Massively^™

Star Wars: Galaxies (back in the dark, dark, dark ages, before vehicles were introduced) used to employ something slightly akin to this - master craftsmen were able to make a name for themselves by creating what were at least perceived to be better-than-average items (Iduno Udono of Corellia, wherever you are, your pistols were the best).

This shouldn't be too difficult to implement, from a technical standpoint, either by the means you describe, or something less complicated - having the user enter a series of keystrokes in response to onscreen prompts, or tracing a pattern as quickly and accurately as possible with their cursor, for example - this sort of interface is already extant in the most basic flash-based games and typing tutorials.

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*Ahem*
Freedom of crafting
http://hexedian.blogspot.com/2006/12/on-freedom-of-crafting.html
Tradeskills
http://hexedian.blogspot.com/2007/01/on-tradeskills.html
Crafting minigames
http://hexedian.blogspot.com/2007/02/more-on-crafting-mini-games.html

Yeah, it probably won't happen. Guy can dream, though, right?

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This is similar to the way most MMO MUDs operate(d). This is one of those things I'd LOVE to see in a newer MMO, but probably never will.

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While I would love to see this implemented in a game, I don't think that Second Life does it correctly to appeal to the mass WoW gamer market.

Basing crafting skill on how well you manufacture an item using the given interface and tools is a great idea as long as it doesn't punish people who really really want to do crafting but can't sew using a mouse to save their life, or in the case of Second Life someone who can't wrap their head around coding and design.

Having natural artists be inherently good at crafting in a game would be nice, but it would alienate too many old world crafting lovers.

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The nice thing is, this sort of mentality is starting to take hold, but not in the hardcore crowd. Nope, the game with a system very similar to the one you are describing is... Puzzle Pirates. And it's a casual MMO.

There has to be middle ground though. A mix of pure skill and simplicity, keeping things in little minigames that allow you to actively change the properties of the item you create without punishing you for not having the skills of a real-life master of the art form.

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A lot of the crafting in "A Tale in the Desert" is skill-based. (And a bit difficult)

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"What if an action's level of success was dependent on how well you actually carried out the action and not on how often you had clicked a button?"

I've had thoughts about a similar approach as well Craig. A game such as this, as I noted in another post, opens up a whole bunch of new possibilities. First off the typical nay sayers response will be, "No you can't do that. Some people aren't really good with regards to their dexterity and they won't want to play if the game is like that." I disagree and I'll give a couple of examples why.

First off, Half-Life deathmatch. When Half-Life came out and people were playing deathmatch, I was surprised at how accessible it was because of the gameplay balance. You could have a total newb getting blown to bits by a hardcore player but that newb would still continue playing till he got that one shot off with his laser guided rocket launcher that blew that hardcore player to smithereens. Therefore, the game was balanced in such a way that everyone felt like they could contribute in the battle, no matter their lack of dexterity or coordination (i.e. easy to do, difficult to master). Hell you could even throw a satchel charge on the ground and blow someone up if you wanted to do so.

Secondly, casual games like those on Nintendo are the other reason. I don't know how many times I've heard people say they don't like FPS because they require too much twitch or coordination and then you see the same people cleaning up on some casual Nintendo game that I myself wouldn't have the slightest coordination to achieve. What I'm saying here is that often times, it isn't so much about the dexterity or coordination but more about the environment and realism (i.e. blood and guts vs bouncing monkeys). Casual players often don't like intense violent environments as they can be too stressful at times to the point of being too real.

Now onto the benefits of this approach. First off, you get rid of the screensaver / tv effect. No more sitting there twiddling your thumbs while your watching your character do something because you yourself have to do it now. Therefore when you're playing the game, you are playing the game and fully engaged in it, not bored waiting for your ore ship to finish mining while watching a rerun of the Simpsons.

For this to work though and be enjoyable, you need to make the involvement enjoyable, otherwise you're just putting people through menial torture that can become worse than working. For example, if in crafting an arrow, you're having to click a button repeatedly twenty times, you've actually made the game worse. The idea is to fully involve the player and let them use their talents as you said to determine the outcome of the activity. Often the best way to do this is to create metagames (mini-games) within the main game (and yes Puzzle Pirates is a perfect example of this).

For example, in most games, when you heal another player. You basically click on the character, click to caste the spell, and await the outcome (which can vary depending on the level of the spell). Well what if in choosing to caste a spell on a character, a metagame interface appeared allowing you to play a mini-game to heal the person. Therefore, you click to caste the spell but then the character's body you're casting on might suddenly appear glowing like when view with infrared. And to heal that person you might have to focus on certain points of their body to maximize the effectiveness of the healing. Thus the more you concentrated and focused, the more healing you could apply to the individual.

I mean the best example I can give of this is typical heroic scene in a movie or book where two wizards are battling it out. Suddenly they both casts spells which clash between them and slowly are pushed back and forth with their wills. In most games, this couldn't be achieved. In a game as mentioned above, it could with the right interface because you're actively involved in the casting.

Or another example is a group of wizards casting protection spells along a castle wall to strengthen it. They are just standing their holding down a single key but instead constantly seeing the force of the damage along the wall and adjusting accordingly to strength it in various areas. At the same time, the thieves in the shadows behind them are constantly adjusting their positions to maximize their ability to hide in the shadows so that they can sneak up on the priests and backstab them so as to allow their invading army to break through the walls.

As I said, this really opens up a whole slew of new possibilities other than just clicking a single key to do something and I think it would really make the experiences within the game much more enjoyable. Actually it even opens up the possibility for permadeath in games because you get to keep your skills when your character dies because you're using your own skills to perform tasks and not your characters. Of course you'd still lose your equipment, resources, and social standing but it doesn't make the loss quite as devastating and all encompassing.

PS. Just to clarify, this isn't about making someone who is great at sewing in real life, a great cloth maker in the game. It's about designing well balanced game interfaces that allow anyone easy access to performing a game task but making mastery of it difficult.

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