So many problems here already. If some skills were considered "worthless" there must have been info from the beta available. And cooking and carpentry weren't "worthless" so there's got to be some info available on them. Mr. Casual player can't be the first to figure stuff out here. Or are we going "genius" MC-kun with a 110 IQ vs everyone else with a 60 IQ.
@AMetroid
I think it's less "he's the first one to figure it out" and more "he doesn't check the forums".
He has a customer base of maybe 50 people in a world of (let's be conservative) thousands, plus he's constantly loitering in the newbie area...
(I mean, hell, given that Earth didn't just logout when cornered, it's probably our poor little protagonist who has 60 IQ)
There's also the thing where if you're playing a realistic MMO, do you really want to spend a skill slot + hours cooking for other players? Feels more like a RL job after a while.
... if there were people in a game that were trying to strongarm me into feeding them, I would just be pronouncing a giant fuck you to them and tell them to cook their own shit.
@Boomburst@yuu-oniichan - when you're a master craftsman, you want to make stuff for other people. But not so much it becomes a job.
I always found pure craftsmen players from stories like Free Life Fantasy and Only Sense Online to be weird. How can you be a craftsman if you don't adventure to obtain materials?
@flannan haven't read free life fantasy but from what I recall of Only Sense Online, he still solo adventures but only has craftsmen level stats and his aoe damage requires expensive gems. he also dies a lot when soloing. The story more or less progresses like Moonlight Sculptor because it relies heavily on author-induced character luck.
as far as pure crafting goes, especially from a Japanese standpoint, I think it really fits in their "think and work together society" mindset exactly because pure craftsmen usually end up supporting and being supported by other players. plus you know how much the japanese love their cooking, can't shut up about rice/soy sauce/jp foods even in another world.
@yuu-oniichan - in both of these stories, MC does some crafting, but some of MC's friends seem to be full-time crafters who aren't hunting or collecting resources, but just crafting all the time.
I understand you can just buy components from other players, but this approach seems unplayably boring to me.
Approach from Sword Art Online, where the blacksmith has to hunt monsters for exp to progress in blacksmithing, seems a lot more viable and fitting for a MMORPG.
@Sekiatreus - I played only one MMORPG myself. Elder Scrolls Online. And like in most games with crafting (Stardew Valley, My Time at Portia, Kamidori and so on), being a crafter there includes quite a lot of adventuring.
But MMORPG stories like this one, Free Life Fantasy Online and Only Sense Online feature "full-time" crafters who don't seem to adventure. I find this weird.