The Exploitative Nature of Crafting in Video Games

[Yahtzee Croshaw]

The Exploitative Nature of Crafting in Video Games

It seems like every AAA video game these days has some sort of crafting. Is it useful, or just a gimmick?

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[moosemaimer]

Games seem to be big on physics-based construction sandboxing right now, so why not have an interface that lets you literally assemble new things out of old ones, Ikea-simulator style? Telephone handset plus lightbulb via wood glue might not be useful, but how else would you know unless you tried it? Would certainly be more entertaining and engaging than cranking out ten copies of "Ingredient H" plus "Ingredient D x2."

 

[beleester]

Crafting in the Last of Us had a less obvious gameplay benefit - forcing you to choose what to do with limited resources. The trade-off between medkits and molotovs, or shivs and nail bombs, adds depth to the gameplay (not to mention makes it a lot more tense, realizing that you need a molotov to deal with a horde ahead but you'd also like to cure that gaping chest wound).

In some senses, crafting isn't too different from any game with a shop/upgrading element - you have a certain amount of an item that you can "spend" on a range of useful stuff. In survival contexts, it also offers better verisimilitude - you're not going to find vending machines out in the wilderness.

I think the issue with either of those is when you have enough resources that upgrading isn't a meaningful choice, you just scoop up all the upgrades available whenever you get the chance. Yahtzee railed against this in pretty much Assassin's Creed game besides Black Flag, for instance. I suspect it's meant to add a sense of progression (I suppose that fits under Catharsis), but it's a rather boring way of doing so.

 

[Silent Protagonist]

When I read the title I was a bit worried that Yahtzee was going to tear into the concept of crafting as a game mechanic, a mechanic I usually really enjoy. Surprised to find a very thoughtful and nuanced that didn't criticize the concept in general, just instances where it is done in a lazy or tacked on manner. Not sure why I would expect any less from Yahtzee as his articles are generally very thoughtful and nuanced, especially in contrast to his review show which tends towards humorous hyperbole.

I seem to mirror the opinion that crafting adds very little to many games where it essentially just creates an additional step between scavenging for ammo/items and actually being able to use the ammo/items. I much prefer the games where crafting and creating is the core mechanic rather than a tacked on tertiary one, such as the aforementioned Minecraft. Sadly the rise in the popularity of this game mechanic coincided with the rise in popularity of the early access model(which could also be partially attributed to Minecraft) which has resulted in many many poorly executed games trying to utilize those core mechanics and I fear it may poison the well for crafting or environment manipulation games of the future

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I guess it boils down to how you use it. I'm more familiar with the one-shot gear crafting from Assassin's Creed IV and Far Cry 3. You have to hunt down certain animals - sometimes unique animals - to collect the items required to make a bigger bandolier/satchel/quiver/whatever. Feels a bit random at times but the fact that you have to go out of your way and work towards these makes it work in turn.

 

[Jorpho]

It was always a big part of the old classic adventure games, of course, combining, say, crowbar with rope to make impromptu grappling hook.

That makes too much sense. The preferred means of making a grappling hook is to combine a rope with an anchor.

(Seriously, somehow this came up in both Teen Agent and Beneath a Steel Sky.)

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Huh. I always just assumed crafting was implemented into modern games as a back-door for premium content and in-game purchases. Need more wood to make arrows for your archer? You could spend five hours chopping down woods, if you're boring and not cool. All the really cool kids spend $5 right now for 100 wood! Don't you want to be cool kids?!

I think its just pure luck most games that use crafting are so God awful and are abandoned two weeks after launch they never get around to those updates.

I get that some people enjoy crafting, but I've never seen it as needless time wasting and a cheap way to pad out the gameplay. I mean without crafting and the associated mineral gathering, how many hours of gameplay would have been knocked of Skyrim or Fallout 3/New Vegas? Dozens I'd guess. Dozens and dozens.

 

[Thanatos2k]

You know the trend over the last ten years about how they're shoving RPG elements into every game no matter the genre?

Crafting is another one of those RPG elements.

 

[Casual Shinji]

The crafting system in The Last of Us was intermediate to giving the player a choice in what they think they might want or need for any given situation. Instead of just giving you a medkit, molotov, spiked melee weapon, or nail bomb, it allowed you to get more creative with how to handle enemy encounters. It wasn't about the depth of what you could craft, but about the tension of making the real-time decision to go offensive or defensive on the spot. The fact that it was quite a simple two-way system made it so it was never confusing or a chore to sort through your options. Though this only worked as well as it did because you could hide behind cover; In a game like Resident Evil Revelations 2 the crafting mid-combat really didn't fare well at all.

 

[StorkV]

Crafting systems are mostly annoying...

 

[visiblenoise]

Crafting usually just makes me attempt to get by without using any crafting materials or crafted items. Unless it's a real character-building rpg like in WoW, in which case I do crafting for the sake of leveling up the crafting skill, something which I usually never finish.

 

[Ugicywapih]

I'd say crafting makes more sense in many games than a pure currency system in that it just makes more sense. For instance, it would be much more odd to find cash on a dead animal, than skins that can be tanned into leather and later fashioned into armor.

Also, crafting, when properly implemented, can make you feel like you're taking advantage of the resources around you - it's for example mildly annoying, when I kill a heavily armored shooter goon #721 and then the corpse just lies there in its high tech armor, that obviously has been designed to provide a battlefield advantage and has not been completely destroyed. If there's no in-game explanation for this, it kind of bugs me that I can't at least strip some easily accessed elements for either repurposing or sale.

