It's that simple really. You either need to make it actually interactive and engaging or need to make it like the majority of MMORPGs out on the market and let it be automated.

Gathering is best left to another topic and is not being forgotten.

The current state of crafting is as follows:

I hope that you'll agree the phrase "A picture is worth a thousand words" fits quite nicely here.

The grind needs to be lowered, a lot. I can say with almost sure confidence that no one here enjoyed the grind to 50, pressing enter a multitude of times is not the most stimulating activity. Even if the mini-game was fun to a degree it will still get boring rather quickly if you're forced to sit there and make some irrelevant object en masse for the sole sake of trying to keep up to your combat classes, which comparatively blur past your crafting classes even with the laziest of efforts.

I was thinking that automation of crafting could be an option alongside a new revamped crafting mini-game. Assuming there is still a noticeable grind if such an over-haul comes to realization then this might not be a bad idea. I was thinking of a system that has a failure rate of 50% if automated mode is turned on for bulk crafts or grinding sessions. Perhaps a very expensive manual could be bought for guild marks that increases it by 5% each and stacks up to a maximum of 75%? This is just a side-idea and not the main focus of the thread, so comment accordingly.

But as for the mini-game itself it needs to rely on skill and be engaging.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upBBgsTgCb8 Here's a video of cooking on another game where there is more involvement from the player and affects the out-come of the craft.

Something along that line would be great but material crafts should be short and final products should be longer. I wish I could suggest more on the mini-game the video shows what type of mini-game I'd like to see.