A New Dimension in Camelot or any MMORPG

Trade skills, for the most part, work(ed) decently enough in the current MMORPG champ EverQuest… especially for a first run at them. Of course there are some glaring economic issues and oversaturation of goods into the marketplace, but for those that like to dabble in the crafting skills, it can be a fun and diverse experience apart from adventuring.

As of yet, the game Dark Age of Camelot has not implemented a trade skill system, and now two students of gaming, to address this issue, wrote a very eloquent editorial on the values of having one in the game and the merits that can be gleaned both from players and the world as a whole.

One of the things I found interesting about this article is that they took on most of the obvious arguments against a rich and varied crafting system such as the difficulty of implementing one, making it as exciting as adventuring and less boring than it normally has been, reducing button clicks to make things, earning experience, saturation of the economy, etc. They weren’t afraid to lend ideas to address these issues. So here’s an example:

Making it Fun

Beyond Carpal Tunnel

While quests might be fun, the vast majority of a craftsman career is spent creating items and typically that process is filled with tedium. One of the first challenges for any design team is finding a way to prevent the characters from progressing too quickly without introducing the boredom of forcing the player to perform repetitive mindless acts. It is not a simple task.

The one point that should be clear is that repeated clicking is not a good design. It is both dull to the player and does lead to repetitive stress injuries. If there is a need to slow down the player, there are better ways. Even something simple such as draining stamina while building items and then requiring its replenishment (which not especially fun) at least removes the repetitive clicking.

The Sense of Adventure

Combat is repetitive. Why does it seem less boring? There are likely lots of contributing factors that might include:

• Feeling of risk – not having a preordained outcome
• Monster AI requires tactical adjustments which feels more competitive
• Feeling of satisfaction upon completing the kill
• Watching character performance and celebrating critical hits and other performances
• Seeing meaningful character progression and “watching the experience bar”

So is it possible to apply these same characteristics to trade skills? What if the outcome is not preordained? What if making an item is not simply a rote process of A + B = C? There are probably many different ways to provide a more interesting experience, but for sake of simplicity we will discuss only one reasonably simple example of how the process might be modified.

Thanks to Camelot HQ for posting it up; it’s really one of the better articles I’ve read about gaming recently, on any subject.