At 5th level, Joe decided to see what crafting in WoW was all about.
For those not in the know, it’s a very simple process. You get the materials, or mats, in the right quantity, and you make an item which gives you a skillup, advancing your craftsman level by 1. You start off with certain items off the bat, then go pay a trainer to learn more and then learn higher levels of craftsmanship. The mats and their amounts change, but the process remains the same. It requires patience in gathering the materials, or a lot of ingame money to buy the mats off the Auction House, or AH.
We set him up with Blacksmithing and Mining, and looking for the nodes of ore that are scattered around the countryside was great fun for him, as he had figured out that you could go do the quests and look for all the nodes at the same time.
My wife and I both had alts that had mining and as a result had extra ore or metal bars that Joe could use for advancing his blacksmithing. So we sent the mats to Joe’s character via the ingame mail system. Later that day I asked him (over the phone, neither of us were there) if he had gotten the stuff we’d sent him earlier that morning. He said no. Hmmm…it should’ve reached him by now. “Are you sure, Joe?” Click, click, click, click.”Nope, nothing in my bags. I do see an envelope next to my little map though.”
I then explained that you actually had to go get the stuff from the mailbox. “What does a mailbox look like?” I explained that it is usually right next to an inn–there’s one in Goldshire–and it’s a short, rectangular box, and the cursor changes to an envelope when you mouse over it. “Okay, I’m questing now, but I’ll go look for it after that.”
That evening, I asked again about the mats. Somewhat shamefacedly, he admitted that he couldn’t find the mailbox. He found the inn, found the mailbox but that the icon wasn’t there, and he couldn’t get his mail. I told him that he had to be in close range to actually get the mail but you just right-click and it opens up. “Nope, it’s not doing that; I don’t even see the icon. I’m right here at it, right-clicking.”
I went over to where he was playing, and looked at the screen. “Joe, that’s a lightpost.”
