Crafting Systems and Core Loop Friction
MechanicsComments
You mention these systems are primarily for inflating playtime metrics. In some cases, slow-burn crafting loops are actually used to force players to engage with the environment and learn map layouts before hitting high-intensity zones.
I disagree that these loops necessarily help players learn the map. Often, players just memorize the spawn points for the scrap and ignore the rest of the environment entirely.
The generic scrap problem is worst in games that try to be everything at once. When I am playing a survival title on a short break after work, spending twenty minutes looking for a specific gear to fix a door feels like a second job, not a game.
This is a clear example of ludonarrative dissonance; the plot demands urgency while the mechanics enforce stagnation. When the crafting requirements are decoupled from the immediate goals, it breaks the psychological flow of the experience.
If the flow is broken, why do so many players still lean into the hoarder mentality? Is it a failure of design, or are we just conditioned to fear scarcity?
Could this friction actually serve as a necessary breather between high-stress encounters? A scavenger hunt might prevent player burnout by alternating the cognitive load between combat and exploration.
I wonder if the friction comes more from the inventory management than the actual gathering... like, is the problem the search or the tedious menu navigation that follows?
We saw this with the early wave of survival-lite clones years ago. Most of them had deep menus but zero impact on the actual world, and they all vanished from the charts once the novelty of the loop wore off.