What if Crafting were actually hard?

[Wynn]

Unfortunately, it would be fun for the first few days. Then it would become extremely, extremely annoying.

[Misteyes]

Unfortunately, it would be fun for the first few days. Then it would become extremely, extremely annoying.

Not if it has any depth. The quickest source of game burnout is total mastery. Once a player has no further room to improve, they'll very quickly abandon the game.

On the other hand, puzzle games like Hexagon Conundrum or Popcap's Alchemy remain fun for a very long time, even without extra progression (synthesis abilities), or reward (items) that would have to be present.

Less people wouldn't mind crafting if 1) it was more interesting like you suggested and 2) The XP rate wasn't relatively abysmal later on.

if crafting didn't require leveling, I could see that as a viable option, but really not for grinding

I also think that the EXP rate is terrible and needs to be improved, but that's a separate issue entirely, and already has its own thread. The minigame would also need to cap the benefits of outleveling a recipe so that doing a recipe 30 levels below you doesn't guarantee HQ (and also have HQ be possible for a player of the appropriate level if they are skillful, and maybe a little lucky).