Why is Crafting still in the game?

[Susanoh]

I don't really have any hope of crafting or gathering ever being a significant part of this game. The game is made for players to be self sufficient, and for anything where crafting items are actually desired the supply is so ridiculously high that it still usually eclipses the demand and all but a few items are sold for pennies on the market board.

You can't have a game where every player gets handed everything they could ever want just for showing up and then also have resource gathering, item creation (crafting) or the economy hold any kind of substance.

[Seif]

Chayala wrote a wall of text there but all of it makes perfect sense.

[LineageRazor]

I dunno about the rest of the servers but argent dawn had a number of guilds who would flood the market undercutting super high prices by the gold sellers and had GM's actively doing their job and tracking them.

This indicates a pretty fundamental failure to understand how RMT crafters work. RMT don't OVERPRICE. They UNDERCUT, and substantially. Because they literally work the game for a living, they can mass produce items and sell them at prices so cheap that honest crafters (who, in addition to playing the game, have to work for a living, or go to school, or whatever) wouldn't bother with because the profits are too slim to be worth their limited time.

The rest of what Chayala wrote is pretty much true, but also not anything folks don't already know. Yes, other crafting systems were more robust and useful and (in some cases) enjoyable, and yes, they were hotbeds of RMT. Usually not directly, though - RMT would provide the gil/gold/whatever, and then gilbuyers would use the profits to buy the best crafted goods, pushing the prices of those goods uncomfortably high for players who played honestly.

Players complained, and that's why things are the way they are in FFXIV. Say what you like about whether it's a good thing or bad, the fact is that the effects of RMT are much neutered in this game. Sure, there's still plenty of advertising, but the only folks I can imagine actually buying gil are morons who want to buy their own house, or suckers who simply don't understand that the best equipment gil can buy will still only take you through the first stages of endgame content. (I can only imagine the nerdrage: "I spent $500 for this iLvl 70 equipment - WHY CAN'T I BEAT TITAN???")

In FFXIV, to progress through endgame, you need to earn your equipment THROUGH endgame. There's no shortcuts available to gilbuyers.

[Arkghyom]

It's a shame because this is the second game I've ever played (first one was Lime Odyssey) where crafters/gatherers have their own gears and skills. In other games, you had your "gathering" or "crafting" class without any personality at all (lvl 90 char with tons of irrelevant skills fishing in a random pond.) In this game, you can actually become a "fisher" or a "botanist" by fishing, harvesting or logging. You can use the right materials to craft gears and weapons that will let you improve your DotL/DotH stats. I don't think crafters/gatherers will be a major force in this game since it's a theme-park MMO. Unique armors/weapons can't be sold because they're "bound", so it's all about gear fetish and pure vanity.

[Felis]

There is always the possibility to bring untradeable crafted gears.
All what Yoshida need to do to make it possible would be bringing ingame untradeable mats from dungeons and a feature where other players can craft for you without giving them the mats for it (like the materia request feature).
This way dungeon raiders still get their gear from dungeons (even if only as a mat at first), crafters can craft for endlevel players and RMT are not involved

[Edellis]

When Square can find a way to link the difficult endgame fights to the crafting system while still locking out RMT, they'll have done their work well.


The only problem is, I don't see how they can definitely accomplish that without requiring the crafter be one of the players who felled the difficult enemy.

[Penguinmayhem]

I'll say it once, I'll say it a million times.

Making crafting actually worth doing is more important than stopping RMTs. I'll take all the stupid gil-seller spam you care to add to the game any day if it's a side effect of making crafting actually enjoyable.

[whoopeeragon]

I'll say it once, I'll say it a million times.

Making crafting actually worth doing is more important than stopping RMTs. I'll take all the stupid gil-seller spam you care to add to the game any day if it's a side effect of making crafting actually enjoyable.

Dear gods, no, I want to craft and gather in peace thank you very much. Maybe to you black listing a name every 10 seconds while crafting is enjoyable, but not to me.

[Seif]

I'll say it once, I'll say it a million times.

Making crafting actually worth doing is more important than stopping RMTs. I'll take all the stupid gil-seller spam you care to add to the game any day if it's a side effect of making crafting actually enjoyable.

This. Having a fun game to play should always take priority over having a game with less spam. Always.