The Way of the Artisan - crafting in MMORPGs

                  An article by Dave Booth

Some days the levelling grind in an online game gets tedious.  The
relentless drive to get to level [Insert-Maximum-Number-Here] just
loses its lustre.  Fellow players get on your wick, or you develop
a nagging doubt that the monsters you're levelling on really
*deserve* to be massacred on this scale.  Your nerves are jangled
by the irritation of yet another death, maybe to monsters you
shouldn't really be taking on, but they give super experience or
drop an item you desperately want, so you keep at it... or because
for the fifthtieth time, your favourite hunting spot has been
invaded by hordes of Doods from Hell.

(For those lucky enough not to have met one, a Dood is a player
who talks as if spelling, punctuation and grammar are alien
concepts, along with politeness, consideration for others and
maturity.  They are typically so self-centred that they will steal
kills, get other players killed deliberately to remove them from
'their' experience camp, swear, name call, and generally behave
obnoxiously. Such is the wonder of the Internet, that behaviour
that would get you a fat lip in five seconds of Real Life is
rampant online.)

It's a form of ennui I suppose, a type of 'burn out', like that
Yuppies in the 1980s experienced after doing yet another
million-pound deal.  Well maybe not that extreme, but you get the
picture.

At times like this that alternative, more sedate activities are
very alluring.  Time to turn to the crafter's wheel.

The three online games I've played - Ultima Online, Asherons Call,
and Dark Age of Camelot - have implemented crafting in their own
ways.  The basic principles are the same.  Obtain raw materials,
make things, and gain skill to make better things.  Tools of the
trade, and those raw materials are available in towns. If you're a
blacksmith requiring a forge, or a tailor in need of a loom,
they're located in towns too.

Various trades are there to turn your hand to, and all yield items
that are useful, such as armour, weapons, foodstuffs to replenish
you in battle.  In your early days of crafting the items you make
will be most useful to low-level characters.  Well-designed
crafting systems encourage trade between players - it's common in
the capital cities of Camelot for new characters to head for the
town forge, to buy equipment from the crafters huddled there.

The Camelot crafter has an instant selling point; every item made
by a player is of higher quality than the equivalent bought from
an NPC.  The player-made 98% quality sword will do more damage per
hit than the NPC- bought, 90% item.  Even if the crafter charges
30% markup on raw materials, their item is also cheaper to buy.
So there is a rigorous trade.

Of course this reverses the situation mentioned earlier.  The
towns are signally devoid of Doodery - after all, why should a
crafter bother to trade with one?  Quite the opposite occurs.  The
craft zones are places to socialise and swap tips on craft skills,
the atmosphere is co-operative and friendly compared to the wilds.
The Dood is an endangered species in these areas.

It's ok to be able to make weapons for a level 1 character, but
it's quickly no challenge and not very profitable.  People *do*
turn to crafting to make money, for at high levels a 30% mark up
on making items represents a lot of dosh.  Or maybe you are
manufacturing items to pass on to guild friends free of charge to
help them level.  Either way, the crafter's route involves
levelling as does every other character.  Only in this case, it
means making more complex items, employing exotic raw materials
and skills you need to learn.

The normal way to advance in skill is to make things you are only
slightly proficient in, over and over, gaining skill along the
way.  As a result, sustained crafting is, well, pretty boring.
This does however make it even more of a social activity.  In the
absence of dangerous mobs, knocking out yet another cuirass, in
the company of other players doing the exact same, it's natural to
chew the fat.  It's relaxing to spend a half-hour working at your
chosen trade, while talking to fellow crafters about the latest
game patch, how to make the next items on your list, the weather,
world events, whatever comes to mind.

Camelot encourages crafter inter-dependency, particularly for
armourcrafters.  Some armour types require metal parts which the
armour maker can knock out himself, but also use leather paddings
which only a skilled tailor can make.  There's a thriving trade
between the two, the tailor marks up the cost of the elements he's
created and the armourcrafter produces the finished item for
onward sale.  Other crafters are more self-contained, but the
price of this is having to train in a larger number of skills.
The weaponcrafter must be proficient in metalworking, woodworking
and leatherworking as well as the weaponmaking that is their
forte.  These all cost money to train.  The NPCs from whom you buy
your raw materials will buy back the manufactured items, but at a
net loss to you.

The two big investments a budding crafter needs to make are time
and money.  Time of course to produce the hundreds of items
required to raise skill to a high level.  Money to absorb the loss
from selling to NPCs.  You could just make items to order for sale
to players, but there are only so many sets of level 1 armour in
demand.

Money can be made in various ways.  One is to use cash made from
monster hunting.  With several characters, you can cross-subsidise
your crafter.  Or throw yourself on the mercy of your Guild mates,
and plead for funds, with the promise of being able to make items
for them or their new characters in the future.

In the early days of your crafter's life, you can perform tasks
for your task-master NPC.  He will ask you to make an item and
deliver it to another NPC.  The recipient pays for it, and in this
case you turn a profit.  A player who is willing to make items and
run them around the capital city can totally fund craft
development this way, at a cost in time only.  It's a way to get
temporarily rich - temporarily because tasks are only allocated
for low to mid-level crafters.  Once you're about half-way to the
maximum crafter skill level, the tasks stop.  The pot of gold
accumulated before soon vanishes when you're making higher level
items for skill and selling them at a loss to the NPCs.

That's the Camelot 'way'. In Ultima Online and Asherons Call
crafted items always sell at a profit.  If you wish you can flood
your crafter with funds, or turn altruist and pass on the fruits
of your labour to less fortunate players.

Having developed a weaponcrafter to the mid-levels, it's rewarding
to be able to make items for yourself (of course) and for other
guild members.  Whilst players with new characters always
appreciate a gift of some gold, the reception you get when you
pass them a perfect set of weapons which will see them through
many levels is much more effusive.  It takes time and some effort
to get to that situation, but crafting is very low on the stress
factor scale and so at least, consider it as a way of filling in
those times when the mad monster-bashing sessions aren't in
progress.  It's something your character can do for a few minutes
at a time, and is a relaxing break from the old routine.
                              - o -