Crafting in MMORPG's or lack there of. (Part Two)

Another game with a robust crafting system would have to be "A Tale in the Desert". This game is nothing but a craft fest, all you do is craft and that's the point. The developers here made a decision, no combat what so ever, and that is where they failed in my opinion. You build and you build and you build until you start wonder what's the point. Yes, I know, this is what some people want, and you're not wrong for wanting to do only crafting. You want those tight knit communities where friends almost become family. But for the world to feel alive you need numbers and by numbers I mean subscribers. Who wants to have a hut out in the middle of no where for no one to see. Again, in order to have a successful MMORPG I think you need both PVP/PVE and crafting, they go hand and hand beautifully.
So what did "A Tale In The Desert" do right? They made a complex crafting system. I mean you have to do some studying. Right from the start the first thing you have to do is craft tools. I mean come on, what did you think? That some crafting tool god would appear from the clouds handing free tools to the newbies, I think not. So I'll start out getting some slate to make a blade and some wood to build a wood plane so that I can make boards. I'll then turn around and use those boards to make brick racks, then with a little sand, mud and that grass I picked and set out to dry, I will make Bricks. Getting one step closer with each brick to building my compound.
From that point the possibilities are wide open on what you want to make. Nothing is easy, you go step by step building tools and other components to reach that final product. Yet in the end, after I have built so much, I begin to wonder what's it all for. Did I really do anything but pollute Egypt with compounds and works of art? Suddenly I look around and notice that others have quit and I now live in a ghost town, knowing they must be off looking for war in some other game.
But you're thinking I must be wrong, massive subscribers don't make a good crafting system. I don't think it makes a good crafting system but it promotes one. You need people to craft for because with out them your just selling to npc. Any crafters worse nightmare is to think that none of their items are being worn. For example, lets take a game with a massive subscriber base and determine why "I" felt the crafting in the game has failed. There is nothing more massive than World of Warcrat, yet I am uninspired by its crafting system. Why? Cause everyone crafts. It is such a watered down crafting system that everyone can do in minutes.
If the crafting system is easy and fast then the market is going to be flooded with the same items that hardly ever sell. Why buy it when you can make it yourself. No one knows me as a black smith in WOW, I'll never get to come up with some catchy business name to promote my items in tells. The only point in wow where I felt crafting mattered is when the game first launched. WOW has made the same mistake that many others have, the end game items are far better then anything I will ever craft. It's like when they release an expansion they forget that some people play the game to craft, and what do they do, they give us a few new items to craft.
But who wants to raid and pve if the best items are made by crafter. Well I for one don't, That's why I believe there has to be balance. I think the average gamers gear should be split between crafting items and dropped items. Why can't the adventures come back from an epic journey and walk into my shop and say I plunder this magical hilt form the hands of Lord Doom himself, can you craft me the finest blade in all the land. Oh look at that, now the crafter and the Warrior both have something to do with that blade. Balance also comes with house and boat building. Its just that something extra that is needed to make the crafter feel more needed.
In WOW the resources are in random locations so you never get to feel like a mining community, you never see other miners unless you both just happened to be in that same random location where you both race for that resource. Which doesn't promote a community but rather the opposite. So WOW has nothing to offer a ture crafter, I mean I'll never sail around on my own boat, I'll never have my own shop, I'll never have to work with someone else to build any item. I might as well just forget crafting all together and just be that warrior and make my own potion/enchants whenever I need them. I mean don't get me wrong I played WOW for a long but the point of this topic isn't about PVE its about crafting and WOW offers me no reason to play as a crafter.

Part 3 soon to come.