Quote Originally Posted by Flyojumper View Post
Alright, let me alter the CAPTCHAs' mechanic by introducing an extra layer of fun choices. You can either solve the CAPTCHAs normally or skip each one of the 13 CAPTCHAs by pressing the X button 47 times. Now I get to decide "Am I faster by solving one CAPTCHA manually or hammering my X button 47 times?" Thrilling, isn't it?
The fact remains that switching inventory in and out of the retainer is not anywhere near as strategic or fun as you make it sound and is actually hindering other aspects of crafting which are much more fun and strategic (the crafting system itself). It has nothing to do with instant gratification or dumbing down. If anything, you transfer time from doing a mundane task to doing more crafting, which is more strategic, so one could argue that you actually increase the stategic portion of time you spend while crafting.
The meat of your new suggestion is: introduce a time sink and give the players different options through which they can reduce the degree of the timesink. Of course, if the solution to the new "problem" is far from self-evident, then it makes the player have to think more than he would have otherwise done; i.e. opposite of dumbing down.

"Captcha" would though feel out of place inside a Final Fantasy game, but the meat can be introduced in more elegant ways.

For instance in crafting it has been introduced in a more elegant way: we are unable to remove animation time in options. We have though been given though options to decide the degree of the time sink per craft, like manipulating the amount of steps you choose to have in a craft session.