World of Warcraft Classic players can almost do anything to get into the release of the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King expansion pack. Honestly, getting ready for launch is the only thing to do right now. For some, however, it can be a source of pain and frustration—whether through farming Alterac Valley or struggling through the (now smaller) login queue.
However, its profession is the basis for the visionary player’s latest major pain point. Now, in the game, players are fighting for ore around the worlds of Azeroth and Outland. Away from battlegrounds and arenas are the brawls of mining nodes.
“Nodes weren’t abundant in the original canon because they weren’t in the game’s launch,” said Squee, a level 53 priest who was leveled up on Thekal’s new server in the weeks leading up to Wrath of the Lich King. “There are only a few areas where you can get ores and upgrades, and currently no matter which area you go to, you’ll encounter 3-4 other players running the same route”. They are one of many players currently engaged in mining to use resources for jewelry processing and/or engineering.
The reason these two classes are particularly rough for MMO gamers is because of how well they did in Wrath of the Lich King. Both offer players untradeable gems or gear upgrades that offer incredible benefits that put you ahead of your peers in damage, healing, or anything related.
So why is mining ore a point of contention now? Well, both jewelry processing and engineering require ore and gems that can only be obtained through mining. Either that, or you’ll have to spend in-game gold on the auction house to buy resources whose prices are going up due to the huge demand right now. So, for those who don’t have much capital, especially on new servers that haven’t earned their fortune for years, mining is the best option.
According to Squee’s in-game whisper: “You can spend 1 hour running in circles and not see 1 node”, it all depends on the number of players in the world hunting them down. There is no flying in Azeroth, so those with epic ground mounts (or paladins with extra mount speed) have an advantage, while in Outland expensive epic flight speeds dominate. In contrast, I ramped up herbalism from start to finish in about 5 hours over the weekend. Due to intense competition, miners are struggling to complete tasks in double the time.
So why do it now? Why not wait until later, when people move on? You guessed it: the sunk cost fallacy. Now that they’ve started, they might as well finish it. “It’s not just about taking time,” Squee said. “When you spend so much time doing something, it feels like a huge waste to give it up, so you kind of stick to it and get it done. It’s not in principle.”
From a distance, one can’t help but wonder what everyone affected was thinking. They are mortal enemies, or comrades-in-arms who suffer together. In a heartwarming twist I didn’t expect, it appears to be the latter…for the most part. “I usually call them swear words because they beat me at every node, but that’s understandable, they’re all in the same situation. So we all just have to put up with each other. Unless they’re paladins, I Hate them because they have extra mount speed.”
