[MUD-Dev] Crafting/Creation systems

[amanda at alfar.com]

Ron Gabbard <rgabbard at swbell.net> wrote:

> Am I missing some fundamental principle in MUDdom that says that
> crafting must be unprofitable in a fixed-price, NPC-driven
> world... especially when that profit made on a sale to an NPC
> would become virtually worthless as the economy inflated over
> time?

At a guess, two reasons:

  - Crafting is lower risk than combat, and most MMO games try to
  tie rewards to risk.  This is not just philosophical, it is tied
  to:

  - Any activity that combines a reward with low or zero risk
  (crafting, sitting on a perch and repeatedly killing a respawning
  mob that can't get close enough to you to hit back, etc.) will get
  "gamed".  Macros or scripts will appear that will allow people to
  run their characters through that action for many unattended
  repetitions.

"Make 3 million xp/plats/whatever an hour while you're at
work/school/Starbucks!"

This gives a large advantage to players who use such tools--players
who are good not so much at playing the game as intended, but in
exploiting play styles with no inherent entertainment value as a way
to gain any advantage possible.


Amanda Walker <amanda at alfar.com>


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