Be an Archaeologist in World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft (WoW) is an immensely popular MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game).  The game takes place in a fantasy world called Azeroth, and players can interact with one another through their characters.  One thing you can do in the game is master different professions.  Some of those are: alchemy, mining, enchanting, engineering, tailoring, cooking, and you guessed it - archaeology.  At first, it seemed like a random profession to include, but then it made sense.  The game creators could give the player more back-story on Azeroth in an interesting fashion.  And in the game, players are able to learn more about individual races in the game.

Search, ye will, for fragments of artifacts at the X's.

How does this feature work, you ask?  Here's a quick clip that shows the in-game archaeology process:

It seems like a pretty straightforward procedure - you survey an area to find artifact shards and once you collect enough pieces, you can "solve" the artifact (basically reconstructing it) and then you get a whole piece along with its history.  This profession focuses on the surveying of objects rather than the digging or analyzing aspect.  After getting the item, players can keep or sell it to vendors and museum curators.  This brings up the issue of looting.  Is the player a looter?  This is a little like looting, in my opinion, because you use the artifact for your own purposes only.  There is no higher power to go to after you get an artifact, and you can decide to keep it or sell it off.  However, since WoW doesn't have an archaeology society or whatever, it is impossible to not be a looter.  Speaking of looting, I watched other tutorials on WoW archaeology, and some players refer to the process of collecting a fragment as "looting."  Interesting coincidence there.

I don't think the game-profession teaches players that much about real-life archaeology.  It simplifies the digging and reconstructing processes and likens archaeologists to looters.  However, one thing that I approve of is that nowhere on the official game site do the creators talk about finding "treasure."  I think that's a step in the right direction for game-makers.  And since WoW is so popular, it's a good way of getting people's attention about the field.