Since first launched on April 24th of this year, Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar has received glowing reviews and has become the #1 selling PC game currently available. Despite the praise lavished on the game, there has been one constant complaint from reviewers and players alike: Crafting.

The main problem appears to be economic in nature. While the underlying theory in how the crafting professions both interact and depend on the player community is solid and well thought out, the economics behind participating in it are widely unbalanced. Some vocations, such as Prospector and Woodworker, are easy to master at its lowest levels, and can be quite profitable for the player. Others, like Farming and Cooking, tend to cost players a lot of money to pursue, with no real gains for the crafter or his potential customers.

This level of thinking permeates throughout the entire player base. Most players agree that there are fundamental flaws in the system, yet most also will concede that there are definitely fun and profitable aspects of the system in its current state. Opinions on this vary wildly, however, as most players have their own likes and dislikes in the current system.

Kravendao talks about his overall experience with crafting, stating “Cost vs reward is completely lacking, [as] most quest items far outweigh the usefulness of any crafted item that you can craft yourself at the same level.” He adds, “There seem to be fundamental problems in the distribution and requirement of base materials [for crafting recipes, when viewed from both] starting out, and long term.”

SinFae has similar feelings. Noting the issues with the lack of balance between player crafted and loot items, he says, “The one change that would really help crafting is let players craft the best 'stat' items, or the 'prettiest' items… or both.” He feels this would increase the worth of pursuing crafting professions and create player demand for said items, something that he believes is severely lacking in the current system.

Even with these complaints, Kravendao manages to find a niche in the system that he enjoys. “I actually prefer the Scholar aspect of Historian the most. Scholar is a great chance to go explore, [and] really get a feel for Middle-earth and check out new places. It’s also one of the more difficult professions and I love the challenge. Being able to help my guild with healing and power potions, dyes, critical crafting scrolls etc. is very rewarding for the work I put in, as well. It’s also one of the few professions that doesn't lose money on everything they create.”

Another player, Syrvile, notes, “[I enjoy] Historian because of the "challenge" of finding the components.” Yet he finds this challenge frustrating at times, because “Some days I just want to make some potions for my kinship and I can't find any nodes free.”

Gwynna says, “I loved Farming before the launch, because it was a very social activity. Once changes were made to it in the patch released just before launch, there has been almost zero farming since.” She adds, “I understand that balancing needs to be performed to make the game better, but I'm upset that that one change killed one of the activities I enjoyed the most. I'm hoping that future changes will make it playable, or at least affordable, again.”

While researching for this article, however, I'm taken back to many previous MMO's and their crafting problems at or shortly after launch. WoW's system had often been criticized for not producing real, quality goods that compete with loot items, and even today remains very 'loot-heavy' in its' gear choices. SWG's system, although a personal favorite, was initially described by some as overly complex and cumbersome.

The biggest question most players are asking is, will it be fixed? Or at least will we see progress made in the coming months? Turbine's development team seems to be responsive to players' concerns, posting regularly in the official forums and responding to players' questions during their monthly developer's chats. Recently, Patience, LotRO's Community Manager, addressed some of the upcoming crafting changes and how they will be implemented.

“All of the tweaks and balancing and other changes have to be made before we go live, actually. Many of them have already been made and are being tested right now on Isengard, our test server. We don't plan to make any changes before the Shores of Evendim, because the systems are so closely intertwined there's a ripple effect if you only change one thing without all of the other things that its connected with. Most of the changes will come all at once in the Shores of Evendim, although we may find we have to do some more minor tweaking once the larger player base starts working with it.” She also noted in an earlier question during that same chat that “Crafting will continue to get refined, but farming is our top priority post-launch.”

In all, the fundamental philosophy of the crafting system is sound. And while there are valid complaints to be heard from players about crafting, overall there is a lot of fun to be had while practicing your craft of choice. Turbine has a reputation for listening to its' player base, so I have no doubts that crafting will get the attention that it deserves in future updates. Like many players, I am simply hoping they will make it another shining example of why LotRO deserves to be a success in the MMO market, and not a distraction from it. And with the Shores of Evendim content update less than a week away, we should have our answer soon.