Customizing the crafting experience.

So I feel like i need to touch upon each of the things outlined in the last blog. I chose to start with Customization and discuss things that can be done and what places do them.

Customizing may seem pretty trivial to everyone else, but its a pretty powerful thing to a crafter.

The problem is that when you see another player, you see what armor they are wearing, usually what level they are, even a comparison to your level. Some games will even allow you to look at the gear another player is wearing.

That's all well and good for combat characters, but how do you distinguish yourself as a crafter? How do you tell if that piece of armor is something special that you created?

In some systems it would show your name in the details of the armor. This was great for games where you could see the armor someone was wearing and get a good look at the stats and say "Wow, Yadana Toitovna crafted that piece of armor, I wonder if they still make it that good or better." Now you are talking, there is fame involved and you can even build a player base of customers besides word of mouth.

Further in the customizing field is the ability to change how something looks. This doesn't have to be like second life where we actually get design new models. It can be something as simple as picking a shield texture and color. Nothing says my shield is better than yours than to see a giant glowing lion head on the face of the shield, or making a shield all black except for the gold rivets that hold the metal in place. You don't have to get elaborate, some games its all about what color your gear is. Its nice to have matching sets of gear for an entire guild.

If I'm a shield maker and I craft small shields, who says it can only be brown and only round? Let us pick small round, teardrop, or heater and give us a variety of color schemes or even a color wheel and just recolor part or all of the shield based on two or three colors.