Is it backwards to pay for housing? -- (Dev) Replied

It's not really the housing so much as the crafting stations. Here's my thought. Someone who is social in the game, RPs, crafts & gathers, landscapes an area, etc. is a net value creator to the community. In fact, they may not care at all that there happens to also be a solo adventure and some epic story line.

Games such as the Sims and Farmville turned around the traditional Bartle model (Killer, Achiever, Explorer, Socializer) for MMOs. As we all know, these games are massively successful in terms of installed base and hours played. They also have heavy appeal both to different demographics and simply more casual players.

Imagine that there exists games on facebook/iphone called "SimTailor" and "Sheepville". These are essentially mini games where you farm mats or buy them off the market, perform some set of tasks, and sell the finished goods. Like any of these social games, they can be played alone but you are heavily incented to recruit friends, as collaborating produces a pareto superior (win-win) outcome. You give gifts, hire a friend to help, volunteer to help, collaborate on some work order, etc. You earn money which you can spend improving your shop / house and you up your skill level over time. There's some cash shop for vanity items or w/e.

The crafting game doesn't necessarily tie to SotA....but it can. This can tie directly to your character and serve as a mobile UI for managing your non-adventuring activities. Obviously we try to upsell the SotA to those who enjoy the crafting game.

There's been some concern about instanced housing and the like. Presumably fear of cannibalization on selling actual houses. But I'd go completely the other way on this. There's a far bigger opportunity here to add millions of "NPCs" on demand. And to gain the network effects of a huge installed base.

Besides, people may really like crafting on the go.


TL;DR Make a crafting mini-game. Expose it to a thin client and give it away.

 

If we could turn fruit ninja into a crafting game my mom would be my GM tailor. For my dad it would have to be a bejeweled clone...maybe mining?

 

All this already exists in a free to play game from SOE, called Free realms. Crafting is basically a bunch of casual minigames.

 

Thanks for sharing @Lanatir. I watched a few videos and minus the cartoon feel this is more or less what I had thought in my reply but I have no idea if this is a good idea. Has anyone played this game and can comment on pros/cons?

 

I'm definately in favor of making crafting a mini game of some sort. I'm tired of all the games where the crafting system consists of clicking an item in a menu.

I think Vanguard had the best crafting system I've seen, IMO (though I've not played EVE or SWG, which I've heard had good crafting), though I could easily see crafting tie in with any other sort of mini game, especially if crafted items can have varying quality depending on how well you do.

 

@Illesac Mini-games for crafting is the best! I would love to see this implemented.

 

We have internally discussed mini-games for crafting. Everyone likes the idea but will have to be an extension to the crafting system instead of a core mechanic.

This would be a great thread to continue to discuss experiences with crafting mini-games in different games.

 

If there's going to be mini-games then I would prefer they not be over simplified. The only thing that really comes to mind is 'working' in Fable II where all it is a timing game. It's repetitive and really not very interesting. My worry is that if the mini-game is too simple then it'll be little else but a tedious exercise.

On the flip side it can't be too complex either or you'll end up with a similiar result.