World of Warcraft Professions

World of Warcraft is a virtual reality online role-playing game, a great complexity wherein players have many professions to choose. There are ten primary professions from which a character can select. [ [http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/26351 World of Warcraft Professions] ] Every character is allowed to learn up to two of these main professions.

These professions can all be categorized into subsections of gathering, service, and crafting professions. [ [http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/professions/index.html Professions] ] The gathering professions are herbalism, mining, and skinning. The only service profession is enchanting. The crafting professions are alchemy, blacksmithing, engineering, leatherworking, tailoring and jewelcrafting.

Gathering

In the gathering professions, herbalism, mining, and skinning, a character collects raw materials either to sell, or to use for a complementary profession. The materials gathered to sell are generally sold at an auction house, a place where other players around the globe are able to bid on items in World of Warcraft’s virtual world. Players may also obtain a second profession that uses the raw materials in their craft.

Herbalism

In herbalism, a character gathers all different kinds of herbs from kelp to flowers. Herbs like Fadeleaf sell on the auction house for an average 27 silver coins. [ [http://thottbot.com/i3818 Fadeleaf] ] Herbs are used in the profession of alchemy. Alchemy is the profession in which potions are created through the use of herbs. It is cost-efficient to choose herbalism and alchemy together as a character’s primary professions, because then the player does not have to buy the herbs on the auction house for the alchemy profession, they need only collect the materials. [ [http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/professions/herbalism.html Herbalism Basics] ]

Mining

In mining, a character mines copper and gold, as well as other mythical ores in the World of Warcraft. The miner can also gather gems and diamonds that are very valuable. For example, silver ore sells for around 3 gold and 8 silver coins at the auction. [ [http://thottbot.com/i2775 Silver Ore] ] These precious materials can be mined in any mine. A miner also learns how to smelt the ore, which they collect into pure bars of whichever metal they smelted. The miner can sell these goods, for some of the highest prices of any raw materials in the World of Warcraft. The complementary professions for mining are blacksmithing, engineering, and jewelcrafting. [ [http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/professions/mining.html Mining Basics] ] Those three crafting professions all use the raw materials gathered by miners.

Skinning

In skinning, a character does not have to go out of their way to gather raw materials—thus making it a very time-efficient gathering profession. The skinner can skin any monster that they kill, as long as the monster is animal-like and not, for instance, a giant lava elemental. Despite the ease of obtaining the leather, the raw materials gathered by a skinner are still quite valuable. The complementary profession for skinning is leatherworking. [ [http://www.wowhead.com/?item=118 Minor Healing Potion] ] The leatherworkers require various leather to make their crafts.

Service

The one service profession, enchanting, is a profession wherein a character can increase certain attributes of an article of armor or even a weapon. This profession also is somewhat tied to the gathering profession, because an enchanter has to gather supplies to do an enchantment.

Enchanting

An enchanter can enchant their own items as well as other character’s items. The enchanter will usually offer their services to others across the main chat channel. Other players will privately respond to the enchanter and they will do their business. The enchanter can increase attributes such as: strength, agility, stamina, intellect, spirit, critical strike rating, etc. The enchanter, to make their wages, usually adds a fee for the enchanting, besides the cost of the materials.

The enchanter, like a crafting profession, needs to have materials. The enchanter does have the option to opt out of gathering materials and just buy the enchanting supplies at the auction house, but that is a very costly way to do enchanting. The way to gather enchanting materials are by disenchanting high quality armor or weapons. These items are denoted high quality by their name in green (uncommon item), blue (rare), and purple (epic). The materials gained can then be used for enchanting. The materials that the enchanter gets from disenchanting these items can be sold at the auction house just like the materials from any gathering profession.

Crafting

The crafting professions all require raw materials collected by the gathering professions in order to make their crafts. These craftsmen start out creating cheap items, but as they grow in skill they can create some of the best products available in the virtual world, short of slaying a ferocious dragon in a dungeon or by doing some other arduous task.

