We are Moving!

Sorry for  the delay in posts folks – we are in the process of moving and I didn’t want to add to the virtual clutter!  Hubby has been working hard this week to shift us over to Blogspot, where we can have better control over the layout and content of our site.  We were also able to put the new Crafter’s Tome face on the blog, which makes me very happy!  You can see the new version at:

crafterstome.blogspot.com

The web site address should stay the same for those of you who come straight to the main page.  If you’ve linked to a particular article, we can’t redirect you so you’ll have to update your links.  I’ll be posting future articles at the new site and this post will stay here to remind you to update your links.  We’ve also changed the RSS feed, so you’ll need to update that as well.

Please update your reader to our new feed URL:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/kaliope-blog

See you at the new site!!

Aion: A Crafting Review

Last week Aion had an open beta event where anyone could sign up for an account and try the game.  For those of you who missed this in our Comments, my husband convinced me to try other MMOs to experience their crafting systems and see how they compare to WoW.  Presumably by doing this, I can get a better understanding for the good, the bad and the ugly.  I have to say that my time in Aion has certainly helped in that regard, and I think this test has turned up some valuable information.

Neo-Crafting Pt 2: Uniqueness

One of the things that comes up time and time again is the idea of uniqueness.  Every crafter wants to offer something that no one else has – to be able to stand out in the sea of sameness.  This desire to be unique has spawned some arguably bad behavior.  Auction House speculators who buy out competitors and repost at their favored price.  Stockpiling items that are scheduled for modification in some way to capitalize on buying frenzies.  Racing to be the first person with access to the newest pets/dungeon drops/raid craftables/etc so you can charge out the wazoo for it.  The driving force behind all of these behaviors is our need to be the first or only crafter offering a specific item so we can price it however we want and make oodles of gold.

Neo-Crafting, Part 1

I’ve always liked the idea of MMO players being able to pursue tradeskills as a viable path for leveling their character.  I think this would be an appealing option for folks with limited game time, less refined keyboarding skills or just minimal interest in killing.  What would this mean and how would it look?  How could you make this alternate path interesting and fulfilling to those who opt for it, and perhaps even interesting enough for standard MMO players to enjoy?  Well I think that’s something worth discussing and I’m going to share my ideas in a series of posts I’m calling “Neo-Crafting”.

A few items from Patch 3.2.2

There’s not a lot to report from the Test Realm yet, just a handful of new recipes have trickled out so far.  Since this patch isn’t really about anything other than Ony 2.0, I wouldn’t expect a ton of profession goodies either.  I don’t know what they have in mind, but I think the most interesting item is the new concept for Leatherworking drums and the new group scrolls.

Yet More on Archaeology

I’m still perusing this “Systems” panel recap, which you wouldn’t expect to include crafting-related goodies.  But in the course of describing some of the new systems they are implementing for Cataclysm, they are tossing out extra tidbits that are relevant to us.  Bear in mind that Cataclysm is at least a year away, so the mechanics mentioned here may not be the final implementation.  I still find it interesting tho :)

Guild Advancement & Professions

Unfortunately I was unable to watch some of the WoW panels that happened today, the DirectTV broadcast is only showing one of them.  Luckily Blizzard has been posting recaps on their web site for those who aren’t in Anaheim.  I just went through the Systems panel recap and I see that there’s some information relevant to crafters.  It looks as though professions will be a part of the guild advancement system.  Within this system are some pretty key features that I think will help solve some long-standing problems with guild crafting.

Professions Straight from LeCraft!

I’m so tickled that Jon LeCraft was the presenter of the Professions information on the WoW panel – woot!  Some day I’d like to have an actual conversation with him to ask all my burning questions about crafting, but for now this will have to suffice.  <I’m SUCH a nerd!>  Now let’s get to the goodies:

A Little More on Archaeology

I just had a chance to review the WoW Preview Panel where Archaeology was very briefly discussed (I’m talking less than 5 minutes on the topic).  But I was able to go through it several times and here’s what I gleaned.  Some of this was already touched on by the WoW.com folks, but I think I’ve been able to fill in a bit more detail here:

New Profession: Archaeology!

Just announced during the Opening Ceremony is a new Secondary profession called Archaeology!  So far there have been no details about this profession, other than the fact that it will be a secondary (like Cooking and First Aid) instead of a primary profession.  There’s a panel happening later today that includes professions, hopefully we’ll learn more then!

Still monitoring the Live feed and will post more updates as we learn more!!!