MMO pacifism: Expanding combat alternative systems

I'm glad I'm not the only one that noticed the whole slaughter of the furry things going on in LOTR.

When I started my elf hunter I thought he was going to be a vaguely hippy, eco, hunting out of need in a sustainable way, not the one man environmental disaster it turned out to be - at least in the starting zone, later on you do get to kill more respectable things that you don't normally associate with kids cartoon characters. It's amazing there isn't a seal culling quest for the '+10 club of kill-the-cute-things-with-big-round-eyes' in there.

I'm not a PETA person or anything, just didn't seem to fit with the law. Now humans, go for it.

We'll only see crafting really take off when we move away from the pure levels systems, otherwise it will always be something rushed through in the race to the top of the tech tree. Eve manages it well with it's skill based systems and it looks as though a lot of the new games are wisely going along those lines. Nothing brings a little variety into a game than an afternoon 'off'' normal buisness for a few materials runs.

I like this post because it hits a personal mark with me. I am a huge lover of crafting. I like balance, and to go fighting and raiding, but my passion is in crafting and playing the economy markets.

I've spent many hours, sometimes in one all-night sitting having not killed one creature or gained one point of experience, yet it was a great night where I had a lot of fun making money in the auction house, learning a bit more of how to better make money the next time I log on, meeting and talking with new players, going over zones I rarely visit to explore or goof off, and generally run-around and roleplay from time to time.

hey Lemmo and others who keep saying "you miss the point" to me...

Uhh no... i do not miss the point at all.

My point was that this is a fad for people to be L337 by not killing in MMOs (such as WoW) rather than playing games that already provide this experience.

I understand your point that there is not a whole lot of MMOs out there that provide said experience, but then again there are only a handful of good MMOs out there to begin with.

There are plenty of non-violent games is all I was saying and all of this false pacifism requests towards games such as WoW just for bragging rights.

1. One of my most enjoyable gaming experiences was the crafting system in Star Wars Galaxies. There were many different flavors of every kind of material. Each different flavor material produced pronounced gameplay or visual variations in the crafted item made from them. Chasing down the right flavor, setting up harvestors to reap the limited quantities and turning them into unique items was very cool.
2. SWG had my second favorite non-combat mechanic. The pet taming. You had to find a family unit of the kind of creature you wanted to tame. Then you needed to perform some careful actions to calm and eventually tame the baby. This was greatly complicated when the species was aggro, as the parents really didn't like someone taking their baby away. Getting a baby Rancor had my heart pounding!
3. Someone else noted that there is more to human experience than fighting. This is very true, and there are plenty of fun things to do besides combat. The hardcore gamers who only know of console game head to head gameplay have a very hard time accepting this, but any table top gamers knows this well.