Crafting in MMORPGs is usually a secondary endeavor — but it’s an important one. Crafting and production supports the economy of the game.; it can also be challenging and fun for the right player. If you love crafting and producing items in-game, check out these MMORPGs with superior crafting. In the future, we’ll look at the Top 10 MMORPGs for specific hobbies or professions.

The ten best MMORPGs for crafters, in no particular order, are…

1. “Star Wars Galaxies”

Crafting in “SWG” is an engaging process that requires a bit of work. The near endless customization options in the MMORPG let players wear exactly what they want, craft the droid they are looking for, and decorate their houses the way they see fit. Through a detailed harvesting system which includes buildings that harvest for you, a character will constantly obtain materials. With a little bit of management and the owning of a personal shop for other players to visit, skilled tradesmen could make quite a bit of credits. (A whole paragraph without mentioning the NGE!)

Star Wars Galaxies

2. “Pirates of the Burning Sea”

In a game full of scallywags and captains, one might think crafting a boring enterprise. That’s quite false for “PotBS.” Crafting involves warehouses, trading, and moving goods across the seas. No one person can make everything they need in “PotBS”; you’re going to need to move goods and buy more from other players. Like “SWG,” you can “harvest” from your warehouses while you do other things. Crafting is such an important part of the MMORPG that there’s a class called the Freetrader that can move goods in bulk in huge ships.

3. “Eve Online”

“Eve’s” crafting experience is rather complicated, especially when learning about it for the first time. At its core, the crafting in “Eve” is about blueprints, minerals, and research. Blueprints are like recipes, minerals are your materials, and research affords you improvements to certain blueprints. This research takes time, sometimes days, to complete and is well worth the wait. Actually creating goods is done by manufacturing them with the Industry skill. This takes time like research does, but it’s much faster.

4. “Lord of the Rings Online“

“LotRO’s” crafting system has many professions, and each has two gathering professions tied to it. This sounds like it might limit your abilities, but it forces you to interact with the auction house and other players to make what you need and want. This can seem like a hindrance but it also brings players together. Becoming skilled at a profession will eventually lead you to entering a crafting guild that offers special recipes. Down the road you might even be able to make your own Legendary items.

5. “World of Warcraft“

Although the crafting in “WoW” isn’t anything special or inventive, it’s still a good example of a solid experience that will help you on your adventures. Like most crafting systems in MMORPGs, you will use goods made by others and they will use yours in return. If you have the materials you can make the item, and there’s little risk involved. There are a few flaws in the crafting of “WoW.” For example, there’s no woodworking so no profession makes bows and staves. Also, specializations from vanilla “WoW” are now worthless and almost forgotten.

6. “Everquest 2″

Crafting in “EQ2″ is an entirely separate level from your adventure (combat) level. This makes the leveling of crafting a long and tedious process. You may specialize in a crafting profession and everyone can gather what they need to produce something. However, it’s easier to focus on harvesting the thing you need in order to specialize in making certain items. While something is being made you must react to certain events that happen during crafting. Since your crafting level is separate from you adventurer level, the act of crafting is time consuming. Your time can pay off, though, because many items made through crafting can aid you in your journeys or line your pockets.

7. “Vanguard: Saga of Heroes”

This MMORPG is strikingly similar to “EQ2.” (Wonder why?) Your crafting is actually another level of progression almost on par with that of your combat level. Crafting is still completely optional, but the benefits are much greater. Not to mention that the act of crafting is much more active. You must apply solvents and the like at certain points during creation. What really makes “Vanguard” stand out as an MMORPG with great crafting is the ability to group harvest. For example, even if you’re not a lumberjack you can help a fellow player chop down trees for bonus materials.

8. “Mabinogi“

Your life skills in “Mabinogi” include fishing, cooking, blacksmiting, and more. Many of these life skills require you to produce items in order to improve your rank. This crafting is relatively easy but definitely intriguing for a free-to-play MMORPG. Many life skills that let you create items are learned when you acquire a Kit for that skill. For others you’ll need to visit an NPC to pick up the skill. Several of the life skills require you to participate in a mini-game like stitching points together to make something made of cloth.

9. “Age of Conan“

Crafting took some time to evolve in “Age of Conan.” In the beginning of the MMORPG, all armor looked pretty much the same and the weapons made were easily replaced by drops and quest items. Now, there is race specific armor and the way statistics affect items has been improved. There’s nothing amazing about crafting itself in “AoC”; the best part of crafting in the MMORPG comes from harvesting. Although harvesting is rather competitive, having a guild city makes it a little easier. Guild cities are in their own zones with two other guilds. These three guilds have access to a private map that generates its own resources. It’s no problem to harvest here and these zones have special harvesting instances!

10. “Fallen Earth”

“FE” wants its players to know that 95% of the items in the MMORPG/FPS hybrid can be made by the player. With ten different categories of items to make, you can make nearly everything in the game. These tradeskills improve as you make more items in that category. Before you can make anything though, you have to find your materials. These are bought, stolen, scavenged, and harvested all through the post-apocalyptic world. Once you have the materials you create the item by setting it up in a queue that will automatically complete after a certain amount of time. Things you can create include, but are not limited to: vehicles, clothes, armor, weapons, dye, etc.

So there you have it, my opinion of the best MMORPGs for people who love crafting. Do you have a personal favorite that didn’t make the list? If so, share your thoughts in the comments below!