Of course, the article raises a valid point about giving players the ability to use a money based economy system instead of crafting - it hardly makes sense for a traveling warrior, for example, to take time to learn tanning. If he procures hides from dead prey, it'd be far more reasonable to sell them to the local merchants or leatherworkers. The two possible explanations I see here are firstly, the point mentioned in the article, that crafting (at least in games where player isn'tbeing urged to specialize) promotes more diverse gameplay and secondly, crafting system allows for rare crafting drops, meaning your wizard won't get a useless +10 McGuffin sword but will instead score a magical +10 McGuffin, that he can craft into a +10 McGuffin staff. So, loot tailored for the occasion, I guess.

All that, of course, doesn't mean I consider the recent ubiquity of crafting to be a beneficial thing - I love my crafting, but I love it done right and it can be hard to get it to work as it should, not to mention it works in some genres better than in others.
Overall, I wouldn't worry if that's not your thing. Right now, crafting and overall "RPGisation" seem to be the dominant fads, but so was, at one point, having multiple lives, often lasting just one hit each. Or medkit pickups in shooters. Stuff like that still shows up every now and again, don't get me wrong, but definitely not that often. Honestly, I'm tempted to launch into a lenghty rant about them newfangled games with no definitive failure state and regenerating health... And the damn kids won't get off my lawn...

 

[Callate]

I "get" crafting in a game like Minecraft. There's a strange sort of satisfaction in turning something abundant but not inherently useful into something grand, or choosing to use a scarce resource in the perfect place.

By contrast, I poked Doodle God back when it was a Flash game, and it left me pretty much cold. I certainly don't understand why it's gone on to spawn so many sequels. To each their own, I guess.

But with so many games insisting on crowbarring crafting into the mix, I think it would be wise to start a) speaking up when its addition to a game adds nothing to the game but busy-work and distractions from the main thrust (because there are times when it really would be better just to use an ammo crate or a shop) and b) asking that if games are going to use it as a mechanic, they try to move it forward and innovate, not just give an endless string of "turn wood and flint into spear, turn coal and wood into torch". I don't think it so much to ask, for example, that games start thinking about how pieces would actually fit together into coherent wholes, creating the possibility that one person's stone-twine-stick mace might be significantly different or better than someone else's.

 

[Darth_Payn]

Item Crafting in WATCH_DOGS makes a little sense, because you're playing a hacker and it's a hacker thing to slap together gadgets and doo-dads from a bunch loose odds and ends.
Right on both counts. They're putting in more and more RPG elements in action games, and crafting is one of them. Black Flag and Rogue gave you some freedom in what you upgrade in what order, based on what animal skins or building materials you have in your inventory.
Also, what's with the commenting window now? I can only read 2 line at a time and I can't see the bits I quoted!

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

Modern crafting systems don't really add to the immersion because modern games don't have weight/size based inventory systems. You can just pick up everything you see (making pickup buttons a useless annoyance).

Last of Us arbitrarily limits the amount of any item you can carry forcing you to craft or lose stuff. Its necessary for balance so you can't alpha strike your way around tough fights but it still feels forced.

 

[Covarr]

What I want to see is crafting as a larger element in multiplayer games. When both teams are grabbing from limited (albeit respawning) resources, different crafting combinations can potentially have a huge impact on strategy. Maybe four core categories of craftable items: weapons, armor, ammo, and tools. Some key sniping positions or ambush spots might require tools to access, but if you spend your steel on a grappling hook for climbing, you have that much less available for the other categories. If the whole game is designed and expanded around these concepts, it could be interesting, and substantially different from most multiplayer shooters on the market.

P.S. Thanks

 

[raankh]

I'd say Minecraft has something to do with the surge in token crafting systems. And the MMOs of course. In the end, what the experts these companies are consulting have decided Minecraft is, is mining and crafting. So you get stuff and combine them. Like Minecraft. Like billions of dollars of Minecraft.

 

[Sarge034]

I personally like crafting systems most of the time. I do believe it adds a level of immersion to the game by letting the player cobble together things in the world to survive. I have a problem with it, however, when it feels arbitrary. Like when you can't substitute things that would make sense in the recipe. A glass gar is not similar enough to a glass bottle for a molotov cocktail, du fuq? It's kindda the same emersion breaking feeling as when the game won't let you pick up weapons from dead enemies/allies.

 

[Sledgimus]

I personally like crafting systems most of the time. I do believe it adds a level of immersion to the game by letting the player cobble together things in the world to survive. I have a problem with it, however, when it feels arbitrary. Like when you can't substitute things that would make sense in the recipe. A glass gar is not similar enough to a glass bottle for a molotov cocktail, du fuq? It's kindda the same emersion breaking feeling as when the game won't let you pick up weapons from dead enemies/allies.

That annoyed me so much in Far Cry 3. Why did I need specific animal skins for each holster, wallet or ammo pouch? I can make a two gun holster out of goat skin, but need shark skin for the four gun holster. Why not just make another two gun holster out of goat skin? It makes the process less crafting and more just arbitrary item finding. It would be more immersive just to have the items either hidden in various locations or on sale from the merchants.

 

[StreamerDarkly]

I find this article to be quite insightful. Fundamentally, this is a system of order imposed on the chaos of random item pickups, designed to appeal to the player's creative ego but ultimately lacking in depth and clumsily implemented (as pointed out numerous times in the article). iPhone wielding baristas have weighed in, and they think crafting in games is the cat's ass.

Is there an analogy here to the misuse of inheritance in badly executed object oriented programming? Is it instead a profound statement on why the selection of positive traits in evolution merely leads to gradual progress? What would Darwin think of the changes to the DualShock controller over the years?

Silliness aside, it's healthy to look at in-fashion game mechanics with a skeptical eye.