I played many mmorpgs and sadly most mmos can't understand the importance of implementing the "fun factor" in other aspects of the games other than just combat.

Sure, combat is very important; however, other aspects of the game must be just as engaging, fun, and important. Crafting, harvesting, exploring, moral alignment, etc. must

be genuinely fun and engaging while at the same time equally rewarding as raiding or pvp. One good way to do this that I have never seen a mmo do is split the reward between

the different aspects of the game. Have the best possible chest/leg/necklace pieces come from raiding, the best possible foot/glove/ring come from exploring, the best

helmet/back/shoulder/earrings come from crafting, etc. Make every aspect of the game equally important! This way you also increase the player base. If a game ignores

crafting, harvesting, exploring, puzzles, etc. and focuses only on combat than there are many of us who will be alienated.

A quick example of how to make harvesting fun : fishing.

1. Having more options are always fun and yes, I am borrowing some stuff from FFXI. Have a pro and con system of using different fishing rods,

baits, moon phase, etc. Rods should be in different categories of flexible(ie: wooden), semi rigid (composites), and strong(metal). There is a time limit in which to catch a fish/sea

creature before the bait is eaten completely. Flexible rods should be the best when it comes to time as it has a whipping action and drains the stamina of the fish. The con is that

the rod is weak and has greater chance to break vs bigger fish vs the metalic rods would be pretty much indestructable, but greater risk of losing the bait and fish. Baits should

also be varied between creepy crawlers (worms, insects, etc.), smaller fish, and artificial lures. Not only should the different lures help attract different creatures, but also the

lures should aid in the type of rod you use. Using artificial lures with metal or composite rods would increase the time you have to catch your fish. This bonus comes at a price

in which fewer fish would be attracted vs using natural lures.


Have the fishing itself be a small fun mini game! Have the fish jump out of water, dive down, jerk left, jerk right, etc. And what you see the fish do, you must

react accordingly! MAKE IT FUN!


2. Now what about other harvestables like getting leather and meat? Well let's be creative! Historically speaking weapons used in warfare are not really

the same weapons used in hunting. A hunter wouldn't be using a .50 caliber with tungsten core magnesium tipped sabot round to get rabbit and foxes. So why would bludgeoning

a rabbit with a 2 handed greataxe, zweinhander, or sledgehammer be ideal? Can it be done? I guess, but you wouldn't really be getting any fur and meat to sell, barter, consume,

etc. any time soon.

Methods of hunting:
a. Baiting/luring- Usage of food, water (Especially effective in desserts and arid landscapes), urine, and scents to lure animals.

b. Calling/flushing- Beating aroudn the bush, scaring, and using specially made whistles to make animal mating calls.

c. Driving/herding- Riding a mount to drive animals over cliffs.

d. trapping- Using snares, simple pits, nets, bolas, etc.

Instead of the usual "Me crush rabbit with SLEDGE HAMMER!", how about we make the hunting fun and different than the combat system itself? No matter

how good the combat system is I don't want combat system to be used for everything. Gathering resources? combat system. Crafting? combat system. Fighting? combat system

It gets redundant, bland, and boring when a system is like this...(I am looking at you Age of Conan.)


Now I am only 1 person and I came up with this in just a short time. I am sure the developers with their much bigger resources can come up with much better

things. Make fun mini games, make options, make it rewarding! By doing that, Elder Scrolls Online will become great! Not just decent!

Don't just have the generic "See gold node"-&--#62; "Click gold node"-&--#62; "You get 5 gold ores" crap! Make it fun and engaging! Make a magical metal detection mini game, make a

explode the mine mini game, make a cause a rock slide to expose gold mini game, etc. PLEASE DONT MAKE IT GENERIC.


Ps sorry for rant I am tired and haven't spent much time on this.

In my experience, MMOs are rarely very good with engaging minigames, nor do they put much emphasis on RP mechanics that don't relate to combat/loot. The life span is still probably going to be 90% built around competitive mechanics: PvP and the epic gear arms race.

Basically, to take your words:

"If a game ignores crafting, harvesting, exploring, puzzles, etc. and focuses only on combat than there are many of us who will be alienated."

That's what's going to happen. This isn't me having a go at Zenimax Online, it's just that virtually no MMO titles have succeeded in doing what you're saying (excluding crafting, perhaps) with such a degree of complexity, and if ZO were going to gamble so heavily on that content they would've started to market the game accordingly from the outset, rather than failing to mention it.

I wouldn't mind a fishing system like in Zelda: Ocarina of Time (coming from someone who never fishes in any MMO for any reason and avoids it at all costs)
or like a real fishing game in general.

I wouldn't mind harvesting for crafting if it was engaging, but i don't really like standing around tapping nodes, or clicking lures for hours... it is far from "engaging"