Alchemy

In alchemy, a character creates potions for healing, replenishing mana (the amount of magical energy a caster possesses), increasing run speed, etc. Alchemy requires inexpensive and easy to acquire herbs at the starting levels of the profession. As an alchemist increases their skill level, they require more expensive herbs; the up side is, these more expensive herbs can be used to make more effective and more potent potions. For example, a low level alchemist creates a minor healing potion and can heal themselves for 70-90 health. [ [http://www.wowhead.com/?item=118 Minor Healing Potion] ] As they increase in level they learn can learn to make a lesser healing potion which heals from 140-180 health. [ [http://www.wowhead.com/?item=858 Lesser Healing Potion] ] The alchemist can keep all the potions they create for their own use, but they can also sell some or all of them at the auction house.

Blacksmithing

In blacksmithing, a character creates weapons and armor from smelted bars of metal and in some cases the item that the blacksmith makes will also require gems or diamonds of some sort. Being a blacksmith is especially useful for a warrior or some other heavy armor wearing character. By being a blacksmith that character is able to make all their own armor and weapons. There would be nearly no practical use for a mage to be a blacksmith—since they can only wear cloth armor—except if they were to sell the products at the auction house. That is not always possible either, because certain items that a blacksmith makes in the higher levels of their craft are soulbound, meaning he cannot sell them at the auction house.

Engineering

In engineering, a character can create various gizmos and gadgets that do a variety of tasks. Engineers can create little toys to play with and even make jumper cables that have a chance to shock another character back to life. [ [http://www.wowhead.com/?item=7148 Goblin Jumper Cables] ] The same materials that a blacksmith needs are what an engineer primarily needs as well. The engineering products sold at the auction house are targeted toward a smaller audience than the other craftable items from the other professions, because many engineering products require an engineering proficiency of a certain level depending on the quality and level of the item.

Leatherworking

In leatherworking, a character uses the leather from animal hides to create leather armor, quivers, armor kits, etc. This is a very practical profession for any leather wearing character, because they will be able to make their own armor. The armor kits that they make are useful to all. The lower level kits increase the armor points of a certain piece of armor. The higher level kits increase attributes from health to agility, depending on the exact type of high level kit. Mainly because of the armor kits, leatherworking is a marketable profession that reaches out to the general consumer.

Tailoring

In tailoring, a character crafts cloth armor. Tailoring is the only crafting profession whose primary materials required are not gathered by another profession. The material that a tailor primarily needs is cloth. There is a wide variety of cloth to be found in the World of Warcraft. Cloth is obtained by killing all sorts of bad guys. The type of cloth depends on the level of the character’s foe. This profession is useful for those that wear cloth armor, but definitely not as useful for anyone who doesn’t wear cloth armor.

Jewelcrafting

In jewelcrafting, a character makes jewelry such as rings and necklaces, as well as cutting out gems to put into armor or weapons. Jewelcrafting mainly needs the materials that a miner gathers—ore, bars, and various gems and diamonds. The jewelcrafter can be useful to themselves because they can wear their own jewelry and use the gems that they cut; however, the profession has a much broader scope than just to fit the needs of the jewelcrafter. The jewelry crafted, by the jewelcrafter, can be worn by any character regardless of their class. Also the gems that they cut are important for all characters that have higher level armor and weapons that can socket those gems. So, the items that the jewelcrafter makes appeal to the general consumer in the World of Warcraft.

Real-World Connection

The professions in this game may be fictional, but they parallel professions in a real-world economy. The gathering professions in the game are needed so that the craftsmen can create his crafts. The service profession is around to meets the needs of the character on an individual level, as well as enhancing the crafts of the craftsmen. As the characters grow in level they need better armor and weapons. So, it spikes the virtual economy and the gatherers gather, the craftsmen craft, and the servicer serves.

Researcher’s Thoughts

Nina Fefferman from Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston says, “Virtual-world modeling could give valuable insights into… improving models and the accuracy of simulations.” [Coppola, Kim. "Virtual outbreak: gaming has never been more serious." New Scientist 193.2592 (Feb 24, 2007): 39(3).]

Professor William Bainbridge from George Mason University says, “Online virtual worlds, electronic environments where people can work and interact in a somewhat realistic manner, have great potential as sites for research in the social, behavioral, and economic sciences, as well as in human-centered computer science.” [William Sims Bainbridge. Science 27 July 2007: Vol. 317. Pg. 472]

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