Confessions of A Crafting Addict

My name is Carolyn, and I have a crafting problem. Not in real life, mind you, where the craftiest I ever get involves adult coloring books and overly elaborate cocktails. No, I have an addiction to crafting in video games. Weapons, armor, houses, potions. If I can craft it, I guarantee you I will sink hours upon hours of game time into finding the components, making it, and then selling it for profit!

I think it’s safe to say that this love affair with crafting started with Elder Scrolls: Skyrim. I have always loved in game crafting, but the UI for Skyrim was truly excellent. Each crafting area was lovingly rendered, and the skill trees were expansive. I could earn my way to customized dragonscale armor! If I put enough time into alchemy, I could learn what every single plant did. I could cook food and make booze from the items I found in the world and never have to spend gold on healing potions ever again! Plus, I could earn sweet, sweet profits with all the items I made, and then I could buy houses! Houses with alchemy labs and blacksmithing stations. It. Was. Glorious.

And it’s been a passionate relationship ever since.

I, quite literally, squealed watching the trailer for Fallout 4 when Bethesda revealed that not only could you craft guns and armor in the game, you could build ENTIRE TOWNS! The possibilities seemed endless and exciting. Truth be told, I actually find the crafting options in Fallout 4 a little overwhelming, and I’m constantly overburdened because everything in the world is basically usable in crafting. But has that stopped me? No, it has not. I’ll run around with my faithful companion Dogmeat, collecting all the things we both can carry, and then back to Sanctuary I go. Where I will sit for hours, making Stimpaks and modding the crap out of my favorite pistol. Oh, and the fact that cooking your wasteland food over a fire suddenly makes it not radioactive? AWESOME. Who doesn’t love a good Mutant Hound Chop for dinner? Also, one time I found this head, but I never did figure out what to do with it.

But truly, the game that has most strongly captured my crafting obsessed heart is The Elder Scrolls: Online. I have logged nearly 200 hours of gameplay and I have not once gone to the PvP arena, I haven’t cleared a single public dungeon or completed the main quest line. You know what I have done? Hunted for recipes. I am obsessed with finding new recipes. I need them. I have to have them. I have all these ingredients sitting in my character bank and all I want is to be able to make delicious pixelated food and drink out of them! There is a trophy for learning 100 recipes, and I want it. I will get a cool new clothing dye when I unlock it. I get a ridiculous thrill every time I open a backpack

or dresser (the best containers for finding recipes, it is known) and see a recipe icon, which is quickly followed by a stab of disappointment when I discover it’s one I already know. I’ve only found one purple level recipe and not a single golden one. But I will. I’m dedicated. I’m going to find them all. And then make them all. And then sell them all through my guild for gold.

I don’t know why crafting in video games is so satisfying. Is it the repetitive nature of making things? Or the small, achievable goal of creating a potion, or a piece of armor? Perhaps it’s that making things in a video game is approximately a zillion times easier than making them in real life. I don’t know, and I’m not sure I really care.

I just know that it’s fun to stand over a cooking fire making Stros M’Kai Grilled Seagull and a nice Rosy Island Ale to pair with it. Actually, now that I think about it, those look tasty. Maybe I’ll try my hand at making them for real. Oh who am I kidding? Pressing square on my PS4 controller is way easier than trying to find whatever the heck saltrice is in real life.

Carolyn is a Veteran Level 1 Breton Sorcerer. You can usually find her wherever there are ample ingredients and a cooking fire. Happy crafting!