You've probably heard the joke about how games are like sausage: Best to just enjoy them and not think too hard about how they're made. For those like me, there is no sparing us the greasy intestinal details of design and production. We live it and love it. And like it or not, I'm going to share a bit of it with you. I'm going to tell you a story. A story about a boy, a coffee machine, and a dream. A story about the crafting system in The Lord of the Rings Online™: Shadows of Angmar™.

Before I launch into the explanation of our crafting system, I'll share this with you: At a certain point in the game's development, crafting was almost cut.