I’ve often referred to my project in self-sufficient crafting as an experiment. Well, it’s time to start actually treating it like one. I’ve kind of started feeling like I’ve put the cart before the horse in my excitement to get this going, and I haven’t thought it through well enough. High School science classes – it’s time to use what I learned from you! Every experiment needs three things – a theory behind it, defined parameters, and controls. The only thing I’ve really got down concretely yet are the parameters, and those are conveniently provided by Blizzard. Crafting in World of Warcraft is, for the most part, its own self-contained little beast with clearly defined boundaries. While it’s applications are integrated greatly into many aspects of the game, you don’t craft by going to the pvp arenas.
Right now, controls are right out. I don’t have any, really. I’ll need to focus in the days to come on what my controls are going to be. That will mean identifying every variable out there and figuring out ways to control them individually. But before I can even start to identify the variables, I need to work on my theory.
My theory at this point is a little wide and vague. Namely, that there is a single way to level all professions efficiently and profitably to a level of self-sufficiency. There are three words in that sentence that need definition. Efficiently, Profitably, and Self-sufficiency. I know what those words mean according to a dictionary. I know I have a general sense of what those words mean to me in this context. I’m sure you have a general idea of what they mean to you in this context, too. And I’d put money down that they don’t match exactly.
In the next few days, once I’ve had the chance to find out the words I want to use, I’ll go about defining them from my perspective so you’ll know where I’m coming from down the road. As well as I write (as some people tell me), finding the words to convey meaning like this isn’t easy for me. Give me some time and let me know if I’ve failed to get the message across.
