelevent to whether it's the best crafting system though.

[Marius]

It's not irrelevant because being easily-accessible is a value in itself. Not being able to craft on your main is a serious barrier to accessibility. It's the same reason why people use Windows over Linus, and Apple products over more technical ones like Android.

Linux users like to say how their OS can do all this stuff and is more secure, but people who use Windows have entirely different conceptions of what makes a good OS.

Similarly, the more complex a crafting system becomes, the more hardcore crafters like it, but the more casual crafters stay away from it. It's a fairly difficult balancing act. Any craft system that panders to one audience too much over another ultimately fails on some point (SWTOR - too shallow for serious crafters; SWG - too deep for casual players).