The second installment of this series covered a lot on gathering in MMORPGs, but I concentrated mainly on one-click vs. multi-click gathering. I want to finish talking about gathering by looking at skinning as an alternative to traditional gathering, and ways developers can make gathering more fun, before moving on to the crafting portion of this series.

At the outset, the biggest concern with gathering appears to be time and quantity; weighing how much an MMORPG's recipes call for and how plentiful or sparse the resources needed are. Just as important, or perhaps more, are feeding on the players perceptions of these activities. Whether a more deeply involved crafting system as seen in Sony's MMORPGs "Everquest 2" and "Vanguard," or a simpler system like "World of Warcraft," the player wants to feel they're performing an action that adds to the fun they're creating for themselves -- not just clicking their mouse repeatedly.

Skinning

One profession differs in how its resources are gathered in most MMORPGs. Alchemy, blacksmithing, tailoring, and the like require inert resource nodes, like ore, wood, and herbs. Leatherworking, on the other hand, requires taking “leather” from mobs killed throughout an MMORPG’s world.

The ability to go out and fight a resource that will fight back offers a new activity to a crafting system in an MMORPG that could increase appeal for Sandbox players, while retaining appeal for Crafters and Endgamers (see Craft Soup Part 1). The ability to gain experience, complete quests, gain gold or multiple drops, and other activities provide more options and freedom to players who feel crafting pulls them too far away from other parts of an MMORPG.

Depending on how it’s implemented, skinning can be tied to leveling, separate, or a combination of the two. It pays to think about that, as a player may not like feeling forced to level their character as a warrior alongside their leveling as a crafter/gatherer.

Similar enjoyment can be obtained from gathering activities such as fishing. Fishing, as seen in "World of Warcraft," is a more passive activity, but gives players more options for how they obtain resources for crafting. It need not be a passive activity in all games, though. For example, "2Moons" has fishing with an action bar pop-up where you have to “reel” the fish in and make sure you don’t lose it.

MMORPGs like "2Moons" make me try to think of ways player-involved activities can be added to an MMORPG's already-established (and lackluster) gathering system. For example, for collecting feathers, why not have minigames where you call and catch birds? That would be a fun activity in itself, and add to the players' desire to participate in crafting/gathering in that MMORPG. It would certainly be more entertaining than killing a bird and seeing if it had a feather randomly drop in its loot.

The addition of minigames to gathering is something done in casual MMORPGs like Sony's "Free Realms," but not in the more traditional ones. Is it a case of developers thinking players wouldn't want some sort of game-oriented crafting? Or is it a case of them not giving the development of the gathering system the time and effort it deserves? What do you think?

This last week went by really fast for me, and it’s hard to believe we’ll be moving on to Craft Soup 4 soon. I hope you “stay tuned,” because I’m digging in (pun intended) to refining in the next installment of this series.

Happy crafting.

Posted by Jeremy Stratton
July 3, 2009

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