Nostalgia seems to be hitting me hard lately, and made me think of SWG. Personally, I was fond of that game because of how the player community controlled the weapons/items, but it was to a certain extent and you could still get awesome weapons. I thoroughly enjoyed going out to harvest resources, getting the best I could, and then making some awesome weapons.

As the poll implies, what type of crafting do you prefer?

Standard: You get resources, obtain/buy a recipe, and then forge the item with a click of a button. See most MMOs go this route for the sake of simplicity.

Advanced: You get resources and make components, and/or sub components which make components, before you make the actual item. This takes it up a little bit. Sadly, I see this annoying more people vs giving something useful. Experienced this in EQ2 myself where I had to make resin for the components/sub-components/fuel before I made the actual component for the item. Got taken out after a while.

Player Run Economy: You make everything and control the stats of the item through what types of resources you get. While this is more labor heavy for the developers, it really pays off because it keeps different players engaged in the game.

I don't care as long as the crafted items are actually useful and it's not a big waste of time.

I like them all. I like the simple one because it's simple, and I like the complex ones because they're realistic. Really, though, the thing that really annoys people with complicated crafting is that the recipe is not always clear. If they detailed what items you need for crafting, and how to get those materials, then it'll be the ultimate crafting system, IMO.

Haven't encountered that type of crafting system yet. Though I will say that what irks me are some of the "uber rare" crafting recipes that require you to get all these components from end bosses, or raid bosses, and when you finally forge the blasted item it's on part with something a creature drops at the end of a dungeon. That's probably one of my personal annoyances/pet peevs when it comes to making items in some games. The only time I don't have a problem with this is when the item in question is of lower level with a new expansion being released that raises item quality and/or player level.

I like Rune Factory: Frontier.

I'm not a big fan of crafting but I know it has its place.

I have respect for the people that have patience for it but I can't see myself taking that role (or at least taking it very far).

I'm not a big fan of crafting, but don't mind finding a one or two step process to upgrade a weapon/item. (find magic sword, find rogue stone, take to Cespinar)

What I don't like is needing a skill to do it, or having crafting be a big part of a game. In fact, crafting has been one of the reasons that I've dropped out of modern cRPG's. There's too much emphasis placed on it, and those developmen resources could be spent elsewhere.

This.

It's actually a problem I have with MMO's. You spend so much time working on crafting, and at the end of it, the gear is useless in both PvE and PvP. It's not viable in either scenario, nor does it generally look as cool.